DON'T ASK me about my ACCENT

16 Apr 2023 · 1 min

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0:50

A short spoken piece by Hadar Shemesh explaining why commenting on someone’s accent (e.g., calling it “cute” or asking “where are you from?”) is harmful. She describes the internal doubts and emotional labor such comments trigger—feeling judged, needing to prove oneself, and reliving the effort to change their speech—and urges listeners to stop making such remarks.

Chapters

Saying something like, oh, you have a cute accent or your accent is so exotic and where are you from? So here's the real truth behind what's going on in our head. Did I make a mistake? She probably thinks I'm stupid now. Was I that bad? I worked so hard on my accent. Was that my r. What did I say? Just like you wouldn't talk about someone's weight or skin color or sexual orientation, you shouldn't talk about someone else's accent. You don't know what their journey is. You don't know what emotions it generates. Why put them in a state where they feel like they have to prove themselves with that simple, silly question? It's not cute. It's not funny. If you think it's positive, it's because you think it's positive. But you have no idea what's going on in our heads when we hear someone talking about our accent.