Shu's video: My parents have a Chinese accent when they speak English

My parents have a strong Chinese accent when they speak English. Over the years, I watched strangers mock and mimic their accents, over-enunciate words in condescending tones and laugh adding in “ni hao” and “konnichiwa” in between their sentences. My parents would nervously laugh and repeatedly apologise saying “sorry, sorry, my English isn’t good, sorry, my daughter will speak for me instead”. As a result, I was always pushed to be the interpreter for the family. But I always wanted to fight back. Maybe it’s because I’m the eldest or maybe it’s because I’m fiercely protective over my loved ones - but witnessing this always made me see fire. How dare they make my parents feel inferior? “THEY CAN SPEAK THREE CHNESE DIALECTS FLUENTLY ALONE” I’d want to shout. But my parents would sense this and tell me to duck my head, to not make a scene and to be quiet. “We should be grateful we’re even allowed to live in this country” they’d say. “Never cause trouble, just work hard and try to ignore it. Don’t draw attention to yourself.” But who gets to decide how and what they should sound like? And how can we make sure linguistic diversity is celebrated more? How do we tackle accent discrimination in society and the workplace? Despite the incredible range of linguistic diversity in Britain alone with world varieties of English all across the globe, accent discrimination unfortunately happens and whether intentionally or not - can seep into conscious or unconscious bias with non-native speakers sadly being the target for judgement and prejudice. I’m mindful, more than ever, of how our accents contribute towards our identity. I’ve never been embarrassed about my parents’ accent and I never will. I will never stop celebrating its diversity. Accents are beautiful. Accents represent our rich culture and heritage. Accents represent who we are and we all have one so let’s be damn proud of it.