Why you should never try to sound like a Brit

30 August 2019

By Anisa Pinatih

If you hear a foreigner speaking Indonesian in a medhok accent, it may be funny at first, but when it doesn’t stop after an utterance or two, and the person is actually attempting to sound Javanese, then you will wonder why. That’s probably the vibe you give out when trying to sound like the queen of England, right here in Surabaya, when the temperature reaches 35 degrees, and the streets are buzzing with gorengan sellers.

There are good reasons to study dialects. After all, the ultimate goal of learning a language is to master it all. But there are good reasons not to try sounding like a Brit, and here are some.

Reason #1: You don’t actually sound like a Brit

Unless you grow up in the actual place, you’ll still have an accent, no matter how faint. We might not be able to tell the difference, but trained people can. Sociolinguistics actually discusses this matter: the native speakers’ perceptions of non-native speakers’ accents and vice versa, as well as the native speakers’ perception of their own dialects. Even an American actor doing some English accent often raises a few eyebrows, let alone someone who learns the language in a classroom.

Reason #2: It’s more complex than you ever imagine

When the British empire colonized a large part of the world, it imposed its culture and language on the people. The adoption of a new language and culture automatically subverts the indigenous language and culture. Fast forward to the modern era, we associate the language with power, progress, advancement, intellect, class, sophistication, and the like. The system is so established that to succeed in the modern world, the requirement is to be able to speak English. Education curriculums and language policies are often driven by this goal, so commodification is easy. The party benefitting this is the English teachers from the inner-circle countries: the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, and NZ. Therefore, the ‘proper English’ model is the so-called ‘native speakers’ from these countries.

English as a lingua franca is a product of, simply put, trade and colonialisation. In a post-colonial country like ours, the hegemony is strong. One way to resist this is by carrying our identity while using the language. Take a look at the Singaporeans or the Hong Kong people, they take ownership by creating their own versions of English. Why do we still try to sound like the British people if we can sound more like ourselves?

Reason #3: It’s time to celebrate the emergence of global Englishes

Accent-less English, with a bit of Indolish, is okay. Scholars in universities in England themselves encourage celebrating the emergence of global Englishes. In a seminar on language and politics, a prominent linguist started his session by launching a question, “Who is a native speaker of a particular language here and also a speaker of English?” We all raised our hands. He congratulated us for the second language mastery that a monolingual speaker of English might not ever accomplish. It’s not that being a bilingual or a second language speaker is better. The main point is that we need to respect ourselves because we’re not lesser intellectuals if our English is not perfect.