acquintances), I did not spend my childhood or any significant amount
of time in the UK.
The idea was given rise to in junior high because of the "impeccable" accent I had. My Brit accent, like many other Indians, is thanks to listening to and watching BBC news religiously while I was a child. My immodest self tells me I pick up accents pretty fast, guess all thanks to my teachers in kindergarten who impressed on us the need for a "perfect" accent.
By the time I joined university, I had lost count of the number of accents I had learnt and unlearnt. To me, it was my private game -- picking up accents, surprising others with them, unlearning them and going on to a new one.
However, all my experiments were limited to the Queen's tongue. While my standard accent remained Brit, I was experimenting with different accents of different countries. I enjoyed myself immensely by foxing all with my accent during my Aussie phase.
Sir Geoffrey's "roobish", an Indian favourite, tickled my interest about dialects. They showed my inadequacy with a foreign tongue. While I was able to pick up Boycott's Yorkshire, after a lot of hard work, I gave most others a miss.
Looking across the Atlantic, I found more interesting possibilities in the dialects/accent/tongue at the melting pot of cultures -- the US. It was much easier picking up separate accents, rather than dialects, in the US. Thus began my Transamerican quest.
I had started learnig Deutsch in the meantime and Deutsch Wella television came to my rescue for the "perfect" accent. My TV teacher outlasted my German professor -- I took the course for three months, but still am able to read out everything in German just the way it should be, though I don't understand a word of it.
My first job was with an Indian software major's BPO wing. I was a tech support guy for the world's largest manufacturers of PCs, handling US clients. Their intensive training made sure our accents were "neutral" -- rather American. But I still lapsed into my Brit accent whenever I let my guard down.
My first job was with an Indian software major's BPO wing. I was a tech support guy for the world's largest manufacturers of PCs, handling US clients. Their intensive training made sure our accents were "neutral" -- rather American. But I still lapsed into my Brit accent whenever I let my guard down.
All of us at the BPO spoke to each other in our "taught" accents for practice... we were speaking in US English 24/7 --- either with clients or among ourselves.
This accent took its toll -- my Brit accent was lost and we started speaking the US way wherever we were.
I started putting to good use my years of studying US accents at separate places. While this helped me in dealing with US customers, it also gave rise to speculation among some acquintances that I had spent some of my university years in the US. They would never believe me when I said this all was thanks to my hobby of learning and unlearning accents.
I started putting to good use my years of studying US accents at separate places. While this helped me in dealing with US customers, it also gave rise to speculation among some acquintances that I had spent some of my university years in the US. They would never believe me when I said this all was thanks to my hobby of learning and unlearning accents.
The first thing I did after chucking my BPO job was to practice a faux Indian accent --- more specifically a Bong one - I never had before. But even two years of practice hasn't cured me -- the way I speak is a mish-mash of accents and when I talk on the telephone, my US accent
comes to the fore unconsciously!
comes to the fore unconsciously!
I guess I'll have to live with it all my life.
