I love this, "my mom just sounded like mom to me" - I feel the same way about my mom as well. It is really astounding how it is really just not a thing (and shouldn't be) until someone points it out. Thank you for sharing.
This article resonated so much, I was so conscious of how conscious my mum was about her French accent speaking English as a child that it totally determined my education. She felt she no longer spoke French properly as she had emigrated to the UK as a child but she felt her English was never good enough and she couldn't pronounce things properly. I remember people being snobbish with her about how she said certain words that I had also picked up on and subsequently got teased about how I said these words at school. She put me in schools where I would learn how to speak English like the Queen as she believed that accent reflected intellect and was the first thing people would judge me by!
Gosh, so much to unpack. Thank you for sharing. I hear this so often about mothers not wanting their children to go through what they did in this context and it is such a heavy burden. And then in some ways, it is so beautiful to pick things up from our mothers in that way. As always, thank you for reading.
I didn't know my mom had an accent until a friend pointed it out. Until that point my mom just sounded like mom to me.
I love this, "my mom just sounded like mom to me" - I feel the same way about my mom as well. It is really astounding how it is really just not a thing (and shouldn't be) until someone points it out. Thank you for sharing.
Love this. So many great insights and the word ‘othering.’ Really resonated in many ways. So much food for thought.
Thanks so much for reading, hope you're all doing very well.
This article resonated so much, I was so conscious of how conscious my mum was about her French accent speaking English as a child that it totally determined my education. She felt she no longer spoke French properly as she had emigrated to the UK as a child but she felt her English was never good enough and she couldn't pronounce things properly. I remember people being snobbish with her about how she said certain words that I had also picked up on and subsequently got teased about how I said these words at school. She put me in schools where I would learn how to speak English like the Queen as she believed that accent reflected intellect and was the first thing people would judge me by!
Gosh, so much to unpack. Thank you for sharing. I hear this so often about mothers not wanting their children to go through what they did in this context and it is such a heavy burden. And then in some ways, it is so beautiful to pick things up from our mothers in that way. As always, thank you for reading.