Prejudice against Accents

In Brazil we're prejudiced against some of the country's accents. We tend to value the southeast region accents and devalue the northeast ones. Within São Paulo, where I live, we split the language into good and bad as well, the suburban accent being considered a poor Portuguese. What about your countries?

In the US, the "Southern" accent is sometimes considered to be unsophisticated. Historically it was spoken in southern states, like Texas, Alabama, Georgia, etc. But the accent is quickly morphing into a more homogenous accent that seems to resemble the west coast accent (at least to my ears).

Uh, in Colombia we have some stereotypes when referring to an accent. I don't think (from my perspective) that it is related to a good or bad Spanish. As Spanish is spoken in so many countries we don't have that approach. However, we do critize people and tend to label them based on their accent. "Paisa" girls are stupid. "Costeños" are vulgar, "cachacos" are pretentious, and so on. All of this regionalism has a big connotation when it comes to accents. Just when you speak already people start making a opinion about how are you based on a what accent do you have.

My country, the Philippines, has a lot of dialects ( given that it consists of 7,107 islands + other small islands unmapped). Our national language is Filipino but we have a lot of words that have a Spanish origin. English is a second language here. 

Some people are making fun of a person who speaks Tagalog but still carries his dialectal accent. When in fact, Tagalog is native only to those who live in Luzon (the Northern part). And those who live in the Middle and Southern part uses Tagalog only in official settings like at work and at school. When a native Tagalog speaker hears a Filipino with a thick "Southern accent" (like Bisaya or Hiligaynon), they would really notice you. 

On the other hand, when foreign nationals try to speak "broken Tagalog", they are considered cute. :P

P.S We have a city in the South named Zamboanga and they speak "broken Spanish". 

july.lullalove wrote:

On the other hand, when foreign nationals try to speak "broken Tagalog", they are considered cute

Just curious - do you think this guy's accent is "cute"?

leosmith wrote:

july.lullalove wrote:

On the other hand, when foreign nationals try to speak "broken Tagalog", they are considered cute

Just curious - do you think this guy's accent is "cute"?

Well.. for me partly cute, partly funny. :D I got used to it when I served as a volunteer missionary for my church. I helped some Polynesians learned Tagalog, well some North Americans too. And they went home using their hands as a measuring tool when cooking rice. :P

Cool. By the way, to make your attachments show up, edit your post, hit the "inline" button, then update.

leosmith wrote:

Cool. By the way, to make your attachments show up, edit your post, hit the "inline" button, then update.

Alright. That helps. Thank you.

As mentioned by july.lullalove here, in the Philippines, we look down on people who have Visayan accents. People with those accents are not taken as seriously as those without it. In job hunting, employers prefer those without the Visayan accent even if they are more competent. It's a sad reality. How about in other countries, do accents affect people's employment opportunities? 

In Lithuania, we have different dialects, depending on where the person is. And there is the common dialect, which is considered the correct way to pronounce words, In some cities and other places this common dialect is actually common, while people from different, most likely smaller cities need to learn "the correct" dialect. 

Ugne.Bulotaite wrote:

people from different, most likely smaller cities need to learn "the correct" dialect.

What happens if they refuse to learn the correct dialect?

Here in India, we have hundreds of languages and numerous accent depending on the region. Yes we do have our set of prejudices but at the end of the day most of them are cute 

Faye.Vitan wrote:

As mentioned by july.lullalove here, in the Philippines, we look down on people who have Visayan accents. People with those accents are not taken as seriously as those without it. In job hunting, employers prefer those without the Visayan accent even if they are more competent. It's a sad reality. How about in other countries, do accents affect people's employment opportunities?

Actually yes, here in India Biharis are kind of looked as black horse because they lack sophistication and don't wear fake facade all the time to appear one. That goes against them mostly, not taken seriously and ill-treated for the same reason

leosmith wrote:

Ugne.Bulotaite wrote:

people from different, most likely smaller cities need to learn "the correct" dialect.

What happens if they refuse to learn the correct dialect?

Well, basically, in schools every kid is being reached to use the right one and with time, most of the people do learn "the correct" one, but in the case, if they refuse or just don't learn, they just keep talking they way they did and there are some problems with people understanding them or making fun of their speech along with it. 

HolaIsabel wrote:

Uh, in Colombia we have some stereotypes when referring to an accent. I don't think (from my perspective) that it is related to a good or bad Spanish. As Spanish is spoken in so many countries we don't have that approach. However, we do critize people and tend to label them based on their accent. "Paisa" girls are stupid. "Costeños" are vulgar, "cachacos" are pretentious, and so on. All of this regionalism has a big connotation when it comes to accents. Just when you speak already people start making a opinion about how are you based on a what accent do you have.

I was married to a Peruvian guy and, when we travelled to visit Peru, I realised that same thing you've described, around making an opinion based on accents. There was this situation of asking for directions on the street, in which my ex-husband labeled the girls as "pituca" just by by her way of saying the name "Urubamba". Just this single word!

july.lullalove wrote:

My country, the Philippines, has a lot of dialects ( given that it consists of 7,107 islands + other small islands unmapped). Our national language is Filipino but we have a lot of words that have a Spanish origin. English is a second language here.
Some people are making fun of a person who speaks Tagalog but still carries his dialectal accent. When in fact, Tagalog is native only to those who live in Luzon (the Northern part). And those who live in the Middle and Southern part uses Tagalog only in official settings like at work and at school. When a native Tagalog speaker hears a Filipino with a thick "Southern accent" (like Bisaya or Hiligaynon), they would really notice you.
On the other hand, when foreign nationals try to speak "broken Tagalog", they are considered cute. :P
P.S We have a city in the South named Zamboanga and they speak "broken Spanish".

In Brazil it depends on where the foreigner is from to be considered cute. If Latin American or African, if coming from the global North...

Faye.Vitan wrote:

As mentioned by july.lullalove here, in the Philippines, we look down on people who have Visayan accents. People with those accents are not taken as seriously as those without it. In job hunting, employers prefer those without the Visayan accent even if they are more competent. It's a sad reality. How about in other countries, do accents affect people's employment opportunities?

In Brazil accents affect people's employment opportunities as well as in social situations.

Nirupam.Deo wrote:

Faye.Vitan wrote:

As mentioned by july.lullalove here, in the Philippines, we look down on people who have Visayan accents. People with those accents are not taken as seriously as those without it. In job hunting, employers prefer those without the Visayan accent even if they are more competent. It's a sad reality. How about in other countries, do accents affect people's employment opportunities?

Actually yes, here in India Biharis are kind of looked as black horse because they lack sophistication and don't wear fake facade all the time to appear one. That goes against them mostly, not taken seriously and ill-treated for the same reason

In Brazil people with northeast accent are mistreated and made fun of when they come to the South. We regard them as vulgar and non-educated, although they have a really rich culture up there.

Valeria.Fontes wrote:

In Brazil people with northeast accent are mistreated and made fun of when they come to the South. We regard them as vulgar and non-educated, although they have a really rich culture up there.

That sounds a bit sad. Is the northeast part of Brazil, rural?

july.lullalove wrote:

leosmith wrote:

july.lullalove wrote:

On the other hand, when foreign nationals try to speak "broken Tagalog", they are considered cute

Just curious - do you think this guy's accent is "cute"?

Well.. for me partly cute, partly funny. :D I got used to it when I served as a volunteer missionary for my church. I helped some Polynesians learned Tagalog, well some North Americans too. And they went home using their hands as a measuring tool when cooking rice. :P

Yes July,ITS CUTE 

hehehehhe

Where I live the dialect is very different, the official dialect of Spanish is Castillano but the people do not speak it. Thye drop several consonants and the rest of Spain say they 'come la idioma' or eat the language, I suppose swallow the language would be more appropriate as a translation though!

That's interesting. In the Philippines, our official language is Filipino which is based in Tagalog but it is not spoken by the major population.

Faye.Vitan wrote:

That's interesting. In the Philippines, our official language is Filipino which is based in Tagalog but it is not spoken by the major population.

True. Tagalog is a local dialect of the Filipinos mostly living in the north part of the country and it has been used in official settings and other academic-related activities. In areas like Visayas and Mindanao, people can speak Tagalog but speakers produce a dialectal accent. Here in my city, we have the term " Davao Conyo" when people speak in TagLish ( Tagalog + English) and added with a few Bisaya words. : P

july.lullalove wrote:

Here in my city, we have the term "Davao Conyo"

I always feel bad using the word conyo because it's a naughty word in Spanish. Isn't it derogatory in Tagalog?

I looked up the work conyo and you're right it's not a word to use in public conversations. 

In tagalog, conyo isn't exactly derogatory but it has implications of social climbing. 

Faye.Vitan wrote:

Valeria.Fontes wrote:

In Brazil people with northeast accent are mistreated and made fun of when they come to the South. We regard them as vulgar and non-educated, although they have a really rich culture up there.

That sounds a bit sad. Is the northeast part of Brazil, rural?

Yes, it's sad and it doesn't change, despite being illogical. The northeast part of Brazil is not totally rural, they have major capitals, but the folk image of it is linked with underdevelopment and poverty.

[/quote] Yes, it's sad and it doesn't change, despite being illogical. The northeast part of Brazil is not totally rural, they have major capitals, but the folk image of it is linked with underdevelopment and poverty.
[/quote]

That is similar to us here, except that it's the other way around. Sad. 

It is odd because in the part of Spain that I live in every 10th word of a sentence is conyo with friends they use it very cordially, but when I arrived knowing its literal translation I found it difficult to know that people weren't being offensive!