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Spare Us Your Fake Accents, Please! ‘You Bring Shame to Our Door Step’
By KAMPA SENKWE
BY MOST criteria, Zambians have a better, untraceable English accent than most fellow Africans.
Certainly better than most West and East Africans, whose English is redolent with their native accents. Better still than most other southern Africans.
As a result many Zambians have been asked on a visit to Great Britain where they learnt such good English.
However, there is great concern about those Zambians who speak with a phoney English or American accent. They bring embarrassment to our door.
These people impinge on the conscience of denizens among us who just can’t stand the cringe-worthy feeling of listening to someone who’s faking a British or American accent.
Not that I have anything against British and American accents, but surely I am not the only Zambian who find some Zambians’ obsession with speaking with a contrived accent, especially among our radio personnel, quite infuriating.
On Tuesday last week I sat in my room listening to an interview on one of our local radio stations that featured a named local hip hop artist.
I must confess that I writhed in torment and embarrassment at the phoney American accents from both the radio DJ and the artist he was interviewing.
Putting on an accent for music is understandable. It’s entertainment. But to use a fake accent for an interview and in a general conversation is a big NO!
Throughout the interview I kept asking myself, ‘can’t these gentlemen hear themselves speak? Can’t they realise it makes them sound so silly? Do they talk like that to their family members at the dinner table?’
Now, I understand that with speaking a language also comes learning the correct pronunciations.
I really appreciate it when somebody really does their best to sound more natural when speaking that language.
I also understand it’s quite natural for a teenage Zambian growing up in Diaspora to slur towards their host nation’s native accent.
And it is understandable for those who are around a certain accent or language for a long enough time to have some of it rubbing off on them.
Some people pick up the subtle intonations and inflections of another language and insert them into their own native tongue without even thinking about it.
However, for an individual to make a conscious decision to use a phoney American or British accent when they’ve never spent sufficient time at the crucial part of their lives in Britain or America is not only ridiculous but embarrassing. It’s pretty silly.
Why should someone visit Liverpool for three weeks and come back with a Scouse
accent?
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who I want to believe need no introduction, is a great example that one doesn’t lose an accent that they have had all their life just by moving somewhere else. Regardless of living in Hollywood for over four decades and playing several
American action heroes, he still maintains his thick Austrian accent.
Jean Claude Van Damme also sports his natural Belgian accent even in movies where it’s not particularly appropriate for the character.
Perhaps I shouldn’t even have gone as far as Austria or Belgium to give an example. Last Monday morning I listened to Radio 4 DJ Jack ‘The Hot Stepper’ Mwale who had a telephone interview with Zamrock ‘godfather’ Rikki Ililonga.
Despite living in Diaspora for so many years the veteran musician, who I should mention is currently in Zambia, did not speak with a contrived accent.
Another example I can give is former minister of Finance Ng’andu Magande, who has a vast
international exposure but still maintains his heavy native accent.
Some might even argue that it really doesn’t matter what accent you speak with.
But what is wrong in speaking with a Zambian accent, anyway? Is it embarrassing to speak with your native accent?
Honestly, why should someone who hasn’t gone beyond the borders of our country pronounce local names like a muzungu? Isn’t that a case of inferiority complex?
Why not be proud of who we are and act as such? Do we have to copy everything from the west and despise anything that is ours?
Ladies and gentlemen, a fake accent won’t get you a job or make you look superior. Drop that fake accent and stick with how you are born to sound.
After all, nobody likes a fake, except another fake.
Posted by Editor
on August 27, 2013. Filed under LIFE & STYLE, STYLE.
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chichi
August 27, 2013 at 6:34 am
Well spoken,its really disgusting listening to some bam faking an accent, one of the worst being mark 2 or whatever he calls himself.That guy is the worst not that his English is not good no! But the fake accent plus his funny face awe mwandi!!
Kalulu
August 27, 2013 at 7:59 pm
lol I would love to hear this Mark 2, I have no idea who the dude is honestly
fake
August 27, 2013 at 7:06 am
Kekekekekekikikihaha,lol,haters.mami ani iya kukwelera.iyi te boom kuti wanwa ba doom.
Me
August 27, 2013 at 7:38 am
As long as you can understand somebody, what’s wrong with using an accent? I reckon your problem with accents is deeper than just being irritated by listening to them.
jabs
August 27, 2013 at 8:08 am
Freedom of speech. I am Lozi with a very shallow knowledge about Nyanja. Everytime I open my mouth to utter a few nyanja words, everybody goes like, eiish, he is Lozi. So, if I tried to speak correctly like the Ngonis of Lusaka do, what wrong would there be in my doing so? This guy, has himself gat an inferiority complex. A deeper one at that.
ba pettie
August 27, 2013 at 8:39 am
Bravo ba author,
I develop goose pimples every time I listen to idiots who want to sound like bazungu.Let us Be Real.
Get A Life
August 27, 2013 at 8:44 am
Each for themselves. You should have put the OFF button to use.
swine
August 27, 2013 at 11:50 am
I guess YOU need to get a life…kuichusha fye, mfyo mfyo mfyo pa last nama tobo akalipa muku faking’a accent!…be real, plain simple!
english
August 27, 2013 at 8:47 am
A white man who can’t speak with our local accent correctly sounds pathetic. But one who can pronounce with our local accent correctly is amazing.what do you think?
atishani
August 27, 2013 at 10:48 am
the author has rightly put it mr english. when that your white man goes back to his country, he doesnt speak in your lang but his native one and does not act up
ati bwa
August 27, 2013 at 9:16 am
The writer has a problem, this is a free country, why should you control people on how they should talk.if you are jelous because someone is gifted you do not even know their background. If you cant stand their accents switch stations or move to the village.
gunther
August 27, 2013 at 11:33 am
perfect statement from a perfect slave…idiotic and shallow.
swine
August 27, 2013 at 11:47 am
Id!ots like you deserve to be thrown overboard!…fake accents as though you grew up in those countries!..elo nga mwakolwa mwalaba and you start sounding like ba Ng’andu Magande atase!…accents are not supposed to be gifts iwe chikala. you’re such a retard!
.
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I like the conclusion….After all, nobody likes a fake, except another fake.
.
.
ati bwa,you’re a fake!
ati bwa- Ba Some of us
August 28, 2013 at 11:50 am
I feel pity for people like you who grew up mu komboni and are failing to fit in, this is the 20th century wake up u backward chaps….start listening to KOMBONI RADIO…….LOL. I REPEAT THIS A FREE COUNTRY
Umuzompiki!!!!!
August 27, 2013 at 9:25 am
Vizungu Vabooza!nelyo tamwyapofye nangu pa Malawi apa,ubufontini ba kwindi imwe!
atishani
August 27, 2013 at 10:50 am
the article has been perfectly articulated, mwacilamo ba feki imwe
Mp'nga Mbizi
August 27, 2013 at 11:00 am
The last sentence is the best, it says it all. I CRINGE if I somehow find myself listening to these pretenders, end up changing channels. There is more of this nonsense in the newer radio stations and less of it on Radio Phoenix and ZNBC stattions. How do I trust what you are telling me if you are using a fake accent?
Trixy
August 27, 2013 at 12:33 pm
What happened to freedom of speech?
Be Good
August 28, 2013 at 6:21 pm
Not the issue here, retard.
Makuli
August 27, 2013 at 12:50 pm
I would be very pleased if I found a Briton speaking Bemba like he is from Kasama. Of course I may be interested where he learnt the language from but I would be very delighted. I hope the British are also delighted to hear those who speak their language close to their native one.
Ndaje Kahks
August 27, 2013 at 3:08 pm
We have Catholic white priests who have a better command of Ici Bemba than most Bembas
Mzungu wa Kajo
August 27, 2013 at 3:31 pm
The author should try to go out a little more often. Most Bazungus out there have problems understanding you unless you speak that accent. Back home if the accent gives confidence why not go for it. This is not to say locally accented English is bad. late George Kunda always drove his point home in his bemba accented English.
test@e
August 27, 2013 at 4:24 pm
This article is from a person with little understanding of what Zambia is. I agree that some accents are very bad but am so quick to mention that Zambia due to the diversity of her culture and language people are well suited to adapt to languages even though there pronunciations are difficult.Moreover very few languages in Zambia a spoken with deep accentuation.As you may know knowing a language with deep accentuation at first affects the languages u learn later.
chi chi man
August 27, 2013 at 5:04 pm
Just get yourself one man!! This is the 21st century..
ZinCA
August 27, 2013 at 5:50 pm
Blah blah blah. Who cares
spunky
August 27, 2013 at 6:38 pm
My wife and I have a running joke whenever we see Pye-ax-eena Hen-ken-nga aka paxina hankanga reading the news. Smooth IK and Brian Mwaaaale and shamefully hilarious too. Presenters try and make up for little schooling through faux accents.
Voter
August 27, 2013 at 7:18 pm
BIT SUCH CHARACTERS THEY WILL CRY IN THEIR MOTHER OR FATHER ACCENT, PLS JUST TRY ,THIS HAS HELPED FOR ME
Denkete
August 27, 2013 at 9:17 pm
Kwasiya nobenzuma. When I speak english in public ati Denkete tongalises.awe sure tatah! Thats why i only speak tonga these days.
icinshikululwa
August 27, 2013 at 10:23 pm
This world has become now like one villege; stop descreminet yo fellow in the name of languange; enlishi is not Godz language.
darrelhobson
August 27, 2013 at 10:30 pm
I hate these fake ass Zambians! Why pretend to be from somewhere you’re not?
pretenders
August 27, 2013 at 10:35 pm
I am listening to Djs who have fake accents. Its like dumb!
PAPA JOSH
August 28, 2013 at 11:46 am
Accents are not easily made up, it all shows us someones background and group association…..even school background does matter,,,,basically as an economist there is nothing as zambian accent…if it is there i would love to hear it, what ever the accent at the end of the day it it still english.