Issue 03: Excuse my French, but...
On escaping accent prejudice
"Dad, we're in public. Why are you speaking in Hindi?"
"If you speak Arabic at the airport..."
"Can you wait until we get home to make the international call?"
"Yo—if you're going to talk in another language, whisper."
“This is a country where we speak English, not Spanish.”
I grew up, like many immigrants I know, ashamed of my loud-mouthed Indian family and the native tongue(s) I never quite perfected enough to keep my grandparents satisfied. I remember my non-foreign friends (and my fellow South Asians, actually) mocking the thicker accents of uncles and aunties and, indirectly, my own dad. It'd start with giggles, then caricatured imitations. I remember learning to react similarly at a very young age. When I'd watch TV with my folks, similar caricatures made an appearance on the silver screen. I remember laughing at age 10. I don't remember my dad laughing on the couch beside me.
Though I was technically born in India, my parents and I left for Saudi Arabia when I was very young. That's where I learned to speak American English at an American school eight hours north of the holy city of Mecca. After many years of AP classes, my Spanish isn't so bad, either.
These days, after working with Spanish-speaking staffers and serving Spanish-speaking patients for several years and, ok, maybe after visiting Spain for the first time—my parents are quickly taking up Spanish, too. In addition to learning "British" English growing up in Pakistan and India, my mom and dad are also quite fluent in Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati, Kutchi and in Arabic. I might even be missing a few dialects.
Yet somehow I was conditioned to believe my English-speaking skills, my English-only tongue and my "accent-less" identity made me somewhat better, more educated, more proper. And somehow my parents were conditioned to believe the same: that they were less—less educated (despite being doctors), lower-ranked, second-class. It seemed my dad, who carries the heaviest Indian accent in my family, bit his tongue into submission anytime an accent-less man spoke. The more "American" the man, the more powerful.
Having a strong accent, or speaking a native tongue aloud and in public, might signify a failure of assimilation for some. As if you as an immigrant didn't try hard enough to perfect what you should apparently learn to perfect. Even in my own South Asian community, I've heard plenty of folks refer to more eloquent English-speakers as more educated, smarter, better, more. And hey, it's not like the economics don't prove it, either. There is empirical evidence suggesting a positive association between English skills and earnings for immigrants.
Overall, English proficiency is "a primary social status variable for immigrants and their children because it is closely associated to socioeconomic factors (i.e., earning and employment status) and social interactions." (Am J Public Health. 2010 Mar; 100(3):563-9)
Limited proficiency—or speaking English with an accent—is also associated with a "foreigner" stereotype and can trigger discrimination.
How proficiency might relate to an immigrant's mental health:
Generally: Individuals with limited English proficiency worry they're being victimized or stigmatized as a result of their difficulties with language and communication or worry about interpersonal discomfort and embarrassment that could lead to social isolation and undermine self-worth (Health Soc Work. 2007 May; 32(2):119-27)
In Asian men: English proficiency is strongly associated with lifetime depressive, anxiety, and substance use disorders (AJP. 2017 May; 11(2): 3-5)
In Mexican American youth: Acculturation stress and English proficiency are significant mediators when it comes to high rates of social anxiety and loneliness (Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. 2009 April; 38(2):273-85)
In Spanish-Caribbean women: Spanish Caribbean women have higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders compared to women from English-speaking Caribbean (Am J Public Health. 2007 January; 97(1): 52–59)
Among Chinese-American youth: Low levels of English proficiency in middle school were related to speaking English with an accent in high school, which in turn, contributed to the perception of being stereotyped as a perpetual foreigner, discriminatory experiences, and depressive symptoms (Dev Psychol. 2011 Jan; 47(1):289-301)
Among Vietnamese immigrant and refugee women: English language proficiency as the sole predictor of somatic distress (Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development. 2011 Dec; 38(2))
And how proficiency may affect immigrant mental health care:
Generally: Limited language proficiency is closely associated with underutilization of psychiatric services (Psychiatric Services 2015 66:8, 798-805)
Among insured Latinos: Low English language proficiency is associated with worse reports of the quality of primary care (Med Care. 2007 Nov; 45(11): 1020–1025)
Among Latino and Asian Americans with mental disorders: Limited English proficiency contributes to longer duration of untreated disorders (Med Care. 2010 Dec;48(12):1097-104)
Among Asian Americans with schizophrenia: Limited English proficiency was associated with lower adherence to antipsychotic medication and excess prescription filling (Psychiatr Serv. 2010 Aug; 61(8): 765–773)
Without trained interpreters: Evaluation in a patient’s non-primary language can lead to incomplete or distorted mental status assessment (Psychiatr Serv. 2010 Aug; 61(8): 765–773)
With professional interpreters: In Switzerland, more asylum-seekers were referred for psychiatric care when professional interpreters were used or when language concordance was considered adequate by providers (Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 2002;36:499–503)
Note: Most studies targeted Latinos and Asian Americans as the racial/ethnic minority groups most likely to face English language difficulties. There is also a growing need for research on the effects of using professional interpreters in psychiatry.
OK. What next?
As the world becomes more globalized, it's important to realize cultural stigma as just one of immigrants' many barriers to mental health care. We need to keep an eye on both linguistic discrimination and a lack of multilingual interpreters in the medical environment as barriers, too.
Participating in research
There is still significant under-detection of depression and other mental illnesses among the less-acculturated ethnic/racial minorities. This makes it hard to pinpoint the magnitude of the problem and, in turn, results in little movement in actual healthcare or policy changes. Maybe you'll want to encourage your friends to participate in research. The National Alliance on Mental Illness may be one place to start. (If anyone hears of a new study opportunity, please send along!)
Addressing our own prejudices
Something I wish all immigrant parents would believe themselves and teach their children:
"We must make allowances and be understanding, of course, but at the same time we have to instill in our children that other languages and cultures are nothing to be ashamed of, on the contrary. Tell them that even though your English is not perfect, you have two languages at your command, and that other parents do not have this option and must do with only one language and one culture. Tell them that, in this day and age, the more communication tools we have, the better off we will be." - Mamiverse
I'm learning to challenge my own accent prejudices. And I hope to learn as many languages as I possibly can. It ain't easy—who knew?!
#Tunetime: The universal language of music
Cali Pachanguero - Grupo Niche (1984)
An ode to Cali, Colombia, "the capital of salsa"
Olive Tree - Chyi Yu (1979)
To the Taiwanese olive tree in my dream
Al Quds El Atiqa - Fairuz (1971)
A song for Old Jerusalem
In her 2017 essay for Blueprint titled, "Dear Mum: I’m sorry I used to be embarrassed by your accent," Sienna Hewavidana, an English daughter of Srilankan immigrants, talks about the shock of hearing her mom's thick accent as she spoke to her class. "Shrinking into myself, I prayed for her to stop talking... It took me a while to realise that what I was shushing was more than an accent. I was shushing my culture, rolling my eyes at my history, cringing at my origins. I shushed brownness in the fear that I would be tainted by it." Read here.
Comic Celeste Yim penned this fantastic essay for Vice addressing the mockery of Asian accents in the industry. As a Korean-Canadian herself, she needed to know "why people who know better still laugh." Read here.
Voice actor Arthur Chu (also a former Jeopardy! contestant) wrote for NPR's Code Switch about the strangeness of speaking roles that demanded a "Chinese accent" despite his meticulously correct English grammar and enunciations. "To attack our language, our ability to sound 'normal,' is to attack our ability to be normal. It's to attack everything we've worked for. And make no mistake about it — to sound like a 'normal' American is to wield privilege." Read here.
In this lovely Complex essay titled "Why I'm No Longer Ashamed To Be The Daughter of Refugees," Sahra Vang Nguyen grapples with the resentment she had for her Vietnamese parents—and their accents—growing up in America. "Now, the source of my pride always goes back to one thing: I am the daughter of Vietnamese refugees." Read here.
Jamaican-American Kasheda Daum wrote this gorgeous love letter to her "superwoman" mom in PopSugar last year, and it really hit home. "Her patois accent, thick on the tongue like molasses, kept her almost mute during her first three months here, as she was skeptical of the English vernacular and of also being misunderstood... [I want] to squeeze my mom's hand in hopes of taking away any indignation that she perceived." Read here.
Interested in helping fact-check this newsletter? I could use the help! Send me a note: fiza.pirani@gmail.com.
Foreign Bodies is a monthly e-mail newsletter dedicated to the unique experiences of immigrants and refugees as they relate to coping with mental illness and wellness. It’s written and curated by Atlanta-based writer Fiza Pirani with copyediting and fact-checking help from New Jersey-based independent journalist Hanaa’ Tameez. Want to contribute your time or share your own #ForeignBodies story? Send an email to 4nbodies@gmail.com or say hi on Twitter @4nbodies. Special shout-out to Carter Fellow and friend Rory Linnane for the adorable animated logo!
If you're thinking about suicide or worried about someone who might be, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text 741741 to connect to a crisis counselor. You can also find a wealth of culture- or language-specific recommended resources on our site, foreignbodies.net.
