Your Accent is Your Asset

It was frustrating when I was told that I had an accent when speaking Taiwanese! “Nobody could understand you when you speak Taiwanese, said one of my newly acquainted music teachers while we rehearsed a musical show in June. “That’s unfair,” I thought, “I grew up with Taiwanese kids at the elementary school.” Just because I look like a second-generation mainlander, doesn’t mean I couldn’t speak Taiwanese well.

In August, I joined the Shakespeare show produced by Red Room Radio Redux for Taipei Fringe Festival, I was corrected with my English pronunciation again and again. I didn’t get frustrated. I considered it a good opportunity to learn with others’ ears.

Everybody speaks with an accent. Our accent speaks volumes of who we are. Honestly speaking, I tend to shut my ears when a foreigner speaks Mandarin with a strong accent, because the accent gives a disadvantage of doubt.

How to convert our Accent into our asset, when we open our mouth with a foreign accent, everyone wakes up to listen to me, is something worth learning!