<div dir="ltr">Actually you can lose abilities with your native language, especially if language retraining takes place at a young age. I grew up a native spanish speaker, and was forced into "speech classes" for more than 5 years to lose my native accent. To this day I can no longer speak spanish with as much physical fluidity as before I lost my accent, and because of the fact that letters are pronounced different from english to spanish, i often now have to think about how to speak spanish so i don't end up mispronouncing words. Particularly in hispanic communities, accent erasure is considered to be colonial and yet another form of white dominance in america to do with the racialization of language (despite the fact that many hispanic and latino people have been here since this WAS mexico). I cannot speak for other cultures, but I know that in many latino and hispanic cultures accent erasure is now frowned upon as disconnecting more of the threads to one's native culture in favor of the white american dominant culture (particularly those hispanics like myself who are many generations american, going back to the 1700s.) and there is a movement to stop the practice of having latino native spanish speakers work on reducing or losing their accent.<div>
<br></div><div>This is something to keep in mind especially with the current situation re: gentrifying natives out of the mission, and the current hostility to hispanic immigrants in this country. This is also part of the current identity and racism in tech issue that is going on in the Valley, particularly relating to Paul Graham's xenophobic comments about CEOs with accents:</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://valleywag.gawker.com/dear-paul-graham-your-priorities-are-so-far-out-of-wha-1228175284">http://valleywag.gawker.com/dear-paul-graham-your-priorities-are-so-far-out-of-wha-1228175284</a> <br>
<div><br></div><div><a href="http://latinaish.com/2012/01/23/erase-or-embrace-the-accent/">http://latinaish.com/2012/01/23/erase-or-embrace-the-accent/</a><br></div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://chicanvern.blogspot.com/p/assimilation-denial-of-cultural.html">http://chicanvern.blogspot.com/p/assimilation-denial-of-cultural.html</a><br>
</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.uccnrs.ucsb.edu/sites/www.uccnrs.ucsb.edu/files/publications/WhatLanguageAreYou_Final.pdf">http://www.uccnrs.ucsb.edu/sites/www.uccnrs.ucsb.edu/files/publications/WhatLanguageAreYou_Final.pdf</a><br>
</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2012/05/21/born-in-us-but-speaking-with-accent/">http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2012/05/21/born-in-us-but-speaking-with-accent/</a><br>
</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.lib.muohio.edu/multifacet/record/mu3ugb2625587">http://www.lib.muohio.edu/multifacet/record/mu3ugb2625587</a><br></div><div><br></div><div>This is something we all need to think about, especially in this day of interconnected internet gossip and communities organizing online against things they feel threatens their culture. It would suck to show up on Valleywag as "NOISEBRIDGE TELLS FOREIGN SPEAKERS TO LEARN ENGLISH" and considering the climate of the valley and the mission at this time that is certainly something that could happen.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>-hep </div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 7:57 AM, C. Honnet <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cedric@honnet.eu" target="_blank">cedric@honnet.eu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><p dir="ltr">Haha, we can't lose it most of the time so no problem for that (at least I know I'm stuck with mine) but it's sometimes really tiring to not even be understood because of our pronunciation...<br>
...and it's good to be able to hide it in hostile environments, this workshop can save lives!<br>
lol ;p<br>
</p><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 15, 2014 9:51 AM, "Gregory Dillon" <<a href="mailto:gregorydillon@gmail.com" target="_blank">gregorydillon@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Understanding has to be important, but I just want to chime in that I like hearing foreign speaker's accents. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">
<br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"> </div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 7:22 AM, C. Honnet <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cedric@honnet.eu" target="_blank">cedric@honnet.eu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><p dir="ltr">Artur,<br>
You rock.<br>
This is a really excellent idea!!!<br>
Thanks a lot ;)<br>
Cedric.<br></p><div><div>
<p dir="ltr">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: Artur Moczulski <<a href="mailto:artur.moczulski@gmail.com" target="_blank">artur.moczulski@gmail.com</a>><br>
To: NoiseBridge Discuss <<a href="mailto:noisebridge-discuss@lists.noisebridge.net" target="_blank">noisebridge-discuss@lists.noisebridge.net</a>><br>
Cc: <br>
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2014 19:07:47 -0800<br>
Subject: [Noisebridge-discuss] Accent Workshop Class for Non-native Speakers</p>
<p dir="ltr">Hey Noisbridge Members,</p>
<p dir="ltr">I would like to organize an accent and pronunciation workshop for non-native speakers at Noisebridge. I am aiming for a 2 hour slot on Saturday at noon. I would like to use one of the classrooms for this.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I would like to promote the workshop by various "social" websites including <a href="http://meetup.com" target="_blank">meetup.com</a> and any other way that will help me build the core group.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Is there anything I should know about organizing events at Noisebridge, outside of what is included here: <a href="https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Hosting_an_Event" target="_blank">https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Hosting_an_Event</a> ? Do you have any tips on how to book the classroom for this?</p>
<p dir="ltr">Best regards,<br>
Artur Moczulski</p>
<p dir="ltr">"Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later."<br>
<a href="tel:%2B1%20%28563%29%20321%20-%203382" value="+15633213382" target="_blank">+1 (563) 321 - 3382</a><br>
<a href="http://about.me/amoczulski" target="_blank">about.me/amoczulski</a></p>
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