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Embarrassed when people laugh at your accent?


SpringBreeze

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Do you get embarrassed when people laugh at your accent when trying to speak their native language? This used to happen to me a lot when I was younger. At one point I even stopped studying foreign languages. I was so intimidated, especially when I had to get up in front of a class of natives and speak in their language.

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I've been laughed at many time for the way I pronounce things even in English since I have a Boston accent so to me it's nothing.  When it's another language though I do my best to not let my accent get in the way and do extra practicing and listening to make it sound a bit better.  But I mean you can't help your accent really, so there is nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about.

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Yeah, and I think that's super rude.  If someone was trying to speak my language and pronounced things in a funny way, there is no way I'd laugh at him/her for real.  I might do it the first time, but never continiously, that would be really rude.  Sadly my boyfriend is the type of person who does this; he laughs at me even if I type a word wrong. 

I haven't told him how much that annoys me yet, but if he continues doing that I'll have to be very clear with him.  After all he is still very immature, too immature for a 30 year old man if you ask me! But seriously, laughing at someone's accent a lot is plain rude and immature; don't do it people!  You might make that person feel bad or even lose his/her interest in the language.

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English is my second language and people i talked and conversed with know that English is not my native or mother tounge, so I am not really embarrased. I'd probably be embarassed if i speak English with a forced twang in it imitating American or British when in fact i am not.

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I don't think this ever happened to me, at least not that I'm aware - if someone was having a laugh at me, it has always been behind my back.

However, I must confess that I've been guilty of this. I try to hold myself together whenever possible in front of the person, as I don't mean to be disrespectful. But sometimes I have to ask to be excused, go around the corner and have a good laugh.

I feel a terrible person for it, but some accents are simply so culturally charged, and so weird associations come into your head (like remembering Allo Allo when hearing French or German people speak English), that you just can't help it.

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Yes, it's definitely a little embarrassing, but it's not like there's much you can do about it immediately. What's good about it, though, is that it's not entirely impossible to correct. Although, even if you do end up changing your accent, often, a little of the old one will linger on, which is good enough, I guess.

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Learning Korean language is not that easy especially their diction. Sometimes I am afraid to make a conversations with the people here for the reason that they will not understand my accent. So far I had not encountered Koreans laugh at my accent because every time I will start talking I will say to them my nationality so that they know. This is always what I do and when they knew that I am a foreigner they will  not anymore hesitate to ask me many things and will not bother anymore my accent.

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  • 6 months later...

Fortunate for me, I have never experienced being laughed at because of my accent. However, at my age,if I was ever in such situation I doubt that I would be easily embarrassed. I would also not let the negative experienced deter me from learning the language.

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Instead of laughing at me, my friends try to correct me <3

But when I catch people in class giggling at my accent, I do feel a bit embarrassed  :ninja:

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Getting laughed at is always embarrasing, no matter what the reason.

I don't think I've gotten laughed at for my english accent though, since I speak a fairly british type of english. I've had british people that said my accent wasn't completely british though, even if it had some british undertones, but that's about it. Most non-british people always thought I was british though.

I may have gotten laughed at, but I can't remember it.

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I think it's a bit rude to laugh at someone else's accent. I mean if it's understandable, I don't see why an accent should be laughed at. I haven't been laughed at for my accent but people have pointed it out politely. More like they ask me where I'm from because of the way I sound. When it's done that way, I don't get embarrassed. I understand that they're just curious. :)

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I have a good sense of humor, so if someone laughs of my accent or because I said something wrong most likely I will laugh along, considering that after they will teach me the correct way of saying it...  :pirate:

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