“You Speak Excellent English!”
Posted by spillay on May 15, 2008
Somebody said this to me the other day. “You speak excellent English!”. The comment took me by surprise. It took me a a few moments to let those words sink in. My silence must have made Tracy feel a little awkward, so she went on to ask me “How long have you been in Australia?”.
At the time, Tracy and I were sitting on the side bench, watching our children have their swimming class. We have only known each other for maybe about 6-7 weeks now. As the weeks passed, our conversations had gotten friendlier (of course), and I guess, it had reached a point where she was comfortable to comment on what must have been on her mind for some time now.
I told her that I had been in living in Australia for the past 10 years. I also added that the first time I stepped foot into this country was even further back in time - as a 19 year old starting university in the beautiful city of Perth, Western Australia (for three glorious years!) Tracy seemed happy with the answer. But I was not. My mind was reeling - Silly girl! Your response made it sound like you only started speaking English when you landed in Australia!, I scolded myself silently. So, I had to add a bit more. I went on to tell Tracy that I had been speaking English ALL MY LIFE. In fact, I had to shamefully admit to her (as I am now confessing to all of you reading this), that I only spoke English at home when I was growing up. I could not and still cannot speak Tamil which is my mother tongue. (Shame!). This response did surprise her a bit! She then asked in what language I spoke in to my boys at home. English, of course, I replied. Tracy looked fascinated.
This whole week, I had been replaying this event again and again in my mind. Questions after questions keep popping up - Do the general population expect immigrants not to speak good English? What else is the ‘general’ assumption? Would Tracy be suprised to know that my family eats more pasta and oven baked food than curry and rice at home? Will she be shocked if she knew that we had a 5 burner BBQ on the backyard deck? And that any chance we get, we go on farm holidays?
I thought, the only way I was going to understand this is if I reversed the situation. So, I imagined myself to be still living in Malaysia (and speaking fluent Tamil!) I imagined meeting Tracy in Malaysia, and having a conversation with her in Tamil. I tried to imagine Tracy telling me that she has spoken Tamil all her life, even as she was growing up in Australia. But it was hard!! Somehow, I could not convince myself that, this could ever happen!!
I guess I know now that we all probably judge and make presumptions about each other too quickly. Generalising and sterotyping should not be the ‘way to go’. I have learnt my lesson and I am glad that I have made a small change in one other person’s mind about “people from other countries”. In fact, I am hoping that I can go on making this (little) change in more people :) .
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[For the record, I can understand Tamil when my parents speak it to each other (most of the time), but I cannot understand the language when I hear it in a movie or when it is spoken by anyone else]. (I know - NOT ACCEPTABLE!)
May 16, 2008 at 12:33 am
Very nice post SP! I have had similar thoughts many times. Growing up though technically we did not speak English at home, it was THE mode of communication outside. At school, college and later in a different state. The accent varies but the basic language remains the same. I am usually puzzled when am told I speak good English. My first thought would be “Why would I not?” Then I would wonder if I should be graceful about what obviously is intended as a compliment. Usually I end up nodding my head and saying “Thank you!”.
On very rare occasions I get probing questions about how I learned to speak “good” English. Then I go into the multicultural chaos that is India and how though Hindi is touted as the national language, it is English that binds the country like no other.
May 16, 2008 at 12:56 am
Lol I don’t know why we generalise it gets to me as well but as you know… I tend to answer in a strange way
You mean you speak english??? I will send a lion from Africa soon it just doesn’t want to come out of its cage at the moment!
Out of interest has Tracey ever lived in another country other than Oz?
May 16, 2008 at 1:39 am
very fascinating!and I relate to it personally. I grew up speaking malayalam,studied in malayalam medium till grade 10(as languages, Eng started in grade 4 and hindi in grade 5)went on to English medium of study in grade 11 and 12 and Engineering. did pretty well in studies through out meaning to say I did well in languages too. Then I moved to Northern India( 1st migration- for a job) Hindi is predominant. keep in mind, Learning a language is difft than using it as sole medium of communication. I should admit that I was not comfortable in flawless spoken English ( i never had training on my diction). In northern india, if you don’t know you are considered pretty much ‘no good’ no matter how good you are in your technical job.I picked up both spoken Hindi and english there. Then when I worked in singapore, people would start talking to me in Tamil and wondered how can I be an Indian , not knowing Tamil. When I moved to canada(2nd migration), they wondered how can I speak good English. When I go to some of the Indian stores( run by punjabis), they talk to me in Punjabi( because of the smilarity with hindi, i respond to them in Hindi).
No wonder I found this post very fascinating!.
spillay, sorry for the long comment
goonite
shy
May 16, 2008 at 2:14 am
I totally know what you mean. I get it here all the time too. And because I speak “good English”, here in the U.S., they think it is an English accent (as in from England). They can’t identify any accent except their own. So we find it pretty funny. I guess to most, good English is just speaking in full proper sentences, regardless of the accent.
You make me feel a little better about my tamil - I can speak tamil to survive and understand it almost fully (yes, even in movies - I think I’ve watched enough) AND I can write and read it as that was my 2nd language until I was 12 (which is when we moved to New Zealand).
I think, even I, do judge other immigrants, assuming - that’s our problem I think - always assuming and never asking. You’re right, we must do less of that - and get to know more
Nice post!
May 16, 2008 at 3:40 am
This is very thought provoking. I had to sit and think for a second before I answered. I’m not sure Tracy meant to hurt your feelings. On the Internet, we can’t see each other so we don’t make generalizations. We don’t hear “accents” or see “differences.” That is what makes us closer I feel. We are all one. I know that sounds corny but I think, for me, it makes us humans.
I live in Minnesota, USA. I do disagree with Bavani to a certain degree because we talk and have different accents all over this country. I get teased all the time for saying “ya, you becha!” Depending on what part of the country we come from, we all have different accents and different customs. We eat different things. Have different chains of stores. People in the south, west, east and north, all have differences all within our own country. I would assume that all countries are the same. Different strokes for different folks, or so the saying goes.
I feel it’s more of a judging or assuming issue. Ignorance maybe to the degree that we don’t “know” about each other’s customs and just the way they do things. People see that you “look” different but I’m not sure they mean anything bad by it. I love coming to your blog BECAUSE of the differences and I like hearing and reading about those differences. I find “all the same” to be boring.
Thank you for making me think this morning.
May 16, 2008 at 11:05 am
@ Laksh: I know what you mean about being puzzled about this compliment - it is a differnet story if it (the compliment) was intended for a language that learnt/picked up as a hobby.
@ SanityFound: Ha! Ha! Yes - I can imagine most people thinking of Africa as a wide safari with wild animals ONLY! To answer your question, I have never asked if Tracy has lived in another country. Most people I meet have not. But, that may not make a difference you know. I think it is general human tendency to want to “place everything and everyone in grid”. I do it all the time too,…. something I would like to slowly challenge.
@ Shy: Please don’t apologise for leaving a long comment. I love it!! That is the other things that facinates me - In India (and many other countries as well), there are so many different languages within that country itself!! Only this year, I learnt from an Indian friend that there are different versions of just Hindi itself!! So just like you described, moving from one part of India to another itself there can be language issues. (See - I didn’t know this!!!)
@ Bavani: Although I have never been to the US, from what (I think) I know, I tend to agree with Joy; that is there are different accents in America itself. The most obvious one is of course the Texas accent. Same with the UK - different areas, different accents (Now, who hasn’t heard of the Cockney English from East-End of London
) The only other language I can read, write and speak is Malay, of course. And, I also learnt how to read and write in Jawi (Arabic alphabets) in my primary school days…. Brings back some fond memories…
@ Joy: Oh gosh.. NO - I know that Tracy didn’t mean to hurt my feelings at all! In fact, my feelings weren’t hurt with this situation. It just made me think that I might have been ignorant by assuming that what was “everyday” for me, is actually “unusual” for someone else. (BTW, I HAVE been ignorant in this aspect! I know this now). I love how you say that in cyber space - we are all the same! I agree with you 100%!
May 16, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I must apologise to Joy - no offense was intended. And to be fair, most of my experience has only been here in Boise with the Boise folks so that’s true, I can’t say what it would be like in other parts of the country.
May 16, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Oh Bavani, I hesitated to even say that so please, no offense was taken. It’s just that I know so many people from all over the USA and we all talk differently. I get teased a LOT for my MN accent. Did you see the movie Fargo?? I’ve been the brunt of a lot of jokes over that stupid movie!!!.. and I can take it but I just wanted point that out. Thank you for going to the extreme you did to apologize to me. It means a great deal to me. Please come to my blog anytime.
May 16, 2008 at 1:35 pm
See how easy it is to get along??? We should all run for some kind of office!! Just kidding. I’m happy to have friends from all over. I feel in our hearts, we’re all the same. Just humans, people.
May 16, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I am still living in Malaysia and I get this comment all the time when I attend meetings with my American counterparts.
Partly, because not everyone in Malaysia speak good English. It really depends on which part of the country you come from.
If you are from the city then yes the medium of communication would be English, be it at home or at school.
But it is not true for those who come from smaller towns, most of the time they communicate using their mother tongue. Speaking in English doesn’t come naturally, and the only reason they speak in English is because they have to in order to make a living.
It is very common for us to have participants from Israel, Ireland, China, India, Malaysia & US in one meeting (tele conference), we all speak “different kinds of English” (I think you get my point), we are so used to it that we don’t even realize we are different anymore! In fact, people on the call have starting using our famous “lah” too!
May 16, 2008 at 3:20 pm
@ Joy and Bavani : You both made me smile with all that
….
@ Kavi: Exactly my point - never presume anything
. I love how the “lah” syndrome has taken over the world. Even J and V sometimes try to be funny with the “lahs” (They picked it up when they visited their cousins in KL last year. At the time, they couldn’t understand what it was all about.) Don’t be suprised if they put on a show for you when you visit us next week 
May 17, 2008 at 1:08 am
I’ve heard this comment before…and then they start “but you speak SUCH good english…..you have NO Indian accent at ALL” *gush Gush*
my thoughts: “&^%F#@@” BUT I just smile and Pray for them.
People will generalize, no matter where/who you are. The only thing we can do is NOT do it ourselves.
Have a lovely weekend my dear.
May 17, 2008 at 11:09 am
@ Trupti: I’m taking your advice - Will try not to generalize……
. You have a good weekend too 
May 17, 2008 at 11:58 pm
A very good post Spillay. Even I have had similar experiences. If I tell them that english was the medium of learning in school, they would ask what about your native language? That’s a very thought provoking question. My mother tongue is Telugu, but I was born and raised in Tamil Nadu, so I know to read and write Tamil only. I don’t even know a single letter in Telugu, nor do I speak proper Andhra Telugu. Now I don’t know if I should feel proud for being able to speak, read and write a foreign language, or feel ashamed for not knowing my own mother tongue.
I have something for you in my blog. Check it out. Have a great weekend.
May 18, 2008 at 10:50 am
@ Madhuram: Thank you so much for the award!! It means so much to me
Re mother tongue - I guess we have to look at it as being the result/outcome of our own unique upbringing, and not compare our situation to anyone else’s. If we did, that would only mean that we are judgemental on ourselves. I try to remind myself about this too - very, very often 