By Maxine February
“You stick out like a sore thumb”- these are the words that remained with me as I sat down to discuss the ways that accents play a role in what we have access to and how the difference in ethnicity plays a role in the practice of ‘code-switching’.
Working psychologist, Rachel (32), states that “people get boxed as a specific ‘thing’ depending on how they speak and they continuously get checked about how they’re speaking and how they should speak instead”. The majority of people change accents depending on what type of environment they are in, for instance; formal, social, private, etc. We are not even aware of the type of power that continues to be influenced and encouraged because of our natural instinct to ‘conform to the norm’. Once we achieve speaking in what is said to be a predominantly ‘white-English accent’, we are only then entitled to opportunities that allow us financial and social gain.
Because Cape Town is so racially diverse and known to be described as part of the Rainbow Nation, this automatically discourages those whose accent does not fit into this discourse. Often, this happens to be people of colour who are then labelled as ‘not being educated enough’, and depending on your identifying culture you are then boxed as being ‘a typical Cape coloured who lives in Hanover Park’, ‘a black with no common sense’, or even ‘just White-trash’.
While these types of stereotypes are not physically said out aloud (in most cases), the fact of the matter is that they are prevalent in our society and so this poses a question of how can we represent ourselves as being ‘The Rainbow Nation’, that is having diversity in race, religion, ethnicity and language, but only accept a certain categorization of this? The gist of this is that if you speak a certain way, you are instantly seen as being more educated, living in an upper-class neighbourhood, driving a fancy car or in the case where you are young; you are then headed for this. Isn’t it crazy that we live in a society where the way we speak, determines who we are and who we will turn out to be?
On the other hand, “you pick up accents and slang depending on the majority (race-wise) of where you are”, this brings in the aspect of ‘intimidation’ and ‘dominance’. We also tend to adjust the way we speak depending on who the majority are of who we are surrounded by, and we do this subconsciously for accommodation and comfortability. Rachel says, “you find that the workplace is often just like the school environment, where there are instances of people pulling together in a racial sense but also in language and this is due to comfort and familiarity”.
There is always a curiosity to know stories and experiences of different cultures but deeper connections are only formed when there is a strong and obvious commonality.
What we all strive for in life is growth and development but as human beings, we find it difficult to change and we like and respond to things that are familiar to us and what we find relatable.
The majority often think that who we are as people, gets formed through the teenage and adolescent phase of our life and determines who exactly we turn out to be as adults. What we don’t realize is that; who we are is shaped by what and who we are mainly surrounded by. In a diverse city like Cape Town, there are many different languages which we are exposed to and that actually play an important role in shaping our identities. So then, why is it that we are trained and told to speak in a specific way? A way in which we ‘need’ to alter our accent and our manner of articulation, and once we do this only then are we on the route to success in getting ‘proper’ jobs and being socially accepted.
It will be a long time for the people of Cape Town to address and acknowledge that the ways we are trained and disciplined to adopt a certain accent and dialect opens us up to greater opportunities & achievements. It is important to show how the labels attached to individuals and the boxes which people are placed into, does in fact not determine who you are. Being a ‘proudly’ diverse society means accepting vast differences, and so when it comes to the ways of speaking, this means accepting and being inclusive to the vast difference in accents, dialects & languages.
* (name concealed to protect the identity of the interviewee and her clients)