Finding peace in your accent can be a journey of self-acceptance, and embracing your uniqueness. Having an accent can reflect your heritage or where you come from. Surrounding yourself with supportive and accepting people can help you become more confident in not only yourself, but also your accent.
”When I’m in new places or out of town, most of the time someone points out my accent,” said sophomore Dalton Stutts. “It starts a conversation on where I’m from or can even connect me with people that have a similar accent.”
Some people might find that when others make comments about their accent they could take offense to it, or they may be insecure about their accent, but you never really know until you have insight on the person,by asking them yourself or being careful with what you say.
”When people make comments on my accent, it makes me feel like I’m in the wrong in saying something, or either I’m misunderstood when talking,” said Stutts. “When I said water differently than they did, it made me feel like I didn’t fit in with the others.”
On the other hand, you have people who think their accent makes them different in a good way and find that it is a compliment when people point out their accents. It could be the highlight of their day, to have something someone finds interest in and talk about with them.
“Sometimes when I would talk to people, they would find interest in where I am from,” said senior Erika Pagnin. “When I told them I was from Venice, Italy, they would tell me about their travels there. Also I feel that my accent makes me unique and different, especially when moving to a new place, and some people automatically realize that my accent is different than theirs.”
Finding a way to improve your confidence in your accent when you’re not too confident about it can help you when trying to accept yourself and your accent. You can surround yourself with people who have trouble with the same thing and find ways to help each other out, or you can learn to accept yourself for who you are and not care what other people think.
“I have learned over time, from a young age even to now, the best thing to do is to be yourself,” said dean of students Michelle Perry. “Just because you may sound different, doesn’t mean that you are extremely different in any other way to other people, so you don’t need to be fake.”
