Can You Trust Someone With A Foreign Accent?

I have an accent. This is something I never understood until I was a young adult. But yes, I have an accent. When I started learning French, I quickly realized that I have an American accent when speaking the language. For a long time, this realization didn’t bother me much and even fascinated me at times. “What a thought to think that I have an accent that I’ll never be able to hear when speaking this language! I wish I could hear myself!” I thought. I have always been drawn to learning more about different cultures, languages, and new perspectives. To me, people with accents are interesting people who have lots of new views and ideas to share. Unfortunately, to my surprise, not everyone shares my enthusiasm when it comes to this topic. I quickly learned that my American accent when speaking French can stir up both a lot of positive but also negative opinions. I then began to wonder if other foreigners in the US felt the same kind of negative reaction that I can occasionally receive when speaking French in France. Sometimes, French people are so happy to meet a foreigner who has learned their mother tongue. Other times, however, I can be treated as someone who is stupid simply because of the accent I possess.

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