This weekend I stayed in Jávea. On Saturday night I went out to dinner with the British girl and also a friend of hers who is an auxiliar de conversacion en Dénia, a pueblo, or town, that’s close to Jávea. Her friend is also from England. We ate at one of my favorite restaurants in the arenal, the beach area. When I got to the arenal, I was so shocked at how dead it was. So many restaurants were closed, the ones that were open were so empty and there were hardly any people walking along the shore. During the summer time this is the liveliest place in town: it’s full of crowded restaurants, loud chatter, big lights and many bars. It is so interesting to see what a difference summer and winter make, especially in this town.
As we were at the restaurant we talked a little about politics in Europe and in America and then we began the conversation of accents. My friend is from southern England, so her accent is a little posh, while her friend is from Northern England, and her accent is much more butch. It is very easy to hear the differences between their speeches. Actually, I couldn’t even understand what her friend was saying half of the time.
At some point, they began to talk about the stereotypes associated with the different British accents and how big of a deal it is to most of the people living there. For example, a person from the south normally wouldn’t associate with someone from northern England because of the stereotypes associated with their accents. Because of my interaction with British people in Spain, I could definitely believe everything she was saying as it pertains to this topic because some of the British people that I have met have talked about how “trashy” and “ridiculous” they think some English accents are.
But this concept really surprises me, disgusts me and interests me at the same time. How can one group of people judge another group of people just because they have different accents? After I talked about how surprised I was that accents are such a big deal in England, one of the girls responded “well, it’s the same in the U.S. isn’t it? People from different parts of the US have different accents.” Yes it is definitely, I responded. It is very easy to distinguish between a southern accent, a northern accent and the accent of someone from California. But in the United States, a person’s accent doesn’t necessarily have a negative connotation attached to it. I mean, sure you might hear a person from California speak and say, “Oh that’s a valley girl,” hear someone from the Bronx, New York and think that that they are tough and hear someone from the south and laugh at how slow and relaxed they speak, but I wouldn’t think that someone from one part of the U.S. would hear an accent from another part of the U.S. and turn the other way. Am I right or am I just thinking optimistically? Do Americans judge other Americans based on their accents?
Speaking of accents, as much as I love my two Spanish roommates, they both have the most intricate Spanish accents that I have heard. The other day, while returning home from our aerobics class, I told one of my roommates that her speech and the speech our other roommate is the most difficult for me to understand of almost everyone that I have met in Spain. One of my roommates speaks very fast, while the other one speaks to me as if she is singing; her words kind of flow together. After hearing this, my roommate was very shocked but also understanding of me. She told me that it’s because of where they are from and also because they are more comfortable speaking Valenciano than Castellano. Although both of my roommates are from different pueblos, they are both from the Valencian community, which is why there accents are somewhat similar to each other. Both of them grew up speaking mainly Valencian in their houses, and even as adults they speak Valencian to all of their friends, family members and locals that they come in contact with. Valencian comes natural to them. My roommate told me that when she speaks Castellano, or regular Spanish, to me it’s as if I am in America speaking Spanish to someone else. It’s just not her first language. This statement was very surprising to me but it really made me understand why my roommates speak the way that they do and why I can never understand them. The good thing is that if, by the end of my time here in Spain, I can understand those two perfectly, well then there shouldn’t be anyone that I won’t be able to understand.
No comments:
Post a Comment