Hong Kong English accent?

[penguinsix]

Was just curious if anyone has noticed a rather odd mish-mash English accent from their children given the international nature (Australian, British, Canadian, Filipino, etc) of teachers and care-givers? We noticed our son says a few words slightly different than we do, though we have American accents so it's probably a bit more noticeable, but I was wondering if others noticed odd accents and inflections with their kids as well?

 

[carang]

i didn't notice it until i went to canada.... then i could compare their accents to their cousins...definitely not the same.

 

[Shenzhennifer]

My 2 year old says "-ah" a lot at the end of some words, like "mommy-ah", like the local kids do. When he's angry and yelling gibberish, it sounds like he's speaking Cantonese. I rather like it all. It's cute

 

[ssheng]

Mine isn't speaking quite yet, but I have noticed this in other toddlers. Actually mostly I hear a Filipino accent in their English because at the toddler stage, they spend most of the day with their helpers or in playgroups listening to helpers. I was worried about this as my toddler is a bit of a late speaker - they say bilingual households tend to produce late speakers, so I figured hearing multiple accents all the time might do the same. But I think it all works out in the end. Once they are in school, anyway, they will pick up the most common accent of their peers, I would think...

 

[ozmerc]

I can't hear my son's accent because I'm so used to it, but my family back home think it's quite funny. Both myself and my husband have different accents so he doesn't have any one single accent to pick up. My mother has commented that he sounds like a Filipina sometimes, but he doesn't spend all day with a helper. Now that he is at kindergarten I think it will change a bit - sometimes he says words with a slightly Hong Kong Chinese accent, probably because his kindergarten is 99% chinese. I've also noticed he occasionally picks up some common English grammatical errors found in HK, but I don't worry as I figure it will resolve as he gets older. My husband has a very 'international' hybrid accent due to his living all over, so I suspect our children will as well.

 

[kiwiinoz]

I don't know what the definitive HK accent is, but our kids (Aussies) have a hybrid mix ... lots of rolling of R's from the American influence (eg Carrrr instead of Ka) and British (daance instead of dance) plus the Aussie/Kiwi mixed in as well. When we're overseas people think our daughter is American. My husband keeps trying to correct them to the Aussie pronunciations, but I don't see a problem as I know they'll get it back when we move back there one day.

 

[carang]

my cousin moved from the uk to canada when he was 4... he lost his british accent by the time he finished first grade. but he has retained his british vocabulary, thanks to his brit mummy...

as for "correcting" the accent? personally, i don't think it's necessary. there are myriad ways to pronounce things, doesn't make one "right" and one "wrong".

 

[joyofliving]

as for "correcting" the accent? personally, i don't think it's necessary. there are myriad ways to pronounce things, doesn't make one "right" and one "wrong".

SO TRUE!!! Stop worrying. BTW Aussies are thought to have the worse accent and most difficult to understand alongside the Irish of course.

 

[thanka2]

My son is 3-years-old and sometimes I find the way he pronounces words as well as his vocabulary quite amusing. I am American and my husband is HK Chinese but some of the things he says--well, we just don't know where it comes from. Sometimes we've thought it comes from our helper but she also doesn't speak this way. For example, instead of using the more commonly used "too" (very American) our son will use "also." So, instead of saying "I want to go there too!" he will say "I want to go there also." As far as pronunciation goes, he pronounces the word "can't" with a very long 'a' so it's the British "caaan't" as in "I caaan't do it." He also uses really long words that I don't think I would have been using as a 3-year-old. Last fall when he was younger than 3 he told me one day, "I have to do my assignments for school." Yeah, assignments...now, that's a 5-dollar-word.

Having been in HK for awhile my accent has started to morph too. Most people who meet me here guess that I'm Canadian by my accent.

 

[fingerscrossed]

Speaking of morphing accents... I actually find it hard to keep your original accent after being here for too long. I'm from Australia and had a rather heavy accent when I first got here, so I was tol. But in order for people to understand me and, being an English teacher, for local students to understand what I say, I've had to sand it down a bit. I still sound Australian in HK but back home, I get asked whether I'm from the UK. As for my 3yr old, he's a real melting pot of accents at the moment and it's fun to listen to him talk. He goes to a mandarin speaking kindy, I speak English with him at home and the grandparents and neighbours speak Cantonese but it's interesting to see him distinguish the three languages and there really isn't a problem with mixing them up. I'm totally for bi/tri-lingualism at a young age.