Here's a fun podcast from Yang-May Ooi, a British Malaysian author whose blog 'FusionView' is linked in the side bar.
She talks about something you may have thought about before - British Chinese (or British Malaysian in her case) accents, how they can affect your interaction with others and how hers has changed over time.
I always thought I had a fairly neutral, nondescript accent but after listening to other b.b.c's speak, I'm starting to think there is a subtle, distinctive b.b.c accent - a kind of hybrid of the local, English accent 'pulled' in a certain direction by knowing and speaking Chinese (Cantonese in my case).
Maybe it's something to do with the fact that the two languages are so phonetically different, that speaking one subtley affects the way you speak another?
She talks about something you may have thought about before - British Chinese (or British Malaysian in her case) accents, how they can affect your interaction with others and how hers has changed over time.
I always thought I had a fairly neutral, nondescript accent but after listening to other b.b.c's speak, I'm starting to think there is a subtle, distinctive b.b.c accent - a kind of hybrid of the local, English accent 'pulled' in a certain direction by knowing and speaking Chinese (Cantonese in my case).
Maybe it's something to do with the fact that the two languages are so phonetically different, that speaking one subtley affects the way you speak another?
You can also catch the rest on Yang-May's podcasts here.
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