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Lizabeta Pepkolaj

Dr.Smith

Eng 101 2COB

June 15, 2017

Having an Accent

Do you feel embarrassed because you have a foreign accent? A professor always used to

tell us Do not feel bad, having an accent mean that you know at least another language; that is

knowledge. Being bilingual it is nothing to be embarrassed from, it is something to be proud of.

There are a lot of successful people whose first language is not English and they rock their

accent. People are valued based on their knowledge, information that they know and of course

education. Having an accent does not make you less important than other people, it differs you

from other people and gives you a unique face.

Coming from Albania to New York has always had it challenges related to the language

and the need for help. These two countries do not speak the same language what means that I

was forced to learn a second language. The process of learning was hard and long. In the

beginning, I could not go to work because I could not communicate with people. Like Frederick

Douglass mentions on his speech The dictionary afforded me little to no help He also said I

did not dare to ask anyone its meaning, for I was satisfied that I was something they wanted me

to know very little about. There is not much that a dictionary can actually help but what really

helps is the experience. For Douglass, was impossible to practice English, so he had to hide it

and of course he could not ask anybody. Even though the situation between us and Douglas is

different, sometimes we feel like we cannot ask anybody for help. We always aim to learn

everything in our own without anyone helping. There were moments that I felt very bad for not
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being able to talk and understand people on the same time, but still not ask for help. People are

too embarrassed of getting rejected when they ask help. Most of the times, asking for help is

what really teaches people the most. Overcoming these insecurities is hard, but that is what

makes you stronger and teaches you more. My challenges intensified and pushed me forward to

learn and have good results.

Learning a second language is hard and embarrassing most of the times, but nobody is

alone. Trying to talk to people, whose language you do not understand, it is confusing. When

Sedaris went on France trying to learn French he was confused, felt abandoned and needed to

learn the language quickly. In the beginning, when I tried to say something in english, people

would look at me weird because they would not understand my accent and they did not

understand what I said either. There were moments that I would say something and the people

would just stare. I felt the same way Sedaris felt, embarrassed. I have to admit it is likely I did

the same thing when they would say something to me in English. When I was in front of people

that had just said something to me, I would feel so embarrassed and not willing to talk anymore.

Like David Sedaris said, My only comfort was the knowledge that I was not alone. Huddled in

the smoky hallways and making the most of our pathetic French, my fellow students and I

engaged in the sort of conversation commonly overhead in refugee camps. Sometimes me cry

alone at night. I realized that does not matter how hard the situation is, you have to know that

nobody is ever alone. Sometimes we think that only we are going through hard periods and that

we are facing the problems alone but that is not true. Sedaris says that even though the people

were cold and the professor was tough, there were students that he would talk to and reminded

him that he was not alone. For everything that is happening in this world there is at least

someone that is experiencing it or has experience it in the past. Learning to be a bilingual is a

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tough experience and the way to it is embarrassing all the time but the people are not alone.

There will always be someone experiencing the same thing and going through the same hard

moments.

Life throws you different challenges; however your skills and knowledges are always

part of you helping you being who you really are. These people who are having a very hard time

learning another language are most likely very smart on their country and maybe successful as

well. I know a lot of people who came here from Albania, who really are having trouble learning

English, just like I did. Being not fluent on English does not mean that you do not have

experience with life. These people who I am talking about are people that went to school, have a

degree and most of them have been working on their field for years. Moving in another country

where everything is different starting by language, society and culture is not making you less

smart. Life just throws you an obstacle, but the real skills and information that you know from

the past are going to help you get through. Being smart and successful is not defined by the

language but by who you really are as a person and who you really represent.

Now, I do not feel embarrassed to speaking English. However, I have other difficulties,

my accent. I feel confident speaking English now because I understand, most of it. The part that I

do not I might use the dictionary or just ask people to repeat what they have just said. Something

that I think will never change in me is the accent. There are always some people that ask:

Where is your accent from? but that does not bother me. I proudly say where I am from

because that represents me and that is my background. My background is the place where I was

born and where I grow up and got my first fundamentals. Part of this background is also my

accent that just confirms my other scene of life. All people have an accent, is a natural thing that

people are born with it. Not all people have the same accent or foreign accent, but all people
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have their way of talking what makes them unique. Having a foreign accent is like having a very

specified way of speaking that is very different from other people, but is nothing less important;

is just something special.

People can be judged on what they are saying by their accent. I think that when I am

saying something about a particular thing, the listener is going to receive the message not only

based on my words but also based on whatever he/she might think my background is. When I say

something about fashion and they hear that I have an accent, they automatically receive the

information differently because I think that they relate fashion with the European culture. This

judgment that I am talking about it is not always positive. When I say something about

football I am not being taken seriously. I know that people think What is she talking about?

In Europe they do not even play football. A person who speaks with an accent is always going

to be looked on a different way, related to the accent and the topic of what the person is saying.

There is nothing better than being able to talk to different people and understanding their

different perspectives and cultures. When you speak more than one or two languages you can

talk to different people around the world and understand and learn different cultures.

Understanding their situation and what are they going through makes us human. Talking to

someone on a foreign language and being able to help them and advise them, makes us special.

Every time that I speak to someone who does not speak English, I am reminded of myself and

how great it would have been if someone would have understood me when I first came here. It is

a beautiful thing being able to talk to foreign people and being able to help them.

We all go through difficulties but we all have moments that we feel proud of ourselves

and what we have done. Coming to this country has had it rocky moments but it also has been
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rewarding. Now that I have gotten better in English I can say that I am proud of myself and who

I have become. The journey was not easy, as it has not been easy for all other people that have

entered this county. During the journey people are going to be judging and sometimes are going

to feel down and not willing to move forward. The reward is that people have the chance to

really show who they really are without being ashamed. I am capable of a lot of things that I

think I would have not been if I would have not been bilingual. Knowing more than one

language makes people more open to other people and to cultures. Being bilingual or having an

accent is nothing to be embarrassed about, is just something that I should feel proud.
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Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. Learning to Read and Write by Frederick Douglass,

http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/learning%2oto%20real.htm , pp 1-4.

Guerra, Jennifer. Do we judge people on the way they speak State of opportunity, July

9. 2014, http://stateofopportunity.michiganradio.org/post/do-we-judge-people-way-they-speak

Sedaris, David. Me talk pretty one day Models for Writers, edited by Alfred Rosa, and

Paul Eschholz, 2015, pp. 305.