Accent Bias

When you hear the term " language barrier,” the first thing you think of is different languages. But, have you thought about how there are different ways of speaking in the same language?

Think about it like a kind of caste-system-like discrimination that happens. Let’s look at English. An accent tells someone where you are from, and that leads to them looking down on you sometimes.

An accent is totally natural, especially if English is your second language and you learn it through your mother tongue. Your language kind of sticks to your tongue, and when you speak English, the effects of it are clear. Your tongue kind of adjusts English around your mother tongue and the way you pronounce some words might be different.

Sometimes, what people do to cover up their accents or the fact that they don’t really know what to say because they’re trying to translate from their mother tongue to English is use really big words. They use fillers that interrupt the flow of their speech - which is really awkward in offices and other professional settings.

Instead, one thing one could do here is focus on what they say rather than how they say it. The whole accent discrimination thing is going to happen either way, since its been ingrained and inbuilt so much. But if what you say is powerful and valid, people will want to listen to you. They might set aside their biases and listen to what you have to say.