I am such an avid movie-watcher that it surprises me sometimes that others aren’t. Especially desi folk who don’t watch desi movies. Conversations with such desis usually runs like this :
Me : Have you seen the film “Company” ?
He/She : English or Hindi ?
Me (flummoxed) : There is a Company in English ? I meant the Hindi one.
He/She : No, I don’t really watch Hindi movies.
Me : None at all ? Company’s really good you know.
He/She : No, no… same old story, you see in every film. I watch only English movies nowdays.
At this point I give up. I mean I could argue that there are crappy English films too, but what’s the point. I am similarly prone to not talking when I meet Desis with phony American accents. Its much more fun just listening and hearing it slip … And once, a cousin in India asked me about the absence of my American accent. I explained that there was no way I was getting an accent after a few years (actually after any amount of years) in the States. There are some words which I do pronounce differently now, like schedule, pizza, data etc. but on the whole my pronounciation is pretty much unchanged. Her reply to that was “Well then, how come XYZ, my cousin in California has the accent after a few years ?”. I am not sure how that could happen, unless of course XYZ had actually learned to speak it there. Apparently not. XYZ spoke good English prior to leaving for the States.
Now kids, they pick up accents fast. I have some friends, who’ve come to the States as children, via Africa and Britain, and have grown up here, and their accents are a unique mix of all these other accents.
Categories : _culture_and_society
