HERstory

Yenjoy.

Abhi wrote a post on SM about Mindy Kaling's appearance on Letterman, wherein he said:

Mindy Kaling, who writes for and acts on the NBC show The Office, recently revealed to David Letterman a secret that many Indian Americans guard very closely. Not all of us are good at imitating an Indian accent just because our parents are Indian [via Defamer]:

That inspired me to leave one deeeluxe comment, which I have moved here, out of courtesy for others. ;)

::

Re: accents, I can do one, well-- literally. As in, just one specific accent,i.e. my Dad's, according to certain haters (Hi, Mom!). I can't do hers at all.

4 · Amardeep said

I think many ABDs, as teenagers, don't pay any attention to their parents' Indian accents -- because they want to identify as "American." They don't realize that being able to speak with a convincing Indian English accent might actually come in quite handy later in life. I could actually do a much better job of the accent now, after being married to a DBD for five years.

Though I was born here, my first language was Malayalam. Even though they tried dutifully to teach me both languages simultaneously, I usefully exhibited a strong preference for the tongue not spoken in Southern CA. I think that's part of why I can do it and the fact that I had a stay-at-home Dad with a relatively thick accent is the other part of it. I didn't stop paying attention to their accents as a rebellious teen, I think I just didn't notice them, really. That was just how they spoke, right? There was never this conscious recognition of how they pronounced words differently than I did, unless my mom tried to say "Queen", which, much to our sheer delight, she STILL can't say ("Kyun? Kyu-een? Shut up! Don't make fun of your Mother! You know vat I meant!").

I've been in serious relationships with two DBDs, and I totally second what Amardeep said.

6 · Even and only said

In India you don't really need to know any desi language so well. Just speak English with the local accent and they get you.

I had an older "VIP" (read: bishop) family member on my Mom's side visit us once, who ostensibly spoke English but when he attempted to converse with me, he looked up helplessly and shot a somewhat irritated look at my Mom, because he couldn't understand what *I* was saying. My mom poked me surrpetitiously and murmured through clenched teeth:

"Stop. Speaking. With. That. Stoopid. Valley. Girl. Accent."

"What are you talking about??"

"He can't understand you!"

"What would you have me do, woman?"

"Talk like an Indian!"

"Are you kidding me? You mean, talk how I usually get punished for, b/c it shows 'disrespect' for my elders?? Oh, this is RICH."

"SHUTUP and DO IT"

All of this was muttered furiously in a matter of seconds, mind you. She was right, as soon as I commenced transposing "V"s and "W"s, and imitating my DBD cousins, the man immediately had this "Eureka"-like moment, nodded with approval and vigorously started asking me what type of Doctor I planned on becoming. 

Posted on Monday, August 04, 2008 at 11:32 AM in Mutinously Sepia | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

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