#4. Understanding Accents

The U.S. is a big salad bowl, as they say. It has the most diverse population in the world, and thus, also has many different "versions" of English. It is pretty common to come across someone who speaks English with an accent. Just at Stanford, you can find many professors and TAs who speak English in a "different" way. This is probably because the most eminent scholars in each field gather at this world-class institution. Which is great--except when we can't understand them. Despite their brilliance, we sometimes cannot benefit from such resources because of this language barrier. It's funny that we come across such a problem when we're all basically speaking the same language. Or are we?
Last week in class, I asked what the difference between a dialect and accent was, and Professor Boroditsky told us that it was really a broad spectrum. There was no clear distinction between dialect, accent, and even language, because what is just a different dialect in one region can seem like a whole different language to a person living in another region. So, when we come across these Indian, French, Spanish, Chinese, etc. accents, we have a hard time understanding them.
I remember just a few years back, I couldn't really understand British accents even. A Scottish teacher I came across in high school was almost incomprehensible at first. However, as we listen to English being spoken in such accents more and more, and we get used to them, they become easier to understand. I can speak Korean English and understand Korean English, but I bet a lot of people here couldn't. It's not a big accomplishment though--it's just because I have lived around it and am familiar with it.
So when I read this article/opinion (http://www.progressiveu.org/170641-speaking-the-language-where-you-live), I thought it was a bit arrogant of the author to say that people who don't speak "good" English shouldn't really work in America. It's true that if everyone had American accents, it would be a lot easier to communicate with each other. However, the U.S., by nature, is a place where diverse groups of people come together. Therefore, we "native American English" speakers should not dismiss people with accents as someone we do not have time to understand or someone who was too lazy to learn "proper" English, because who defines what is proper and what is not? A southern accent can be just as foreign as an Indian accent to some people, and who says the former is American and the latter is not?
There are efforts by many people to "neutralize" their accents so that they can be more competitive in the business world, but the truth is, after many years of one language, your tongue just can't make the new sounds of another language well (as I said in my previous post). There is no one correct form of English, in my opinion. All the different accents spoken by people who have come to America from another country are valid forms of American English. Even the new TOEFL iBT (internet-based testing) has included Australian and British accents in its listening section, because there are many professors with such accents, and students will have to be able to understand them when they come to study in America.
So we should make an effort to have a little more patience and get used to these various forms of English. Listen carefully to what they're saying, instead of just automatically thinking that you won't be able to understand them anyway. When you have done that, then you are a true American English speaker.

Links:
http://esl.about.com/od/speakingenglish/a/accent_reduce.htm