Speaking to be Understood

Speaking to be Understood

Being a child of nomads, being an expat generally means you have to learn how to talk to be understood. Accents are strange and transient things, yet for non-nomadic people, they are expected to be constant indicators of where you are from and sometimes even your class, education level, and culture. People react surprisingly strongly to them, especially if your accent is different from what they expect. 

Going to a colonial-British elementary and middle school and having an American parent and an Italian father (who I am told has a very strong accent), all left me with a very different accent by the time I arrived in the US at the age 14. In one year, I trained myself to speak "American. "When I studied abroad in South Africa, I wrongly thought I would need to change my accent to be understood. But Western Cape South Africans, who are the most Westernized of all South Africans, were offended by the accent change as were the other Americans in the group. I learned very quickly not to switch. Two years later, I worked in the Free State of South Africa, where my accent was a barrier to being understood. I was resistant to changing my accent, having been burned last time. 

In Accra, I have accepted the need to change my accent a bit if I want to ride public transportation. I am having to dig out a bit of my old accent in Zimbabwe and am developing new sounds as well. The current changes include a slower speaking pace and how I say the letter A. The word “mall” is a deeper sound that feels like I am trying to create enough space in my mouth to fit a potato. For the word “water” is not said at all like I did in Zimbabwe, but rather is a very strange mix of sounds. The first syllable “wa,” sounds like how you say wat in the dish dorowat, or I guess it sounds like “waaat” but said very quickly. The second half of the word slows down and you pronounce “ter” like Americans pronounce the word “turd” but without the letter d. 

In Ghana, the ex-pat community that I have met so far seems to speak with an American accent and accordingly, around Americans, I change it. I know that for some of my fellow Americans, this switch is castigated as condescending. But, in all honesty, it is the craft of being spoken to be understood.