Date:  Tue, 15 Mar 1994 00:28:31 CST

From:  "Donald M. Lance" <ENGDL[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIZZOU1.BITNET>

Subject: Re: Conscious Learning of Accent



David Bergdahl's comment about German --------------------

When I was in Germany in 1978-79 and trying to develop some fluency in that

language I would often get interference from vague memories of Old English

forms, never from my "other" language. But when I tried to speak Spanish

in Germany I'd have awkward  interference from my weak German. It felt

as if I didn't have full control over what part of the brain I needed to

access. I spent a couple of weeks in Spain, where my Spanish fluency

returned. In Barcelona I had occasion to use German as well as Spanish and

and English. That brief experience separated the langauges for me and I had

much less trouble thereafter, though it was much harder to speak Spanish in

Germany than in Spain. Several times Spaniards asked me "Es usted Americano?"

My response was, "Si, soy tejano; hablo mejicano." That satisfied them.

I was never really sure whether they heard some gringuismo in my phonology or

whether they primarily noticed that it wasn't castellano. DMLance