American Tongues Film Commentary PDF

Preview

Summary

Download American Tongues Film Commentary PDF

Description

Byster 1

TA: Yifan Yang Discussion time: 9am April 2, 2018 “American Tongues” Film Commentary “American Tongues” is a documentary exploring American English dialects and accents and the perceptions people have towards them. Everyone has a unique attitude and perspective towards the way other people speak. This film documented the different comments people made on American English and its diversity. People from one area of the United States had difficulties understanding people from other areas of the country. Whether it be New York, Virginia, or another state, there is always someone who thinks people from a certain region are hard to understand. There are also many prejudices towards different regions. People think New Yorkers are rude and that Southerners talk too slow. Because speech is a part of who we are, when people judge our speech we feel like they are criticizing us as a whole. There are many ways of talking in America and there is not one way of speaking that is “accent-less.” Although people can speak the same language as someone, they can have drastically different vocabularies that certain people can’t understand. If people don’t speak the “standard” dialect, they may be made fun of or have some limitations in the job market. This encourages them to learn a standard dialect. My native region in the United States is Chicago, located in the Midwest. I maintain a positive outlook on every region in the United States. Someone in the film said that they think it is hard to understand people from Chicago. I have never had any trouble understanding anyone’s speech from the Midwest. I do recognize that our “ah” vowels can be nasal. I used to agree with the people from Ohio in the documentary who mentioned how Midwesterners don’t have accents

Byster 2

and just have “straight English.” After meeting people from around the world and watching this documentary, I have learned that I have an accent in addition to everyone else. The film mentioned how people in the South have more hospitality than people on the East Coast. Instead of just saying the simple phrase “nice to see you,” Southerners prefer to add in a “darlin’” or a “precious” to make the phrase more personal and sweet. I do agree that when Southerners add in those extra words, they seem more personable and seem to care more about who they are speaking to. Despite the age of the film, I believe most opinions in the film are still widely held today. Most of the stereotypes towards different regions and their speech habits are ideas I have heard recently. I don’t foresee any changes to these common stereotypes being made anytime soon. I think that most people from California would agree with the statements made regarding the Eastern and Southern states. USC students, in particular, are very welcoming and nonjudgmental of people’s pasts, but I think students would agree that sometimes it is hard to understand people from other regions of the country. My roommate is from the South and she uses many phrases that I have never heard of and I do not understand the meaning of them. Since starting at USC, a couple of times people have pointed out the nasality of my “ah”s and that I speak very “Chicago-like.” Besides that, I have never received any complaints or comments regarding my accent or my vocabulary. People should realize that we don’t all have to talk alike. The documentary teaches that it is good for there to be a variety of dialects and an interesting array of speech habits....