Note: this is a loose translation of this article. Context: it was written with Indonesians in mind.
Every time an Indonesian Youtuber teachers their audience the “proper” English pronunciation (mind the air quote), there has to be people who react angrily.
Why angry? They say there are more than one accents. According to them, it is up to us to speak with any ways we desire.
it is true that every language has a variety of accents. It is also true that in linguistics, there are no such thing as “right” or “wrong” accents.
But, I do have a question: why do you learn a new language?
The answer is either your love of languages… or you have the desire to communicate with more people. If communication is your desire, you should watch your mouth!
The variety of accents is not an excuse. No matter how abundant they are, not all of them are considered the standards! Every country has their own standard accents and they are used to ease communication between citizens; it is pointless to have a unifying language that lacks a unifying accent.
English-speaking countries realise their language is also spoken elsewhere; they realise their standard accents must be intelligible for foreigners. That’s the reason why their standard accents are easy to understand for outsiders, despite sounding different from each other.
And you, who do you think you are? How can you think you can pronounce as you desire and expect everyone to understand you?
Imagine when foreigners pronounce Rupiah as Rupayah and the letter C as K… and they are angry when corrected. Not only you won’t understand them, you want to bitch slap them one by one.
Frankly, even Indonesians who speak with relatively better English also want to punch your faces.
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The Stammering Dunce 