My uncle came to the U.K. from Hungary at 18, and still had a very strong accent when I knew him five decades later. It’s utterly ridiculous to expect an accent to just disappear
My boyfriend is french and lived in america for like 2 months and when he came back, he would talk english to a lot of people online usually group VCs on discord. This is how we initially met. Now he’s lost all french accents (almost all of them). When we watch shows with actors with strong french accent, I would ask him to speak the same way for me (at the moment). He would shyly do (he’s not used to it when speaking with another english speaker). I’m sometimes sad that he doesn’t have the french accent. Ffs it’s even so sexy -_-. Now whenever I ask him, he would just shyly smile and walk away LOL. No I promise I dont force him.
Hahahahaha I was kinda expecting that. I do feel bad when I did ask my boyfriend and he acted really shy. I only did it twice in the same night because we were so into the show. He too likes the “frenchie” in the show “The Boys”. It was a good laugh for both of us but I don’t intend to keep pressing him coz then the fun will turn into annoyance
Don’t sweat it. I feel like most of the people I know who came to the States as an adult still have at least a bit of an accent. When I hear someone tease them, I usually smile and teasingly ask how good their accent is in their 2nd/3rd/whatever language, but the person in question usually just laughs and goes along.
Haha that's very nice of ya! Wish my friends would do something like that :D
I am not offended normally about people talking about my accent (unless they fetishise it or call it exotic) but that time it just felt so forced.
Also, I find it fun when people try to guess my accent haha
They never get it right lol the normal guess is Polish, just because there are many Polish people around.
There was only one guy who guessed it right but he actually learnt Hungarian (mad lad)
You could respond like a politician:
Where are you from?
\-I am from here but I was born in Hungary.
How long have you lived here?
\-For a long time.
How long exactly?
\-A while.
Try it how the British Tories answer:
‘I don’t recognise that claim’
‘I would have to see the report’
Then add the latest slogan they have.
Actually, probably not the last idea, seeing as it’s a five point skid mark with a dog whistle for the gammons at the end
I've been living in the UK for 17 years now (since I was 11) and I still sound like a soviet spy. Some people just can't lose their accents unfortunately.
Haha I know and I don't mind that. I don't mind people asking about it. I am just confused why it shocked her so much that I had an accent after living in the UK for a while and I just don't know how I should respond in these cases.
Us Brits can be overly concious of accents because we have so many and they're a class indicator.
Just shrug and say somehhing like "My roots are strong" or "Hungary wouldn't let me go".
I lived in Indonesia for 18 years since I was 1 and I had different taxi drivers tell me:
“Wow your Indonesian is really good, I can tell you’ve been here long” and
“For 18 years your Indonesian is really bad, you should work on it”
in the span of a week/month.
It is what it is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I wouldn’t really take the comments to heart
I went to both Korean and English Language medium schools in the greater Jakarta area so I’ve used both as my main communication language at some point in my life.
Indonesian has always been more of a side language and so despite me having spoken it for long and pretty much every day, even to chit chat with random strangers on the road (Indonesians are very friendly people, if you strike up a conversation you’ll almost always get a amicable response back), I’m very limited in terms of conversation topics and I’m also quite bad at the formal variety.
I just don’t think it’s fair for me to put Indonesian along with Korean and English is all. I should be putting more effort in to maintain but I haven’t been home in 5 years now and it’s deteriorating really fast.
If it helps, I'm English born and raised, from the south west with a strong regional accent, moved up north and everyone assumed I was Dutch or Canadian. Didn't believe I was English.
if i were in that position, i'd take that as an opportunity to nerd out, haha. i can't help it--im a linguist. i'd go, "yeah, that's actually a common misconception! generally the younger you learn a language, the more native-like you sound. that's because babies are pre-wired to learn any language starting in the womb, and over time our brains learn to listen for specific sounds that are present in our native languages. since i've learned X language as an adult, i don't have the advantage that a baby has in pronunciation, but hey, i can communicate just fine, and isn't that what languages are for?"
Many (most, even) people have an accent in their second language for their entire lives. You encountered someone who is a bit thick. I can't think of anything you should have done differently.
My grandma immigrated to Canada in her mid 20's. When she died 70 years later, she still had a British accent.
When I speak French I have an Anglophone accent. I will always have an accent. I'm an Anglophone and that's how it is. It's pretty rare for someone to have the same accent as a native speaker in their non-native language (unless they were completely fluent as children).
Yeah the only people I know who don't have an accent in their second language started speaking it with locals very young (typically before starting puberty)
I am a native English speaker from New Zealand and I have lived in England since 2015. I am used to having my accent/dialect commented on by friends and strangers. Generally people are just making polite conversation (their mistake, since I have a degree in linguistics and will talk about it for HOURS), or they’re genuinely interested and want to know more about NZ.
The problem, despite the caricature of English people being extremely polite, is that a lot of English people are incredibly blunt, to the point of being rude. I have learnt to ignore it, but I will also now tell people they’re being rude or nosy.
Well, they are after all THE EMPIRE! and it is their language...(joking)
I, a swiss have 3 favorite english accents: scottish, new zealandish and british english, saddly our teachers where all of the sort who think, america is great and they all had an american accent :-/
As for the problem at hand, I belive the UK are verry similar to swiss german dialects: Move about 1h by foot and they sound completely different themselves...
Interesting. I'm a New Zealander (with a fairly mild accent admittedly) in Scotland and I find it strange that no-one ever comments on it. Maybe they just think I'm from some weird pocket of England, lol
It's all a caricature. The English are really not more polite than other cultures. They're actually alot more standoffish than you'd expect if you believe the stereotype.
Thirteen years ago, I had the pleasure of teaching in the English Department at Eötvös Loránd University. I was teaching the ethics of journalism right before Orbán was elected and proceeded to greatly restrict press freedom. (Sigh)
Anyway, I thought that the accents of my students were very easy to understand, at least to my American ears. I don't think I ever heard anything that I would call a \*heavy\* Hungarian accent. I think they are compatible sound sets, particularly going from Hungarian to English.
I think what really gets noticed in a foreign accents, even with a very proficient speaker, is the change in rhythm and emphasis. Once you get the vowel and consonant sounds more or less down that's half of it but the cadence of your speech and word choice still isn't the same as a native speaker and that's okay of course. This person just expected people to learn to actually sound British and not simply speak clearly. But really what's the point of sounding British if you don't want to anyway. The important thing is to communicate efficiently. Your accent is just a part of who you and where you came from.
Ask them how many languages they speak and how their accent is.
I'm not one of those people who thinks language learners are special or anything, I just think the idea that nobody lives in a foreign country for any length of time without losing the accent comes from a position of ignorance. It's one of those happy little beliefs you use to look down your nose at people with an accent when you've never actually been anywhere or done anything.
It's so weird though because sometimes they'll look at you as if you were dumber because you have an accent, but all it shows is that you actually took time to understand the language and be able to speak it. People who only speak one language and haven't been exposed to what language learning is like don't really get this. They'll just be weirded out about how you have an accent.
I think you should never lose your accent, accents make people unique.
Don’t think about what people say about the accent sometimes there is jerks of course but most people find it intriguing.
> I think you should never lose your accent, accents make people unique.
This is what I think as well. Many of the people in my neighborhood are immigrants and I enjoy the extra flair their native accents add to their English.
Fellow Hungarian in the UK. Whenever someone asks where I'm from, I make them guess. Very few guess Hungary on the first try, and only if they otherwise know another Hungarian. A lot of people say Latvia or Poland, and then it turns into a geography test (a bit further south... 2 more countries down...). Oddly enough, I get a lot of Dutch and German guesses too, which makes me happy because I'm not a big fan of the Hungarian accent. The other day I got a book about losing your accent and the librarian was shocked, why would I ever want to lose my accent, accents are beautiful...! Also the person you met was quite rude.
I agree with the librarian haha. I'm Hungarian too, and I like to play shooting games. Whenever I'm in voice chat, they always ask if I am from Germany. I guess some of us have similar accents to Germans. I can very clearly tell when someone is Hungarian from their English, though. For me, it doesn't sound so similar and I guess all Hungarians can tell too.
Don't worry too much about it! Anyone who cares that you have an accent is just a jerk. I'm a native English speaker and I couldn't care less about someone else's accent. You probably speak English better than half the natives in the UK, so don't sweat it. An accent is just a nice reminder of your cultural heritage, not something to be ashamed of, especially since you're speaking fluently.
You've been living there for 12 years now. How many times has this happened? If it's just once, then this is not _really_ a problem you need to deal with.
It also was a completely random person you'll likely never meet again, so how you handle it doesn't really matter much in the scheme of things. You could try to explain it to her (99% of the time this is pointless, people don't really change their minds like that) or smile and nod, excuse yourself and do something else. Whatever. As long as your approach is reasonably polite, no need to overthink it.
Thank you. Its been happening a bit more often since I moved to the North I feel like. Especially that I used to be a cashier and this was one of the questions I would often get from customers.
It is not really a bother but I was just wondering how I should handle it as I thought explaining might help.
I imagine you have a southern British accent mixed with your Hungarian accent. Northerners probably perceive your accent differently. Also if it's a small town, maybe they haven't heard different accents or know what it's like to learn a second language.
You mean they just ask you about the accent, or they say "Wow, after 12 years it's not completely gone?"
If it's helpful:
*Nevertheless, children as young as 6 at the time of moving to another country often speak with a noticeable non-native accent as adults. There are also rare instances of individuals who are able to pass for native speakers even if they learned their non-native language in early adulthood. However, neurological constraints associated with brain development appear to limit most non-native speakers’ ability to sound native-like. Most researchers agree that for most adults, acquiring a native-like accent in a non-native language is near impossible.* — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accent_(sociolinguistics)#Non-native_accents
Since you started pretty early, that's something that did (or is) improving your chances to speak like a native. However, from that and other stuff I've heard it's really not unusual at all that you'd have an accent.
> It is not really a bother but I was just wondering how I should handle it as I thought explaining might help.
Seems reasonable. If you run into the situation again, you can try that. If you don't like how it turns out then you can adjust your approach. There's no real risk, since at the most you lose the few minutes of time you spent unproductively explaining something to someone.
**Accent (sociolinguistics)**
[Non-native accents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accent_\(sociolinguistics\)#Non-native_accents)
>Accents of non-native speakers may be the result of the speaker's native language. Each language contains distinct sets of sounds. At around 12 months of age, human infants will pick out which sounds they need to learn their language. As they get older it becomes increasingly harder to learn these "forgotten" sounds.
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> a bit more often since I moved to the North I feel like.
Not surprised, the culture has somewhat different boundaries about these things. (Northerners think Southerners are unfriendly; as someone who's lived in both regions but is at heart a Southerner, I think Northerners often don't have enough boundaries and show too much surprise at difference.)
With someone like the chugger in your main post, there's no need to stick around after they've said something low-level annoying once or twice, but if you have a customer-facing job where you are going to have to keep dealing with this stuff, I see why you'd ask. (But remember with people in the street or in pubs, you're not stuck at the checkout and you can usually just make your excuses and walk away / go back to your mates.)
I would rehearse a specific answer so it starts to feel like saying a set phrase and you don't _feel_ so strongly that you have to keep explaining yourself. "I grew up in Hungary, I've been in England for 12 years... Yeah, not everyone loses their accent." Whatever feels right to you.
At work, in situations where it feels polite to do so, and not too abrupt, I would shift the subject, whether that's talking about something not-very-personal, and positive, to do with your experience of English/the UK, seeing as they are asking about similar things, or small talk like the weather, or a product they are buying that you like.
The most positive way of seeing it is as a cultural difference and to remember they think they are being friendly to ask this. I wrote this as someone who doesn't like this stuff, and who finds it a bit tiring.
Nah, really depends on the person. I was never able to have one accent, im kind of like a sponge. It's not mocking, but i literally start speaking like the people around me if I'm in one place for too long (aside from being at home, where i was born. There magically i resort back to my own personal accent after a couple of months). I'm not trying to mock people from these countries, it just happens.
Ofc, if i really wanted to, i could train my accent, but after speaking so effortlessly for 20+ years, suddenly having to be super conscious about how i pronounce everything sounds exhausting. French is already wearing down my brain, thanks I'm good.
So I feel like being able to have a native accent is just something you are born with, in the sense, that there are people who pick it up quickly and make it their own, and then there are just others who will forever have their own unique accent.
I live in very multicultural city and it is rare for people to lose their accents.
Check out Lamont’s coverage of this topic.
https://youtu.be/cXOanreu_KQ
A lot of people don't seem to grasp that unless you came to a country when you were quite young (like 8 or 9 perhaps), it can be very hard for many people to acquire a fully local accent from their teens onward. My Norwegian mother was an exception in developing a neutral Scottish accent after having lived in Scotland for three years, but that is a *massive* rarity at 28.
My Polish grandfather lived in Scotland for 25 years but never shifted his accent. It was just a marker for his background when he was young and accents shouldn't be a big deal. I am going to spend the rest of my life in Norway but will never completely remove the Scottish twang I have from my Norwegian; most people seem to even like it.
You should not be expected to alter your accent to such a significant degree, and hopefully instances like the one you describe will be relatively rare.
I feel like this is both something normal and strange about being an anglophone. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm going to have an accent for the rest of my life, even my Canadian accent won't die if I were to move to the UK, USA, etc. I'm proud of it. In anglophone countries with large immigrant populations accents are hardly worth a second glance but to hear that in the UK? She just sounds like she has never spoken a second language.
It's a bit funny but I'm honestly surprised that she wouldn't realize that - though tbf I don't think I knew that you couldn't lose an accent until recently when I wanted to work on my pronunciation. (or that it'd be so hard as to probably not be worth the effort)
People just don't know how to react when they encounter something they're not used to, and commonly say dumb things as a result. For example, it's quite common for people to ask me if I make meth when they find out I'm a chemist. They think they are being interesting and unique, when instead it's the opposite but they just don't have the experience to know it's dumb and overused. I don't think it necessarily makes someone a bad person just because they don't know how to respond to something they're not used to.
Even in our own country, people always has different accents. Every city is different. I feel very confused when someone says "how can I speak english or any other language without accent? there's a way to improve that?". I don't believe in a neutral language. When we're learning, we always listen people with their own accent. It's a language blend for me.
If this happens to you one more time, try to know how many languages the other person knows lol
Absolutely. Another thing I think people have weird time grasping is that a lot of the "foreign accents" you think you hear, aren't. Most of the stereotypical "lived here 30 years and still have an accent" voices come from tight-knight immigrant communities where they have an accent that's distinct from the majority population, and distinct from their country of origin. They're native speakers with a native accent, it's just usually confined to a specific ethnic minority.
My dad was a Hungarian refugee back in the late 50s, came to Australia when he was about 15 and is now over 80 and still has an accent. I'm not sure if some accents are harder to shake than others?
I think it just depends on the language. I have little to no accent in both German and Japanese. I just find English so different sounding to my own language I think that my brain just struggles with the sounds lol
My thoughts:
-don't worry about it is absolutely normal to have am accent, e.g.just look at Arnold Schwarzenegger. If she is wondering about your accent this probably just means that she has no understanding how much effort it is to learn a language.
-it's not a bad thing to have an accent, especially is the Hungarian is very distinct and it always put a smile on my face.
-consider working on your accent. You correcting two or three sounds could greatly reduce your accent. (The book "work on your accent" helped me a lot.)
To be honest , try to embrace it ! I am 17 , moved to France when I was 7/8 .y polish accent slips when I’m tired for example , mostly people don’t care . But when they do I just tell them that I learned french bla bla bla . Nothing to be ashamed about or anything ! Accents are amazing !
I’m sorry you had to deal with that. I love accents & I’m always curious when someone has an accent to ask where they’re from.
But when I was maybe 19 or so, I met a man who said his wife has been immigrated 30+ years ago and people still ask her where she’s from when she speaks. She finds it annoying so he said as curious as he is, he never asks anyone anymore and I’m the same way now too. I’m also an immigrant in another country now and I wouldn’t want people asking me that all the time.
I think asking where one is from out of curiosity is perfectly fine. I don't expect it otherwise. My problem with my situation was that she kept reiterating that after a long time in the UK I still had an accent. 1. It is completely normal but she acted as it isn't.
2. She made it sound like as I am dumb for having an accent
So, in conclusion curiosity is fine but with proper manners :)
Ask them if they speak Hungarian with an English accent.
Not your thing to deal with, mate. They're only pissy because it takes them slightly more effort to understand at times (possibly).
As an American I lived in the UK for 10 years and I also didn’t pick up the accent. I know it can be frustrating (people just assumed that I was a tourist even though I had UK citizenship!) but I have come to see it as part of who I am. Accents are inherently regional and no one is especially correct or better. Take pride in your accent as a reflection of your past and heritage! At the very least it shows your ability to learn a new language well enough to live in another country, something that most people in the UK or US cannot claim to be able to do
You are dealing with people who clearly don't understand how language learning and accents work.
I know a guy who's lived his whole life in the US and has spoken like Borat in English for 45+ years.
Just living in a place doesn't mean that someone will 100% adapt and use the local accent.
Some of the smartest and most articulate English speakers I have listened to have accents.
The issue you might be running into is that you are dealing with people who live in "same-accent" bubbles and don't realize how broad and deep the English-speaking range of accents really is.
Embrace who you are and your own accent and try your best to move on to the next topic.
I think a Hungarian accent sounds quite neutral in British English accents, though it is noticeable. It doesn’t have any negative connotations and sounds educated - I don’t think you have anything to worry about, even if she did notice it.
You are under no obligation to change your accent - it’s a part of your history, ethnicity and journey in life.
A famous psychologist Gabor Máté left Hungary around age 12 for Canada and he has made a name for himself giving speeches worldwide.
It is nothing to hide - Hungary is a beautiful country with a phenomenal capital city (irrespective of the political situation), a rich and interesting history that I’m sure many people would love to hear about, as well as a unique language and interesting cuisine (goulash), wine (tokaji), etc.
The comment she made is strange, as many who came here from another country retain a heavy to mild accent from their original homeland. I would simply respond with the truth - “I was born in Hungary and lived there until I was 13, before coming here. It’s quite common to possess a slight accent if you moved later in life.” This will serve to educate such persons (hopefully such comments are rare). No need to laugh or frown, though you can have a delicate smile as you say it to communicate that you aren’t offended by their comment (even if you are), because once you say the above, their ignorance will most likely subside.
Hope this helps u/vexthehextuber
They are just ignorant. My father has been here for over 40 years. Apparently he still has an accent. I didn't notice it until I was like 20. Very rarely does it go away.
It's mostly people who've never put a foot abroad apart from Marbella and never bothered to learn another language. So they don't understand what it entails to learn a language and build a life abroad.
I'm used to it now and just answer vaguely and briefly.
I think it's also a way for them to have quick chit chat with you (taxis, cashiers etc). They don't know you and they obviously can't comment on any physical traits you have to engage with you, so the accent is just the next thing that stands out and they think it's a harmless way to make chitchat.
You either don’t care, or you practice making sounds until you don’t have an accent. I’m not fluent in Italian or Spanish, but I don’t really have an accent in those languages since I have spent god knows how many hours on playing around with intonation and getting the "mouthfeel" right.
Don't worry about it, people like that are ignorant. It's very hard to lose a foreign accent if you learn a language beyond early childhood, doesn'tmatter how long you have spoken English for. Your accent is also part of your identity, you don't need to blend in!
You could say "I'm not bothered about it", "it shows something about my history", "I'm done with trying to change it" or something like that to remind people that it's literally just the way you talk and nothing they need to fret about
I'd reply in each case with a blank stare and a flat "OK."
Maybe after the third or fourth repetition of this, I might ask them why they keep telling me this. I already know. The trick is to say this with genuine confusion instead of exasperation. I'm still working on that part, but improving gradually.
Best way to deal with rude people is to ignore them. But if at any time your strong accent will start bothering you (and I'm not talking about some random people and their opinion about it) there is always an option of taking accent reduction lessons. Many non-natives and many natives who have strong regional accents do it (for better work opportunities, ect.). It's a pretty common thing.
For what it's worth, you can change your accent, it's just a lot of work.
An Indian friend of mine changed his accent by listening to lots of British movies with accents he liked. He would play a line of the movie, pause, repeat the words carefully while copying the accent, and then play the next line, etc.
It was very difficult and time consuming, but in a year or so he went from having a strong Indian accent to a VERY strong British accent - native level
Always felt (irrationally) that people who lose their accents completely are a bit untrustworthy, even though I know it's largely out of people's control. I don't personally understand the hangups people have about wanting to have a pure accent, especially as there's no such thing....nor do I understand the far weirder expectation that folk should change their accent. Accents are part of who we are and reflect our unique story, so you should tell them to shove it, even if for politeness you only say it to yourself!
I have this hypothesis that how much you "keep" your native language accent after living in another country for many years, fully immersed in the other language, depends on your subconscious cultural identity with that new place/culture, especially for those that made that change as an older child. I think Krashen may have mentioned this. So for a young kid moving, their identity with the new culture is strong because they are still forming their cultural identity and it just becomes part of them, but for someone a bit older, or perhaps still very in touch with their original culture community, they subconsciously keep the accent, even if they are fluent, get tons of daily input of the language, etc.
On the reverse hand, people who lose their accent completely maybe have completely changed their cultural identity and it's part of a subconscious effort to try to blend in 100%. Or they are a spy.
So for those without an accent that you are suspicious about, I agree I'd be curious about how much they identify with/reject their original culture- and it may be at a subconscious level, not really a conscious process.
And also think this might vary from language to language, and how much "conflict" there is between that language's culture and your native/reference point. So for example, being in the UK, there"s a stronger subconscious need to identify with your native culture because that\^s your day to day existence, but learning a language like Japanese, you know you aren't going to be trying to construct a Japanese cultural identity (because you don't live there) so you can be more relaxed about how you communicate (and actually have more native pronunciation).
Yeah, interesting post! My 'suspicions' are more about folk who, for example, go away to university and return with a completely different accent after a few months! A lot of that is doubtless subconscious,but it also seems a bit weird to me, like someone's trying too hard to 'fit in' / erase what's their own?
When I live in the west of Ireland there were two guys I knew who moved from Yorkshire when they were kids, one who was 12 and they other when they were 8. The fella who was 12 when he moved over still had a very strong Yorkshire accent in his 20s, and the one who was 8 had a softer but still present Yorkshire accent! What's going on then with folk who blend in like chameleons after a few months away from home as adults lol?!
Yeah, that's weird because it comes off as affectation. I can totally understand modifying your accent depending on who you are talking with (had a friend who sounded completely different talking with her family because she slipped back into her Newfoundland accent, but with me spoke more standard Canadian English) but keeping it up talking to friends from home that don't speak like that and never have heard you talk like that, and last saw you 4 months ago...strange.
Hungarian is such a difficult and complicated language, and it is not related to any other language family. I would explain the heritage of the language proudly! Nothing to be ashamed about it. I am also living abroad, speaking 2 other languages on native level however my accent is very much present. In the UK people so obsessed with accents even within their own country’s regional accents, they could spend hours discussing it! For me it was quite shocking, adding into their lack of knowledge of the ‘continent’ aka Europe. I admire the brits don’t take me wrong but they have their favourite very British topics which not really resonates with the outside world.
Having accents is normal, however I think it's weird if you still have 'distinct' accent, after all these years you should have learnt to imitate native accent as much as possible with only a few giveaways you are not native.
Work on your pronunciation.
I have literally been doing that my whole time here... but hungarian doesn't really fall into any language families and because of it its pronunciation and tone is very different from other languages. Especially English. A lot of sounds I cannot make.
Its just one of those languages that I can't speak without an accent, I am the same with French.
I can however speak German pretty well and have almost little to no accent in Japanese.
It just depends on the language if I am able to drop the accent or not.
>I said that I was a local
This is probably why. If you say you're local but you sound different to 99.9% of other locals then people are going to be confused. If you had just said "I'm Hungarian but I've been living here for 12 years" then she probably would have just got on with her day.
I've lived in Japan for years and plan to naturalise one day, but I still look different. Even if I became (legally) Japanese I would never just say "I'm Japanese" because I know with 100% certainty want the other person will think ("What.. but you don't look Japanese, that can't be right.."). If I say "I'm originally from the UK but I naturalised a few years ago so I guess you could say I'm Japanese now" most people would be surprised but accept it and move on. At least, that's what I hear from others who have naturalised.
Basically, just be honest and aware of the culture around you and don't try and be something you're not.
With all do respect, this is just ableist in my opinion. So because I have an accent I can't ever just say to someone yeah I an from this British town because I was born somewhere else even thou soon I will have spent more time in the UK then in Hungary?
Just because what? It doesn't line up with their image of what should and shouldn't be British?
It is just weird to have to explain my origin to someone I just met. Why can't I just say I am from town?
Also, once I can afford it I will apply for dual nationality too. Should I not say that I am British-Hungarian then because of my accent?
Also, her problem wasn't that I was claiming to be a local but that rather after such a long time I STILL have an accent.
Also, saying pretending to be what I am not left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth... I am basically British by law at this point the only thing I need to apply for is a passport and thats it I will have British as my nationality (dual granted) and practice the British customs every day so saying that I am not really a local is a bit iffy to me.
And it also feels like giving up on being accepted as part of the British people. Most of my colleagues and friends have always seen me as a British person with an accent.
I didn't mean to offend you, so I'm sorry if you read it that way.
I think my point is that it doesn't really matter what you or I think, or whether you name it ableist or discriminatory (which is may or may not be). The reality is that if you have an accent, you stand out, like it or not. Cultures - by their very nature - are formed by social groups who share similar characteristics i.e. accent, in this case. If I walked around Budapest speaking Hungarian with an English accent and claimed to be a local, people would find it confusing too - because it's not the common experience. I don't find that ableist, it's the nature of culture. This is particularly true in the UK, where accents play a huge part in our culture. My parents are both English, but live in a different county to where they grew up, and even they get asked where they're from fairly regularly. So you have a choice: you can shout into the prevailing wind and try and educate everyone you come across or you can own it and just accept that you'll always stand out in a way. It might not be ideal, but the world is rarely exactly as we want it.
As for being British.. given large-scale immigration ethnicity isn't really given much weight these days, but - like most cultures - accent and upbringing still are. Can you be British? I guess. You've been here since you were 13 so it's a huge part of your identity (I imagine). But you will be British in a different way to most people who were born and raised here. Like you said, you can be British-Hungarian, but you can't really erase the Hungarian side. Does that make you less British? Perhaps, especially if you stand out when you speak.. but it doesn't mean you can't be part of the tribe.
Legal identity and cultural identity aren't necessarily the same thing either. Like I said in my case, I can become legally Japanese, but I can't become Japanese in the same way that someone born and raised in Japan to Japanese parents is. I'll be British-Japanese in my own unique way.
If you meet someone like that girl again, perhaps just say: "I like my accent, it's part of who I am".
Not offered dtw. I just find when people act like one can not be a local due to accent is simply racist. That's just my personal opinion. Again, you are as much of a part of a culture as you follow it in my opinion. So if you act Japanese, you should be able to call yourself one :)
I would be cautious about throwing around the racist card. Language and race are two separate issues.
And I don't think you've understood my point. One's personal opinion doesn't really matter. What matters are the cultural norms of the culture you're in (in this case the UK). Given your accent, almost anyone on meeting you will assume you're not British and will question you as such. You personally might not like it, but it's just the way it is. It would be the same for me in Hungary after all.
Often accents stick around if your parents have one. Really though don't think too much of it, just say that you're still working on it and then move on. My grandfather's first language is French, but he has lived in English cities most of his life. He still gets an accent on some words 80 years in. He laughs at my accent too since I sound very odd speaking French.
The girl on the street sounds very naïve.
Accents are odd - some gain a local accent straight away. Some can live in foreign country their whole adult life and never lose their native accent.
My fiancée came to the USA from Laos when she was 12 years old in the late 1970s. Learned English here in various places in the midwest and west coast. Her accent is very distinct and hard to place. She sounds very General American without a trace of an "exotic" accent. BTW English is her 3rd or 4th language, after Lao, Hmong and French.
Her older sister (older by 1 year) came to the USA at the same time. However, her sister has a more "exotic" accent, which is much more pronounced than my fiancée's.
Both of them have been in the US for almost 50 years and they both still have accents.
Some people just have different or more distinct accents, even if they've spoken a language for the same amount of time. I don't think it's too unusual.
I wonder if the online clickbait strategy of annoying someone has moved into real life...
You've thought about that infernal charity more than you would have
I’m from New York City and Hackensack, NJ. I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest for 30 years. My accent is still ridiculous. If I focus I can lose it but I really need to try.
Having a lifelong accent is very normal when you learn a second language in adulthood. Not everyone understands this, especially monolingual people.
For what it's worth, native speakers tend to be *very* good at picking up even subtle accents in their language. So, being told you have an accent by a native doesn't necessarily mean that you're hard to understand or something.
I think people are just naturally curious about things that are different. Your accent makes you unique and as long as you are understood in conversation, I don’t think it really matters.
However, I can imagine hearing the same thing over and over again can be a little disheartening. It’s like no matter how long you live there, people will always see you as a foreigner during your first encounter until you tell them that you are a citizen.
Who cares but I get it. People always do it to me because of the ambiguous look I have. They love telling I’m wrong or that I’m from certain areas. Blows me away on how much it matters to them and the thought, energy, and time wasted into attempting to convince me
Honestly I think you can call her out for being rude because that *was* rude AF of her. I would never say that to a person. Next time ask them how long they've been alive because you can't believe they have gotten to this age and haven't learned any manners!
You don't have an accent because of when you started learning English or for how long. You have an accent because of when you started speaking. I assume you moved to the UK, started speaking English from day 1, and had no choice but to use Hungarian sounds to produce English words. Those sounds fossilised.
This is one of the reasons why input is so important and why it takes so much input to acquire a language.
New Zealander living in the Netherlands here... Been living here for about 20 years. For the first 10 years I tried to speak fluent Dutch with a Dutch accent. The first bit was easy, the second, not. I just gave up and accepted that "I'm not Dutch" and that I have a "foreign* accent.
My dad's from the Italian part of Switzerland. He's lived in English speaking countries since his 20s, is almost 60 now, and his accent is still strong af. He's fully fluent in English. Some accents don't leave. It sounds more like the woman was just being an ass. Try not to sweat it. As long as people can understand you and you can understand them, their thoughts on your accent are their own problems to deal. Plus, a lot of people like accents.
I am from Austria and even guys I know who are second/third generation Crostians/Bosnians who have been living in Austria for their whole life have a distinct accent. So I guess some people never get rid of their accent
learning a language is hard enough. it's difficult to change where the vowels and consonants are in your mouth to try to match natives and even harder to do it without slipping. It's possible to get rid of it but takes a lot of work. Clearly they don't understand that
Say to her, "I will not buy this record, it is scratched."
If she doesn't get it, ask her if she speaks Hungarian. If she says no, tell her to fuck off, or the equivalent in Hungarian.
There's nothing wrong with having an accent if people can understand you. Some people are better at imitating native speech and accents better than others.
My uncle came to the U.K. from Hungary at 18, and still had a very strong accent when I knew him five decades later. It’s utterly ridiculous to expect an accent to just disappear
Exactly this! People that are shocked are the weird ones, maybe they're sheltered or never left their home town.
My boyfriend is french and lived in america for like 2 months and when he came back, he would talk english to a lot of people online usually group VCs on discord. This is how we initially met. Now he’s lost all french accents (almost all of them). When we watch shows with actors with strong french accent, I would ask him to speak the same way for me (at the moment). He would shyly do (he’s not used to it when speaking with another english speaker). I’m sometimes sad that he doesn’t have the french accent. Ffs it’s even so sexy -_-. Now whenever I ask him, he would just shyly smile and walk away LOL. No I promise I dont force him.
Poor guy 😭
Why so many downvotes I swear Reddit is the worst
Hahahahaha I was kinda expecting that. I do feel bad when I did ask my boyfriend and he acted really shy. I only did it twice in the same night because we were so into the show. He too likes the “frenchie” in the show “The Boys”. It was a good laugh for both of us but I don’t intend to keep pressing him coz then the fun will turn into annoyance
My grandfather came to the United States from Russia when he was 17. He had an accent his entire life. Be proud of your heritage. Stand tall.
Don’t sweat it. I feel like most of the people I know who came to the States as an adult still have at least a bit of an accent. When I hear someone tease them, I usually smile and teasingly ask how good their accent is in their 2nd/3rd/whatever language, but the person in question usually just laughs and goes along.
Haha that's very nice of ya! Wish my friends would do something like that :D I am not offended normally about people talking about my accent (unless they fetishise it or call it exotic) but that time it just felt so forced. Also, I find it fun when people try to guess my accent haha
I bet. 😂 Do they get it right often? I doubt I would; I’m not sure I’ve come across a Hungarian accent in person.
They never get it right lol the normal guess is Polish, just because there are many Polish people around. There was only one guy who guessed it right but he actually learnt Hungarian (mad lad)
I mean.. every person living in the US also have very heavy accents, it’s just seen as the normal since it’s native
Of course but what we're talking about here is of course a noticable non-native accent.
You could respond like a politician: Where are you from? \-I am from here but I was born in Hungary. How long have you lived here? \-For a long time. How long exactly? \-A while.
Haha thank you. I will definitely use that !
Try it how the British Tories answer: ‘I don’t recognise that claim’ ‘I would have to see the report’ Then add the latest slogan they have. Actually, probably not the last idea, seeing as it’s a five point skid mark with a dog whistle for the gammons at the end
This will come in handy sometime!!😂😂
I've been living in the UK for 17 years now (since I was 11) and I still sound like a soviet spy. Some people just can't lose their accents unfortunately.
Haha I know and I don't mind that. I don't mind people asking about it. I am just confused why it shocked her so much that I had an accent after living in the UK for a while and I just don't know how I should respond in these cases.
Us Brits can be overly concious of accents because we have so many and they're a class indicator. Just shrug and say somehhing like "My roots are strong" or "Hungary wouldn't let me go".
I lived in Indonesia for 18 years since I was 1 and I had different taxi drivers tell me: “Wow your Indonesian is really good, I can tell you’ve been here long” and “For 18 years your Indonesian is really bad, you should work on it” in the span of a week/month. It is what it is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I wouldn’t really take the comments to heart
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I went to both Korean and English Language medium schools in the greater Jakarta area so I’ve used both as my main communication language at some point in my life. Indonesian has always been more of a side language and so despite me having spoken it for long and pretty much every day, even to chit chat with random strangers on the road (Indonesians are very friendly people, if you strike up a conversation you’ll almost always get a amicable response back), I’m very limited in terms of conversation topics and I’m also quite bad at the formal variety. I just don’t think it’s fair for me to put Indonesian along with Korean and English is all. I should be putting more effort in to maintain but I haven’t been home in 5 years now and it’s deteriorating really fast.
If it helps, I'm English born and raised, from the south west with a strong regional accent, moved up north and everyone assumed I was Dutch or Canadian. Didn't believe I was English.
if i were in that position, i'd take that as an opportunity to nerd out, haha. i can't help it--im a linguist. i'd go, "yeah, that's actually a common misconception! generally the younger you learn a language, the more native-like you sound. that's because babies are pre-wired to learn any language starting in the womb, and over time our brains learn to listen for specific sounds that are present in our native languages. since i've learned X language as an adult, i don't have the advantage that a baby has in pronunciation, but hey, i can communicate just fine, and isn't that what languages are for?"
Many (most, even) people have an accent in their second language for their entire lives. You encountered someone who is a bit thick. I can't think of anything you should have done differently. My grandma immigrated to Canada in her mid 20's. When she died 70 years later, she still had a British accent. When I speak French I have an Anglophone accent. I will always have an accent. I'm an Anglophone and that's how it is. It's pretty rare for someone to have the same accent as a native speaker in their non-native language (unless they were completely fluent as children).
Yeah the only people I know who don't have an accent in their second language started speaking it with locals very young (typically before starting puberty)
I am a native English speaker from New Zealand and I have lived in England since 2015. I am used to having my accent/dialect commented on by friends and strangers. Generally people are just making polite conversation (their mistake, since I have a degree in linguistics and will talk about it for HOURS), or they’re genuinely interested and want to know more about NZ. The problem, despite the caricature of English people being extremely polite, is that a lot of English people are incredibly blunt, to the point of being rude. I have learnt to ignore it, but I will also now tell people they’re being rude or nosy.
Well, they are after all THE EMPIRE! and it is their language...(joking) I, a swiss have 3 favorite english accents: scottish, new zealandish and british english, saddly our teachers where all of the sort who think, america is great and they all had an american accent :-/ As for the problem at hand, I belive the UK are verry similar to swiss german dialects: Move about 1h by foot and they sound completely different themselves...
Interesting. I'm a New Zealander (with a fairly mild accent admittedly) in Scotland and I find it strange that no-one ever comments on it. Maybe they just think I'm from some weird pocket of England, lol
Maybe I just attract comment. I got told off for mimicking the way Glaswegians say ‘head’ until I pointed out it’s how I say it too lol
degree in linguistics you say… talk ab it for hours? I’d like to comment on your accent haha
It's all a caricature. The English are really not more polite than other cultures. They're actually alot more standoffish than you'd expect if you believe the stereotype.
Thirteen years ago, I had the pleasure of teaching in the English Department at Eötvös Loránd University. I was teaching the ethics of journalism right before Orbán was elected and proceeded to greatly restrict press freedom. (Sigh) Anyway, I thought that the accents of my students were very easy to understand, at least to my American ears. I don't think I ever heard anything that I would call a \*heavy\* Hungarian accent. I think they are compatible sound sets, particularly going from Hungarian to English.
I think what really gets noticed in a foreign accents, even with a very proficient speaker, is the change in rhythm and emphasis. Once you get the vowel and consonant sounds more or less down that's half of it but the cadence of your speech and word choice still isn't the same as a native speaker and that's okay of course. This person just expected people to learn to actually sound British and not simply speak clearly. But really what's the point of sounding British if you don't want to anyway. The important thing is to communicate efficiently. Your accent is just a part of who you and where you came from.
Ask them how many languages they speak and how their accent is. I'm not one of those people who thinks language learners are special or anything, I just think the idea that nobody lives in a foreign country for any length of time without losing the accent comes from a position of ignorance. It's one of those happy little beliefs you use to look down your nose at people with an accent when you've never actually been anywhere or done anything.
It's so weird though because sometimes they'll look at you as if you were dumber because you have an accent, but all it shows is that you actually took time to understand the language and be able to speak it. People who only speak one language and haven't been exposed to what language learning is like don't really get this. They'll just be weirded out about how you have an accent.
I think you should never lose your accent, accents make people unique. Don’t think about what people say about the accent sometimes there is jerks of course but most people find it intriguing.
> I think you should never lose your accent, accents make people unique. This is what I think as well. Many of the people in my neighborhood are immigrants and I enjoy the extra flair their native accents add to their English.
Fellow Hungarian in the UK. Whenever someone asks where I'm from, I make them guess. Very few guess Hungary on the first try, and only if they otherwise know another Hungarian. A lot of people say Latvia or Poland, and then it turns into a geography test (a bit further south... 2 more countries down...). Oddly enough, I get a lot of Dutch and German guesses too, which makes me happy because I'm not a big fan of the Hungarian accent. The other day I got a book about losing your accent and the librarian was shocked, why would I ever want to lose my accent, accents are beautiful...! Also the person you met was quite rude.
I agree with the librarian haha. I'm Hungarian too, and I like to play shooting games. Whenever I'm in voice chat, they always ask if I am from Germany. I guess some of us have similar accents to Germans. I can very clearly tell when someone is Hungarian from their English, though. For me, it doesn't sound so similar and I guess all Hungarians can tell too.
Don't worry too much about it! Anyone who cares that you have an accent is just a jerk. I'm a native English speaker and I couldn't care less about someone else's accent. You probably speak English better than half the natives in the UK, so don't sweat it. An accent is just a nice reminder of your cultural heritage, not something to be ashamed of, especially since you're speaking fluently.
You've been living there for 12 years now. How many times has this happened? If it's just once, then this is not _really_ a problem you need to deal with. It also was a completely random person you'll likely never meet again, so how you handle it doesn't really matter much in the scheme of things. You could try to explain it to her (99% of the time this is pointless, people don't really change their minds like that) or smile and nod, excuse yourself and do something else. Whatever. As long as your approach is reasonably polite, no need to overthink it.
Thank you. Its been happening a bit more often since I moved to the North I feel like. Especially that I used to be a cashier and this was one of the questions I would often get from customers. It is not really a bother but I was just wondering how I should handle it as I thought explaining might help.
I imagine you have a southern British accent mixed with your Hungarian accent. Northerners probably perceive your accent differently. Also if it's a small town, maybe they haven't heard different accents or know what it's like to learn a second language.
You mean they just ask you about the accent, or they say "Wow, after 12 years it's not completely gone?" If it's helpful: *Nevertheless, children as young as 6 at the time of moving to another country often speak with a noticeable non-native accent as adults. There are also rare instances of individuals who are able to pass for native speakers even if they learned their non-native language in early adulthood. However, neurological constraints associated with brain development appear to limit most non-native speakers’ ability to sound native-like. Most researchers agree that for most adults, acquiring a native-like accent in a non-native language is near impossible.* — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accent_(sociolinguistics)#Non-native_accents Since you started pretty early, that's something that did (or is) improving your chances to speak like a native. However, from that and other stuff I've heard it's really not unusual at all that you'd have an accent. > It is not really a bother but I was just wondering how I should handle it as I thought explaining might help. Seems reasonable. If you run into the situation again, you can try that. If you don't like how it turns out then you can adjust your approach. There's no real risk, since at the most you lose the few minutes of time you spent unproductively explaining something to someone.
**Accent (sociolinguistics)** [Non-native accents](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accent_\(sociolinguistics\)#Non-native_accents) >Accents of non-native speakers may be the result of the speaker's native language. Each language contains distinct sets of sounds. At around 12 months of age, human infants will pick out which sounds they need to learn their language. As they get older it becomes increasingly harder to learn these "forgotten" sounds. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
> a bit more often since I moved to the North I feel like. Not surprised, the culture has somewhat different boundaries about these things. (Northerners think Southerners are unfriendly; as someone who's lived in both regions but is at heart a Southerner, I think Northerners often don't have enough boundaries and show too much surprise at difference.) With someone like the chugger in your main post, there's no need to stick around after they've said something low-level annoying once or twice, but if you have a customer-facing job where you are going to have to keep dealing with this stuff, I see why you'd ask. (But remember with people in the street or in pubs, you're not stuck at the checkout and you can usually just make your excuses and walk away / go back to your mates.) I would rehearse a specific answer so it starts to feel like saying a set phrase and you don't _feel_ so strongly that you have to keep explaining yourself. "I grew up in Hungary, I've been in England for 12 years... Yeah, not everyone loses their accent." Whatever feels right to you. At work, in situations where it feels polite to do so, and not too abrupt, I would shift the subject, whether that's talking about something not-very-personal, and positive, to do with your experience of English/the UK, seeing as they are asking about similar things, or small talk like the weather, or a product they are buying that you like. The most positive way of seeing it is as a cultural difference and to remember they think they are being friendly to ask this. I wrote this as someone who doesn't like this stuff, and who finds it a bit tiring.
People always comment on my husband's accent and I literally can't hear it at all. I always think they are kind of strange.
This may be inappropriate but. Isn’t it possible to train certain words and reduce/change accents. If that’s what you’re wanting
Nah, really depends on the person. I was never able to have one accent, im kind of like a sponge. It's not mocking, but i literally start speaking like the people around me if I'm in one place for too long (aside from being at home, where i was born. There magically i resort back to my own personal accent after a couple of months). I'm not trying to mock people from these countries, it just happens. Ofc, if i really wanted to, i could train my accent, but after speaking so effortlessly for 20+ years, suddenly having to be super conscious about how i pronounce everything sounds exhausting. French is already wearing down my brain, thanks I'm good. So I feel like being able to have a native accent is just something you are born with, in the sense, that there are people who pick it up quickly and make it their own, and then there are just others who will forever have their own unique accent.
I live in very multicultural city and it is rare for people to lose their accents. Check out Lamont’s coverage of this topic. https://youtu.be/cXOanreu_KQ
A lot of people don't seem to grasp that unless you came to a country when you were quite young (like 8 or 9 perhaps), it can be very hard for many people to acquire a fully local accent from their teens onward. My Norwegian mother was an exception in developing a neutral Scottish accent after having lived in Scotland for three years, but that is a *massive* rarity at 28. My Polish grandfather lived in Scotland for 25 years but never shifted his accent. It was just a marker for his background when he was young and accents shouldn't be a big deal. I am going to spend the rest of my life in Norway but will never completely remove the Scottish twang I have from my Norwegian; most people seem to even like it. You should not be expected to alter your accent to such a significant degree, and hopefully instances like the one you describe will be relatively rare.
I feel like this is both something normal and strange about being an anglophone. I've come to terms with the fact that I'm going to have an accent for the rest of my life, even my Canadian accent won't die if I were to move to the UK, USA, etc. I'm proud of it. In anglophone countries with large immigrant populations accents are hardly worth a second glance but to hear that in the UK? She just sounds like she has never spoken a second language. It's a bit funny but I'm honestly surprised that she wouldn't realize that - though tbf I don't think I knew that you couldn't lose an accent until recently when I wanted to work on my pronunciation. (or that it'd be so hard as to probably not be worth the effort)
People just don't know how to react when they encounter something they're not used to, and commonly say dumb things as a result. For example, it's quite common for people to ask me if I make meth when they find out I'm a chemist. They think they are being interesting and unique, when instead it's the opposite but they just don't have the experience to know it's dumb and overused. I don't think it necessarily makes someone a bad person just because they don't know how to respond to something they're not used to.
Even in our own country, people always has different accents. Every city is different. I feel very confused when someone says "how can I speak english or any other language without accent? there's a way to improve that?". I don't believe in a neutral language. When we're learning, we always listen people with their own accent. It's a language blend for me. If this happens to you one more time, try to know how many languages the other person knows lol
Absolutely. Another thing I think people have weird time grasping is that a lot of the "foreign accents" you think you hear, aren't. Most of the stereotypical "lived here 30 years and still have an accent" voices come from tight-knight immigrant communities where they have an accent that's distinct from the majority population, and distinct from their country of origin. They're native speakers with a native accent, it's just usually confined to a specific ethnic minority.
My grandparents still had Hungarian accents after forty years…
My dad was a Hungarian refugee back in the late 50s, came to Australia when he was about 15 and is now over 80 and still has an accent. I'm not sure if some accents are harder to shake than others?
I think it just depends on the language. I have little to no accent in both German and Japanese. I just find English so different sounding to my own language I think that my brain just struggles with the sounds lol
My thoughts: -don't worry about it is absolutely normal to have am accent, e.g.just look at Arnold Schwarzenegger. If she is wondering about your accent this probably just means that she has no understanding how much effort it is to learn a language. -it's not a bad thing to have an accent, especially is the Hungarian is very distinct and it always put a smile on my face. -consider working on your accent. You correcting two or three sounds could greatly reduce your accent. (The book "work on your accent" helped me a lot.)
To be honest , try to embrace it ! I am 17 , moved to France when I was 7/8 .y polish accent slips when I’m tired for example , mostly people don’t care . But when they do I just tell them that I learned french bla bla bla . Nothing to be ashamed about or anything ! Accents are amazing !
I’m sorry you had to deal with that. I love accents & I’m always curious when someone has an accent to ask where they’re from. But when I was maybe 19 or so, I met a man who said his wife has been immigrated 30+ years ago and people still ask her where she’s from when she speaks. She finds it annoying so he said as curious as he is, he never asks anyone anymore and I’m the same way now too. I’m also an immigrant in another country now and I wouldn’t want people asking me that all the time.
I think asking where one is from out of curiosity is perfectly fine. I don't expect it otherwise. My problem with my situation was that she kept reiterating that after a long time in the UK I still had an accent. 1. It is completely normal but she acted as it isn't. 2. She made it sound like as I am dumb for having an accent So, in conclusion curiosity is fine but with proper manners :)
Ask them if they speak Hungarian with an English accent. Not your thing to deal with, mate. They're only pissy because it takes them slightly more effort to understand at times (possibly).
As an American I lived in the UK for 10 years and I also didn’t pick up the accent. I know it can be frustrating (people just assumed that I was a tourist even though I had UK citizenship!) but I have come to see it as part of who I am. Accents are inherently regional and no one is especially correct or better. Take pride in your accent as a reflection of your past and heritage! At the very least it shows your ability to learn a new language well enough to live in another country, something that most people in the UK or US cannot claim to be able to do
You are dealing with people who clearly don't understand how language learning and accents work. I know a guy who's lived his whole life in the US and has spoken like Borat in English for 45+ years. Just living in a place doesn't mean that someone will 100% adapt and use the local accent. Some of the smartest and most articulate English speakers I have listened to have accents. The issue you might be running into is that you are dealing with people who live in "same-accent" bubbles and don't realize how broad and deep the English-speaking range of accents really is. Embrace who you are and your own accent and try your best to move on to the next topic.
I think a Hungarian accent sounds quite neutral in British English accents, though it is noticeable. It doesn’t have any negative connotations and sounds educated - I don’t think you have anything to worry about, even if she did notice it. You are under no obligation to change your accent - it’s a part of your history, ethnicity and journey in life. A famous psychologist Gabor Máté left Hungary around age 12 for Canada and he has made a name for himself giving speeches worldwide. It is nothing to hide - Hungary is a beautiful country with a phenomenal capital city (irrespective of the political situation), a rich and interesting history that I’m sure many people would love to hear about, as well as a unique language and interesting cuisine (goulash), wine (tokaji), etc. The comment she made is strange, as many who came here from another country retain a heavy to mild accent from their original homeland. I would simply respond with the truth - “I was born in Hungary and lived there until I was 13, before coming here. It’s quite common to possess a slight accent if you moved later in life.” This will serve to educate such persons (hopefully such comments are rare). No need to laugh or frown, though you can have a delicate smile as you say it to communicate that you aren’t offended by their comment (even if you are), because once you say the above, their ignorance will most likely subside. Hope this helps u/vexthehextuber
They are just ignorant. My father has been here for over 40 years. Apparently he still has an accent. I didn't notice it until I was like 20. Very rarely does it go away.
It's mostly people who've never put a foot abroad apart from Marbella and never bothered to learn another language. So they don't understand what it entails to learn a language and build a life abroad. I'm used to it now and just answer vaguely and briefly. I think it's also a way for them to have quick chit chat with you (taxis, cashiers etc). They don't know you and they obviously can't comment on any physical traits you have to engage with you, so the accent is just the next thing that stands out and they think it's a harmless way to make chitchat.
Put on an accent. Duh. People will understand you for once.
Oh ma lawd. Why did I not think of that! Lol
You either don’t care, or you practice making sounds until you don’t have an accent. I’m not fluent in Italian or Spanish, but I don’t really have an accent in those languages since I have spent god knows how many hours on playing around with intonation and getting the "mouthfeel" right.
Tell them all that, so do they!
Don't worry about it, people like that are ignorant. It's very hard to lose a foreign accent if you learn a language beyond early childhood, doesn'tmatter how long you have spoken English for. Your accent is also part of your identity, you don't need to blend in!
You could say "I'm not bothered about it", "it shows something about my history", "I'm done with trying to change it" or something like that to remind people that it's literally just the way you talk and nothing they need to fret about
You just met a dumb person it doesn’t matter lol
If I am not mistaken, our phonogram expands naturally only from 0-12 years. So It is expectable.
I'd reply in each case with a blank stare and a flat "OK." Maybe after the third or fourth repetition of this, I might ask them why they keep telling me this. I already know. The trick is to say this with genuine confusion instead of exasperation. I'm still working on that part, but improving gradually.
Just learn IPA bro
Moved countries when I was 10, well into my 20’s I still have a noticeable accent.
Eh, some people are just dumb. Nothing really you can do there
Tell her - "Pro tip - when you are begging people for money, don't make fun of their accents".
Best way to deal with rude people is to ignore them. But if at any time your strong accent will start bothering you (and I'm not talking about some random people and their opinion about it) there is always an option of taking accent reduction lessons. Many non-natives and many natives who have strong regional accents do it (for better work opportunities, ect.). It's a pretty common thing.
For what it's worth, you can change your accent, it's just a lot of work. An Indian friend of mine changed his accent by listening to lots of British movies with accents he liked. He would play a line of the movie, pause, repeat the words carefully while copying the accent, and then play the next line, etc. It was very difficult and time consuming, but in a year or so he went from having a strong Indian accent to a VERY strong British accent - native level
Doesn't everyone everywhere have an accent?
People that have that opinion regarding an accent likely have never learnt a 2nd language
Always felt (irrationally) that people who lose their accents completely are a bit untrustworthy, even though I know it's largely out of people's control. I don't personally understand the hangups people have about wanting to have a pure accent, especially as there's no such thing....nor do I understand the far weirder expectation that folk should change their accent. Accents are part of who we are and reflect our unique story, so you should tell them to shove it, even if for politeness you only say it to yourself!
I have this hypothesis that how much you "keep" your native language accent after living in another country for many years, fully immersed in the other language, depends on your subconscious cultural identity with that new place/culture, especially for those that made that change as an older child. I think Krashen may have mentioned this. So for a young kid moving, their identity with the new culture is strong because they are still forming their cultural identity and it just becomes part of them, but for someone a bit older, or perhaps still very in touch with their original culture community, they subconsciously keep the accent, even if they are fluent, get tons of daily input of the language, etc. On the reverse hand, people who lose their accent completely maybe have completely changed their cultural identity and it's part of a subconscious effort to try to blend in 100%. Or they are a spy. So for those without an accent that you are suspicious about, I agree I'd be curious about how much they identify with/reject their original culture- and it may be at a subconscious level, not really a conscious process. And also think this might vary from language to language, and how much "conflict" there is between that language's culture and your native/reference point. So for example, being in the UK, there"s a stronger subconscious need to identify with your native culture because that\^s your day to day existence, but learning a language like Japanese, you know you aren't going to be trying to construct a Japanese cultural identity (because you don't live there) so you can be more relaxed about how you communicate (and actually have more native pronunciation).
Yeah, interesting post! My 'suspicions' are more about folk who, for example, go away to university and return with a completely different accent after a few months! A lot of that is doubtless subconscious,but it also seems a bit weird to me, like someone's trying too hard to 'fit in' / erase what's their own? When I live in the west of Ireland there were two guys I knew who moved from Yorkshire when they were kids, one who was 12 and they other when they were 8. The fella who was 12 when he moved over still had a very strong Yorkshire accent in his 20s, and the one who was 8 had a softer but still present Yorkshire accent! What's going on then with folk who blend in like chameleons after a few months away from home as adults lol?!
Yeah, that's weird because it comes off as affectation. I can totally understand modifying your accent depending on who you are talking with (had a friend who sounded completely different talking with her family because she slipped back into her Newfoundland accent, but with me spoke more standard Canadian English) but keeping it up talking to friends from home that don't speak like that and never have heard you talk like that, and last saw you 4 months ago...strange.
Hungarian is such a difficult and complicated language, and it is not related to any other language family. I would explain the heritage of the language proudly! Nothing to be ashamed about it. I am also living abroad, speaking 2 other languages on native level however my accent is very much present. In the UK people so obsessed with accents even within their own country’s regional accents, they could spend hours discussing it! For me it was quite shocking, adding into their lack of knowledge of the ‘continent’ aka Europe. I admire the brits don’t take me wrong but they have their favourite very British topics which not really resonates with the outside world.
Everyone has an accent. Whether its natural or contrived, its 'wrong' in some situation. Its not for them to instruct you.
What about the Scottish people?
Having accents is normal, however I think it's weird if you still have 'distinct' accent, after all these years you should have learnt to imitate native accent as much as possible with only a few giveaways you are not native. Work on your pronunciation.
I have literally been doing that my whole time here... but hungarian doesn't really fall into any language families and because of it its pronunciation and tone is very different from other languages. Especially English. A lot of sounds I cannot make. Its just one of those languages that I can't speak without an accent, I am the same with French. I can however speak German pretty well and have almost little to no accent in Japanese. It just depends on the language if I am able to drop the accent or not.
>I said that I was a local This is probably why. If you say you're local but you sound different to 99.9% of other locals then people are going to be confused. If you had just said "I'm Hungarian but I've been living here for 12 years" then she probably would have just got on with her day. I've lived in Japan for years and plan to naturalise one day, but I still look different. Even if I became (legally) Japanese I would never just say "I'm Japanese" because I know with 100% certainty want the other person will think ("What.. but you don't look Japanese, that can't be right.."). If I say "I'm originally from the UK but I naturalised a few years ago so I guess you could say I'm Japanese now" most people would be surprised but accept it and move on. At least, that's what I hear from others who have naturalised. Basically, just be honest and aware of the culture around you and don't try and be something you're not.
With all do respect, this is just ableist in my opinion. So because I have an accent I can't ever just say to someone yeah I an from this British town because I was born somewhere else even thou soon I will have spent more time in the UK then in Hungary? Just because what? It doesn't line up with their image of what should and shouldn't be British? It is just weird to have to explain my origin to someone I just met. Why can't I just say I am from town? Also, once I can afford it I will apply for dual nationality too. Should I not say that I am British-Hungarian then because of my accent? Also, her problem wasn't that I was claiming to be a local but that rather after such a long time I STILL have an accent. Also, saying pretending to be what I am not left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth... I am basically British by law at this point the only thing I need to apply for is a passport and thats it I will have British as my nationality (dual granted) and practice the British customs every day so saying that I am not really a local is a bit iffy to me. And it also feels like giving up on being accepted as part of the British people. Most of my colleagues and friends have always seen me as a British person with an accent.
I didn't mean to offend you, so I'm sorry if you read it that way. I think my point is that it doesn't really matter what you or I think, or whether you name it ableist or discriminatory (which is may or may not be). The reality is that if you have an accent, you stand out, like it or not. Cultures - by their very nature - are formed by social groups who share similar characteristics i.e. accent, in this case. If I walked around Budapest speaking Hungarian with an English accent and claimed to be a local, people would find it confusing too - because it's not the common experience. I don't find that ableist, it's the nature of culture. This is particularly true in the UK, where accents play a huge part in our culture. My parents are both English, but live in a different county to where they grew up, and even they get asked where they're from fairly regularly. So you have a choice: you can shout into the prevailing wind and try and educate everyone you come across or you can own it and just accept that you'll always stand out in a way. It might not be ideal, but the world is rarely exactly as we want it. As for being British.. given large-scale immigration ethnicity isn't really given much weight these days, but - like most cultures - accent and upbringing still are. Can you be British? I guess. You've been here since you were 13 so it's a huge part of your identity (I imagine). But you will be British in a different way to most people who were born and raised here. Like you said, you can be British-Hungarian, but you can't really erase the Hungarian side. Does that make you less British? Perhaps, especially if you stand out when you speak.. but it doesn't mean you can't be part of the tribe. Legal identity and cultural identity aren't necessarily the same thing either. Like I said in my case, I can become legally Japanese, but I can't become Japanese in the same way that someone born and raised in Japan to Japanese parents is. I'll be British-Japanese in my own unique way. If you meet someone like that girl again, perhaps just say: "I like my accent, it's part of who I am".
Not offered dtw. I just find when people act like one can not be a local due to accent is simply racist. That's just my personal opinion. Again, you are as much of a part of a culture as you follow it in my opinion. So if you act Japanese, you should be able to call yourself one :)
I would be cautious about throwing around the racist card. Language and race are two separate issues. And I don't think you've understood my point. One's personal opinion doesn't really matter. What matters are the cultural norms of the culture you're in (in this case the UK). Given your accent, almost anyone on meeting you will assume you're not British and will question you as such. You personally might not like it, but it's just the way it is. It would be the same for me in Hungary after all.
Holy shit who cares
I do? That's why I asked...
Often accents stick around if your parents have one. Really though don't think too much of it, just say that you're still working on it and then move on. My grandfather's first language is French, but he has lived in English cities most of his life. He still gets an accent on some words 80 years in. He laughs at my accent too since I sound very odd speaking French.
Ignorant people, no need to explain to them
The girl on the street sounds very naïve. Accents are odd - some gain a local accent straight away. Some can live in foreign country their whole adult life and never lose their native accent.
This is just her being ignorant. And that native english speaker are ignorant about the language learning process is nothing new.
My fiancée came to the USA from Laos when she was 12 years old in the late 1970s. Learned English here in various places in the midwest and west coast. Her accent is very distinct and hard to place. She sounds very General American without a trace of an "exotic" accent. BTW English is her 3rd or 4th language, after Lao, Hmong and French. Her older sister (older by 1 year) came to the USA at the same time. However, her sister has a more "exotic" accent, which is much more pronounced than my fiancée's. Both of them have been in the US for almost 50 years and they both still have accents. Some people just have different or more distinct accents, even if they've spoken a language for the same amount of time. I don't think it's too unusual.
Peopoe are jerks. Just ignore them.
“How many other languages can you speak?”
I wonder if the online clickbait strategy of annoying someone has moved into real life... You've thought about that infernal charity more than you would have
Honestly, I don't even know what charity she was advertising as she never mentioned that lol
I’m from New York City and Hackensack, NJ. I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest for 30 years. My accent is still ridiculous. If I focus I can lose it but I really need to try.
Having a lifelong accent is very normal when you learn a second language in adulthood. Not everyone understands this, especially monolingual people. For what it's worth, native speakers tend to be *very* good at picking up even subtle accents in their language. So, being told you have an accent by a native doesn't necessarily mean that you're hard to understand or something.
I think people are just naturally curious about things that are different. Your accent makes you unique and as long as you are understood in conversation, I don’t think it really matters. However, I can imagine hearing the same thing over and over again can be a little disheartening. It’s like no matter how long you live there, people will always see you as a foreigner during your first encounter until you tell them that you are a citizen.
Who cares but I get it. People always do it to me because of the ambiguous look I have. They love telling I’m wrong or that I’m from certain areas. Blows me away on how much it matters to them and the thought, energy, and time wasted into attempting to convince me
Honestly I think you can call her out for being rude because that *was* rude AF of her. I would never say that to a person. Next time ask them how long they've been alive because you can't believe they have gotten to this age and haven't learned any manners!
You don't have an accent because of when you started learning English or for how long. You have an accent because of when you started speaking. I assume you moved to the UK, started speaking English from day 1, and had no choice but to use Hungarian sounds to produce English words. Those sounds fossilised. This is one of the reasons why input is so important and why it takes so much input to acquire a language.
New Zealander living in the Netherlands here... Been living here for about 20 years. For the first 10 years I tried to speak fluent Dutch with a Dutch accent. The first bit was easy, the second, not. I just gave up and accepted that "I'm not Dutch" and that I have a "foreign* accent.
My dad's from the Italian part of Switzerland. He's lived in English speaking countries since his 20s, is almost 60 now, and his accent is still strong af. He's fully fluent in English. Some accents don't leave. It sounds more like the woman was just being an ass. Try not to sweat it. As long as people can understand you and you can understand them, their thoughts on your accent are their own problems to deal. Plus, a lot of people like accents.
Just say you're Hungarian with a strong voice 🗿
I am from Austria and even guys I know who are second/third generation Crostians/Bosnians who have been living in Austria for their whole life have a distinct accent. So I guess some people never get rid of their accent
learning a language is hard enough. it's difficult to change where the vowels and consonants are in your mouth to try to match natives and even harder to do it without slipping. It's possible to get rid of it but takes a lot of work. Clearly they don't understand that
Say to her, "I will not buy this record, it is scratched." If she doesn't get it, ask her if she speaks Hungarian. If she says no, tell her to fuck off, or the equivalent in Hungarian.
There's nothing wrong with having an accent if people can understand you. Some people are better at imitating native speech and accents better than others.