Stake Conference, Day One: Philips speaks British English unexpectedly

[pne]

I was asked to interpret during Stake Conference.

During the leadership session, I interpreted consecutively (English to German) while Elder Oaks (the Area President) spoke; during the Saturday general session, I interpreted simultaneously (German to English).

The first session, I stood next to him; the second session, I sat on the first row with a headset on. The volume was pretty loud, so apparently I was talking rather loudly at first, too; someone pointed it out to me and I tried to speak a bit more softly. (I also put a paper handkerchief over each earpiece to try to muffle the volume a little.)

What I found interesting was that I had initially thought I would be using my American accent, since interpreting simultaneously means that you don't have much time to think and I thought that under pressure, my "default" accent would surface, and that that was American. (Mostly because I spent years and years during school speaking like that.)

However, after a while I listened to myself and found I was speaking British English, which surprised me. I suppose the three years of speaking to Amy have made that into my default accent now, since it's what came out naturally while unter time pressure. (Though without the "wh" sound—not that surprising, since it's a conscious affectation in my speech and I need time to think about the spelling when using it, rather than something that comes naturally to me because I picked it up from my father as a child, which is where the other 98% of my British accent come from.)

Comments

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

I find it interesting how you are so conscious about your pronunciation and how it worries you. I suppose most people don't consciously have different accents. I only do in the foreign languages I speak (though none of my accents there is really all that great) but not in my mother tongue German. I would find it odd to worry much about my pronunciation in my mother tongue. Do you have different accents in German, too? Do you pay special attention when speaking German around Amy to pronouncing certain sounds correctly?

[leighbug]

That's pretty interesting. Also, have you/were you around people with British accents? I know I really really easily pick up other people's accents. When I was in Houston, I was getting a pretty good Texas accent. And when I'm around my friend from New Zealand, I get the "Kiwi accent" bad.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Do you have different accents in German, too?

I don't think so.

English is a special situation for me, I suppose, because I had two major influences. When I was a child, the main influence (well, only influence, really) was my father, who spoke British English. Later on at school was when I acquired an American accent from being around many, many children who spoke like that -- not only Americans but also children from non-English-speaking countries, who tended to adopt an American accent. So after school, I had both.

For German, the influence was people around me -- and, I suppose, my mother, but what she spoke and what people around me spoke were similar or the same, so there weren't really two different influences. So my German only has one accent, a north German one: more or less standard German with a few regionalisms in pronunciation (such as a "ch" pronunciation for syllable-final "g" as in "Fluchzeuch"; short "e" in words such as "Erde"; short "a" in "Rad" [but not "Rat"] when not speaking carefully; etc.), grammar (such as tending to avoid the imperfect, though I think many colloquial varieties do so), and vocabulary (such as "Feudel", or some words from Low German such as "plietsch").

Do you pay special attention when speaking German around Amy to pronouncing certain sounds correctly?

No, I don't.

Strange, perhaps, given my attempt to give her a "wh" phoneme, which I consider a bit prestigious -- but I don't find standard German prestigious enough to try to modify my north German speech towards it.

I suppose part of the reason I worry about the American in my English is that I want to please my father, and have the feeling that speaking American won't do so. It's still what comes naturally when I speak with Americans, though.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Also, have you/were you around people with British accents?

Not while I was translating, no -- I was just sitting by myself, translating. So I think it was the accent I use to speak with Amy, and that in turn came from the accent I acquired learning English as a little child from my English father. Only that accent got largely covered in an American accent that I acquired at school, and after school my British accent tended to surface only when speaking with British people.

I suppose my British accent has been "un-buried" a bit through speaking it so much with Amy.

[tungol.livejournal.com]

I wonder what Amy's reaction to your American accent is/will be.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Good question.

[leighbug]

It's probably coming out, then, because that's how you learned the language. I've heard that people usually revert to their "native" way of language if there's stress or pressure being put on them. I'd say translating quickly counts as pressure!