Incoherent Scribblings

Foreign Accent Syndrome

Technically speaking, Foreign Accent Syndrome is “a rare brain disorder that causes people to speak their native language as if they had a foreign accent.” However, I am convinced I must have some variation of Foreign Accent Syndrome, for apparently I do not speak German with an American accent, but a Slavic one.

Since I have come to Germany, I have been asked several times if I was Czech. At first I thought it might have had something to do with my looks: After all, one of the most famous women to ever come out of the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) is Ivana Trump, (an internationally-renowned skier and model before she ever became Mrs. Trump) and it seems like most of those east European mail-order bride sites feature blondes.

Given my mediocre German language skills, I am sure it is painfully obvious to most people here that I am not a native. However at the same, it also seems that many people fail to place me as an American. In addition to those things, I have been told on more than one occasion that I speak German with an eastern European accent, for whatever that means.

This may be related to the fact that when I was learning French I tried very hard not to speak French with an American accent. However, it was obviously to no avail, because one day my snooty grammar teacher said in the most condescending of voices, “You have such and American accent!” Initially, my feelings were hurt, but then I defiantly thought to myself, “Duh! What do you expect?! I AM American!!”

Nevertheless, this rebuke may have unconsciously led me to try and adopt anything but an American accent when learning German. Honestly though, I am curious as to why I would speak German with a Slavic accent. I have absolutely no experience with any Slavic language.

When I stop to ponder this, I blame my odd German accent on A. and my in-laws. When I learned German I really did it via the “immersion method.” I had never spoken a word of German nor took a German lesson prior to setting foot on German soil. My first encounter with German was through A. and his family.

However, though A.’s family speaks German, it is far from a traditional German family. This is because A.’s mother is Austrian and his father is Greek. MIL speaks German with not only an Austrian accent, but also an odd mixture of southeastern and western Austrian dialects. FIL, on the other hand, speaks German with what I can only assume is a Greek accent. A. himself speaks German with a peculiar accent, and in fact, he told me that his accent has also been placed as an eastern European one!

During this time of total immersion I learned a lot of vocabulary, but in all honesty spent most of my time listening and observing German. Once I finally started speaking, I not only tried to mimic the sounds of my in-laws, but also attempted to train myself to speak more from the back of my throat and master those funny sounds that we don’t have in English. And in the end, it seems that I ended up with a Slavic accent.

Therefore, I shall soon be campaigning to add a second definition to Foreign Accent Syndrome and that is: A cultural or psychological phenomenon that causes a person to speak a foreign language with an accent other than their native accent.