Does anyone know the story behind how/where the mother and father met?
It's distracting that the mother is the only member of the family with an accent. Her family has been wither her at least 14 to 15 years and no one has picked up part of her accent. If she has been in American for many years I would think that her accent wouldn't be so thick.
Does this make sense to anyone else or am I truly ignorant to accents?
My husband has lived in the US more than 30 years, and some people hear his accent immediately, and others miss it completely. Our children don't share his accent, but it's called one's "mother tongue" for a reason--children tend to interact with and talk/listen to their mother more that father. So you're right, it wouldn't be strange if the kids had a bit of an accent when they were younger, but peer pressure has probably made them speak more American by now.
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No, David. No one is happy in a poodle skirt and a sweater set.
Thank you. I thought I was crazy. I've interacted with asian children that were born in American and still have a slight accent because of their interactions with their parents. But the children on on the show are much older than those kids.
shareYou're welcome. As soon as I read your post I thought of some of my daughter's Mexican-American friends who spoke just like all the other girls their age, but would slip effortlessly into Spanish around adults in their families. I didn't realize some of them even spoke Spanish, but of course, why wouldn't they?
It was a thought provoking question.
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No, David. No one is happy in a poodle skirt and a sweater set.
Generally kids, under the age of 16 lose their accents after moving to a foreign country. Adults tend to retain theirs.
In my own experience, my cousin's husband, an Aussie, still has his heavy Australian accent while their son, who was 3 when he arrived, has no trace of one.
While I was in college, I met a lady from the Ukraine who came to the US when she was 16. When she arrived, she couldn't speak English and learned here. Her accent was fairly heavy. 30 years later, her accent is still very strong.
20 some years ago I met a work colleague who had come from Colombia when she was around 13. When we first met, (she was 22, fresh out of college) her accent was fairly heavy but today (she just turned 46) her accent is virtually nonexistent.
I'm sure there have been studies on it.
He who fights and runs away, lives to run away again!
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I once thought the same thing about Breaking Bad and how someone like Walt can pick up meth cooking and the drug trade so fast without anyone getting really suspicioud quickly. He even killed easily with no feelings.
Then I realized it was a show for entertainment. Once you start comparing it to real life, you are in trouble.
My parents are both Indian immigrants with accents and I was born and raised in America. I do not have an Indian accent because I lived and went to school in America. I speak almost region free and accent-less. This show is not far fetched in that regard.
shareArnold Schwarzenegger has been in the USA since 1968. Have you heard him talk?
I do not have attention deficit disor...Ooh, look at the bunny!
Good point!! I can't understand half of what Ahnuld says to this day.😄
It's just that I work with children who were born in the US but their parents were not. When speaking to me in english they do not have accents but when speaking to their parents in english or their native tongue there is a slight accent. I was just wondering if this was a common thing to pass on an accent from mother to child. It makes sense to me since your parents present your first interactions with communication and language.
shareI think it just depends on the individual. I knew a British lady who had been in the U.S. for more than thirty years and had no discernable accent at all, and another who had been here about the same amount of time but still sounded like Eliza Doolittle. That said, I would like to know more about the backstory of how Jimmy and Maya met.
shareIn high school I had a girlfriend who had Haitian parents but she didn't sound like them at all. I just assume their peers have more influence on that than the parents because they want to fit in, especially if they are born in the USA.
That is all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAPn0REA8_g
My grandma has a very thick Croatian accent, but my mom, who was born here in the US, never had one. Neither do my uncles (my mom's brothers), who were all born in the US (or on the way to the US), or anyone younger than them, all of whom were born in the US, including me.
My Chinese friend and his family moved to the US when he was six. He and his two younger brothers have no accents, while their parents do/ did (his father, as well as both of my parents, by the way, have since passed).
So yeah, it all depends on age, where you were born, and whom you learned English from (I know my mom said she learned in school). Though my experiences are only with English from non-English, not American from British.
I don't know, but I could see Rowan Atkinson and Jennifer Saunders showing up as Maya's parents.
shareIn high school I had two friends whose mother was from England. She was the only one who had a British accent in the family. It wasn't as thick as Minnie Driver's, though.
As for the kids on this show, they probably tried very hard to sound like normal American kids with being raised by a British mom and a dad with a speech impediment (thankfully not as bad as it was on The Big Bang Theory).