Talking Monkey Syndrome! I love it. Recently I have made an effort to read more PoC authors--not necessarily ones writing about PoC characters/multicultural settings--but the work always comes first. If the writing's mediocre, it's still mediocre even if the author is "underrepresented."
And I am guilty, myself, of staring at non-native speakers of my mother language who enunciate perfectly. It's so disconcerting! (Applies the other way, too; my friend's father, a second-gen Asian-American who is full-blooded and distinctively Asian in appearance, startled me the first time he opened his mouth and sounded exactly like any other American man.) On the other hand, I don't see anything wrong with joking over the idea of a white American teacher with no previous Asian language experience learning Chinese over one summer and teaching it to his students in the fall. It takes the average beginner with no "outside experience" about that length of time just to master tones.
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Date: 17 May 2009 10:05 pm (UTC)And I am guilty, myself, of staring at non-native speakers of my mother language who enunciate perfectly. It's so disconcerting! (Applies the other way, too; my friend's father, a second-gen Asian-American who is full-blooded and distinctively Asian in appearance, startled me the first time he opened his mouth and sounded exactly like any other American man.) On the other hand, I don't see anything wrong with joking over the idea of a white American teacher with no previous Asian language experience learning Chinese over one summer and teaching it to his students in the fall. It takes the average beginner with no "outside experience" about that length of time just to master tones.