No accent is the BEST ACCENT. SO, BE PROUD OF YOUR MANGLISH ACCENT.

Salam,

Have you ever listen to some accents and you are amazed when you listen or you have had hard time to understand certain accent? What about slang? What's the difference between slang and accent? Do they refer to the same thing?

Accent:
is the pronunciation characteristic of a certain locality. (source: WIKIPEDIA)
Or the simplest way to explain it, accent is the way certain group of people from the same place talk in English. (by the way, even in other languages it's also called accent as long as they use the same language).

Slang:
is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's dialect or language. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo (see euphemism). It is often used to identify with one's peers and, although it may be common among young people, it is used by people of all ages and social groups. (source: WIKIPEDIA)

Most of the time, young generation has their own kind of language that we call "slang". Again this is not restricted only to English but also in other languages as well.


Why do I brought this issue up? Well, for one thing, most of us Malaysians are not confident with our own unique Manglish accent that we want to emulate either British, American or sometimes Australian accent. Some of my ex-students (either when I taught Msians in USM or in ELS), look down on my capability of teaching them English just because I don't really have the strong accent in British, American or any other accents except for Malaysian English accent.

I don't really see what's the problem with the accent as long as they can understand what I'm teaching them. PLUS.............if they really want to learn from teachers who are native speakers, they will face a lot of problem to understand those teachers especially if the students' level of English is not really good. I had some ex-lecturers from USA, UK and one from Ireland. The most difficult accent for me is the IRISH ENGLISH accent. My ex-coursemates and I had to learn LITERATURE from that particular IRISH lecturer. So, just imagine the combination of difficult accent and difficult subject!

MY SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS HERE ARE JUST SIMPLE:
1- DON'T BE ASHAMED OF YOUR MANGLISH ACCENT.

2- THERE'S NO ACCENT IS MORE SPECIAL THAN THE OTHERS. THEY ARE JUST DIFFERENT.

3- PLEASE DON'T LOOK DOWN ON YOUR QUALIFIED ENGLISH TEACHER JUST BECAUSE HE/SHE IS MALAYSIAN AND NOT THE NATIVE SPEAKER.

4- SLANG IS SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM ACCENT.