Skywise wrote:
wrote in news:1155030213.693271.154520
@n13g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Snipola
Indian accents are variegated, depending on which part of the country you come
from, but nearly all of us speak with that thick accent you mention. I remember how
deliberate I need to be when I have to converse with a westerner.
Snipola

I had heard that part of the problem here is that relative to us American or English
speakers, the Indian language is spoken much quicker, hence when they try to speak
English it comes out too fast. Is this true from your persepective?

Brian


Yes and no. The speed of delivery is but one part of the problem, but
the basic accentuations of most Indian dialects are entirely different
from English. In fact, the dialects of northern and central India,
which are nearly all derived from a language called Sanskrit, have an
accentuation that bears no resemblance at all to southern Indian ones -
but neither set of dialect has resemblance to European languages. It's
nigh on impossible for me to pronounce French or German names and terms
correctly; the roll of the tongue and tone delivery just doesn't come
out right as it does for you folk.

The problem of accent is further perpetuated by our being non-native
English, which entails a continuous pre-speech transliteration in the
brain, which can cause tangible embarrassment at times (I think in
Kannada, for example).

Indians who've lived in the US for about five years or more manage to
hold their own in English, I've noticed.

Ramapriya