Having an accent can be annoying on a daily basis when at the grocery store, the pharmacy, the gym, or the bakery, eyebrows squinch together as the person says, “Now where is that little accent from?” Sometimes, you just want to buy a baguette without telling your life story!
Ah yes, despite a MA and PhD in Francophone Studies in Louisiana; native French-speaking friends and roommates for years; study abroad in Nantes, Geneva, and Poitiers; and a year and a half of living and working in France, there is still something that marks my speech as “non-French” to the native ear. For a while, that frustrated me; I was using all of the same slang and verbal tics as everyone else! However, with time, I have come to learn that having an accent is not a bad thing at all! Here are 5 situations in which I find an accent to be particularly useful:
1.) When you need help: I’m convinced that when you stop people in the street for directions, once they detect an accent, they are more sympathetic. Add a little smile and you’re golden! I’ve used this more times than I care to admit, especially when it comes to lifting heavy suitcases into the train.
2.) When meeting new people: Having an accent is a great conversation starter. When you think about it, it’s totally illogical that people think you’re interesting just because you’re from somewhere else, but they do!
3.) At the pharmacy: I love going to the pharmacy in France. First of all, in French pharmacies, the products are exclusively related to health: no greeting cards, no candy aisle, no magazines… just pharmaceutical products. Weird, right? Secondly, between the basic health care and optional secondary insurance, I rarely have to pay at French pharmacies. Every time the pharmacist hands me medication and waves me on my way, I can’t help but ask, “So, we’re good? I don’t need to pay anything?” I once actually guffawed (yes, guffawed) when the pharmacist asked me if I had any secondary insurance to help with the “financial burden” of my medication, which cost 5€. These are things that French people take for granted, so you can imagine that pharmacists don’t really know what to make of someone like yours truly who asks if they’re sure I don’t need to pay anything or who skips out of the pharmacy humming a little tune. In these situations, having an accent can be very handy as the look of utter incomprehension is replaced by a knowing, “Ah, you’re American.”
4.) Cultural references: My sister can vouch for me that I am appallingly bad at general cultural trivia. I never know who is dating whom or which band sings a particular song. What can I say? My brain simply does not retain that kind of information. To make matters worse, in France, there is an entirely new set of ambient cultural trivia in addition to the American stuff! Luckily, having an accent is the perfect carte blanche if you don’t know who people are talking about. Imagine that you are talking to a young person who doesn’t know who Carson Daly is. You might think that person had cognitive problems, right? Now imagine that the person who doesn’t know who Carson Daly is has an accent. Suddenly that makes it perfectly normal. After all, how on Earth is a person who grew up elsewhere supposed to know who Carson Daly is? In these moments, having an accent is the perfect excuse.
5.) Any generally awkward situation: Although I tend to do pretty well socially, I seem to find myself in Bridget Jones situations every now and again. In the United States, I have no excuse on such occasions except for being blonde (a very unfair stereotype, by the way!). In France, however, my accent has an amazing power to get me out of awkward pickles.
Oftentimes, students of a foreign language feel embarrassed to speak because of their accent. While I am a proponent of continuously working on all aspects of language learning – including vocabulary, grammar, and phonetics – the fact remains that if you are not from that place, you are going to have an accent when speaking the language. Besides, the purpose of language is communication, avec or sans accent. As I have learned over the years, having an accent is not something to be embarrassed about, it simply IS. So to all of you living or travelling abroad, I say: embrace your “otherness” and rock that accent!
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