Last week, Sunak, who was just 42 years old, beat out a rival to become Britain's first Indian prime minister.
As soon as the news came out, I, like many people, wondered how an unknown Indian from ordinary origin climbed from parliamentarian to prime minister in just seven years.
But when I saw the video of him speaking and listened to him, I knew that Sunak was by no means "from an ordinary background."
Because, accent is a person's label.
On October 24, 2022 local time, Rishi Sunak was announced as elected
First, the accent is really that important?
When evaluating a person's image, many people will say the other party's jewelry, clothing, makeup and hair, etc., but they often ignore one element - accent.
But in fact, the accent represents a person's identity, family, educational background, social status, and so on.
If the world is the most paranoid about accents, and can be the same for hundreds of years, I am afraid that only the British are the British.
The playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote in the preface to La Traviata, "When an Englishman speaks, he arouses the envy or contempt of another Englishman." ”
For hundreds of years, the British accent contempt chain has not disappeared, but has intensified.
According to a nationwide survey, more than 80% of British adults pay close attention to the "tone of voice" they speak, comparing it to the social status marked by "dressing".
It is said that the realization of class crossing depends on education, marriage on the other, and luck on the other, and the most reliable of these is probably education.
And from Sunak's accent, it can be seen that his educational background is extraordinary.
Although he was born into a family of Indian immigrants, his parents attached great importance to education, sending him to Winchester, one of the seven public schools in England. He then went on to study politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University.
Many people think that the London sound is standard English, but in fact, the London sound originated in the East End of London and is usually regarded as a working-class language.
RP (Received Pronunciation) is the real standard English, originating from the Oxford area, so it is also called "Oxford accent".
But RP really can't be considered British Mandarin, because it's not ordinary at all.
Apart from the BBC announcers, the only people who really speak RP are the royals and people like Sunak who grew up in private boarding schools.
Among them, the RP spoken by the royal family is also called "Queen's Accent", which is also "queen's accent", and her standard RP English can be enjoyed in the queen's annual Christmas speech.
Just listen to the RP accent, don't try to imitate it.
Because its pronunciation is so exaggerated, and this exaggerated pronunciation is originally intended as a "noble sound" to distinguish a small group of upper-class people from the rest.
Ordinary people will feel "posturing" if they use this tone every day, but a political figure like Sunak is just right.
If even the Queen's accent can be changed, why can't you?
Accents are not born, as the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu says in Language and Symbolism:
"Differences in accents are themselves a product of social hierarchies and divisions."
Saying that a person's accent is "good" and "bad" is not based on linguistic standards, but on social standards.
The stereotypes and regional discrimination brought about by "accents" do not only appear in the spring evening, but in any place where there are people.
Because from ancient times to the present, people naturally pursue a "sense of superiority", and they cannot go without a chain of contempt.
Even in Beijing, the South and North cities, the accents in the city and the suburbs have a chain of contempt.
Outsiders always think that Beijingers are not authentic Beijingers if their mouths are not a mouthful of "Beijing films", but for a child who grew up in a Beijing compound, that kind of "Beijing accent" only belongs to "hutong skewers".
Because accents are status symbols, when the location changes, the preference for accents changes.
Some linguists specifically picked up the video of Beckham's speech and found that some of the indigenous pronunciations used by the working class in southeast England and East London began to fame began to disappear.
When society's values tilt toward economic power and status, accents inevitably become tools of upward high society kitsch.
It is obvious in the entertainment industry that first-class stars usually speak standard Mandarin.
Second- and third-rate celebrities still pretend to have a slightly big tongue, a loud Hong Kong and Taiwan accent, and every time I watch it, I hate to help them smooth their tongues.
And people like Faye Wong, Na Ying and the like are themselves top-notch, so they love whoever they love regardless of whether they are Beijing accents or northeast ballast.
In politics, accent change has become an important means of breaking away from existing circles and moving closer to certain strata.
Margaret Thatcher gradually rose to prominence in British politics through her own efforts, but her Lincolnshire accent was often attacked relentlessly.
Some political commentators dismissed her as "a cat sliding off the blackboard."
At the time, Margaret Thatcher was over fifty years old and had to hire a professional pronunciation coach to correct her "thoroughly" correct the tone. In the end, her charismatic "language image" won the favor of more voters.
Former British Prime Minister David Cameron also had to change his accent, but he changed in the opposite direction to Margaret Thatcher.
Cameron studied at the prestigious Eton College and Oxford University and spoke with an upbeat accent from an early age. But in order to appear more accessible, he began to imitate various lower-class accents and vernacular languages.
Not to mention the Prime Minister, someone studied Queen Elizabeth II's annual Christmas speech and found that from the 50s to the 80s she used a typical British royal accent.
Then, in the later period, her speech changed slightly, and the vowel /ae/ became closer and closer to [a]—the former being a noble aristocratic usage, the latter biased towards commoners.
So, if you always find your accent hard to change, ask yourself, "If even the queen can change, why can't I?" ”
Third, don't let the flaws in the accent affect your confident expression
Although the workplace is not as class-oriented as politics, studies have shown that accents affect people's sense of trust.
People rarely can't understand what you're trying to say because of your accent, but they often feel like you're not "together" with them because of your "foreign accent" or "foreign accent."
This strangeness often undermines the sense of trust between each other.
Although this is only an unconscious attitude, it is this subconscious that really influences people's judgment and decision-making.
Interestingly, many people don't care whether they speak English well or not, when they talk about the Indian English accent, they must have a look of contempt and don't know where the sense of superiority comes from.
This inexplicable sense of superiority, and vice versa.
Once I was sitting in a taxi with an Indian colleague who was on a business trip to Beijing, and he looked outside and said: China's development is really good, it is about to catch up with India.
I almost didn't drop my jaw when I listened, dude, I've been to India, are we talking about an India?
This mutual contempt actually reflects the confrontation and competition between the two groups of people in strength and status.
On the one hand, the Chinese of foreign companies feel unconvinced, obviously they have done more work than you, but the words have all been told by you.
But on the other hand, I have to admit that Indians do mix better than Chinese in multinational companies, including Silicon Valley.
There is another question that many Chinese colleagues are puzzled by: Why is it that foreigners can understand the "curry" English of Indians without any difficulty if they also speak English with an accent?
This is because accents are only part of the language barrier, in addition to grammar.
After all, Indians have learned English since childhood, and their grammar is more accurate. But I think that's not the most important thing, it's more important that they have the confidence to express.
I don't know if you remember the incident of Zhao Liying being ridiculed by the group when she said English before——
In the video, Zhao Liying's English pronunciation has a big problem: a sentence "what would you do for love" is pronounced with a thick accent as "Oh Oh lose belly Buddha spicy black".
After the video was ridiculed by the group, the brand immediately deleted the video and deleted Zhao Liying's name in the latest follow-up activities.
But I think Zhao Liying's English accent is secondary, compared to her and Yang Ying's demeanor when speaking English, I think she loses more in self-confidence.
She was originally very good, she seemed nervous, her eyes were wandering and unsteady, with a little hesitation; Although Yang Ying also has some "Chinese pronunciation", her posture is relaxed and her eyes are confident and casual;
Language was invented to communicate, don't let accent flaws hinder your confidence in expression.
As long as you don't feel embarrassed, it's not you who are embarrassed!
Write at the end
When I first came to the United States to study more than 20 years ago, I listened to an Indian professor talk about strategy for the first time and an Israeli professor talk about statistics.
My classmate was a boy from Venezuela, and every time he said "Focus," he sounded like "Fucus," as if he was cursing.
But slowly I learned to adapt to different accents, and it was in such an international melting pot that everyone learned about each other's countries and cultures through each other's accents.
I have also developed an amazing ability to understand English with a wide variety of accents.
Later, at work, I had to work with people from all over the world, and this skill came in handy!
Now every student asks me, "Teacher, how can I understand English with an Indian accent?" ”
My answer is – eat more at Indian restaurants. Understanding a country's culture starts with gastronomy.
You need to be curious about other people's language and culture.
When we have less self-talk superiority, more curiosity and tolerance, communication with each other will be smoother, and the world will become a better place.