Quagmire of English Accents

One of the problems that I have encountered here is of my English accent. I realised that studying in an English medium school back home, working in an environment requiring this language and having produced work in it, all seems insufficient when it comes to the British accent!

After settling down, the first problem was to deal with the phone calls in this accent. To my horror, I realised there is not one uniform accent but various accents- of Midland, of Yorkshire, of Scotland, of Wales, etc, etc.. I was grappling with all of these, that I confronted a unique one- British Asians. It was very difficult initially to train my ears to comprehend it properly.

Then started the Big Brother with Shilpa Shetty and I identified absolutely the new one -Liverpoolian accent. To me, it rhymes and lyricises the words. Without understanding the sentences in the beginning, I enjoyed its swirls and tunes.

Whatever criticism Celebrity Big Brother might have invited, to me it was interesting to pick up and identify various accents-even the loudest Essex accent in there.

As a result, I can now actually recognise the accents that were in there! This hearing capability of the English accents, made me proud. At least I could distinguish them and understand them.

My pride only lasted until a friend’s family with their five year old daughter visited me. She spoke only English and I was not able to understand her deep, solid accented voice. I would take minutes before replying to her little queries. Suddenly she said to me- “I wan some sa”. I handed her a ‘samosa’. To my embarrassment, she repeated- “I wan some wo.” I was perplexed. Her mother intervened to explain that she wants some water.

The other day, when she visited, I was asking her parents what would they like to have- Tea, coffee or any cold drink? The little girl told me- “My pa wants no more tea”.

I turned to her father to confirm. He laughed and told me that his daughter is saying- “My pa wants normal tea.”

It’s a big hassle to deal with the little kid and to get puzzled in the quagmire of the accent.

But living in Britain, has made me realise that it is difficult now a days to find people who speak Oxford English. Is there one left outside the University?

One has to deal with hundreds of accents- all nationalities living here speak with their own accent, which is a mixture of their mother tongue and English- the sound, vowels, letters, words, all are mixed up.

Multiculturalism has wrapped the language in its fold. I wonder, which one should I pick up…