WEBVTT 00:02.000 --> 00:05.500 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% JUDY WOODRUFF: We have all heard of racial profiling, but what about accent profiling? 00:05.500 --> 00:10.333 align:left position:20%,start line:71% size:70% Hernan Diaz is the associate director of the Hispanic Institute at Columbia University, 00:10.333 --> 00:13.833 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% and his first novel was just nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. 00:13.833 --> 00:18.833 align:left position:20%,start line:71% size:70% Those are certainly accomplishments, and yet he possesses something else that sets him 00:19.300 --> 00:20.533 align:left position:40%,start line:89% size:50% apart. 00:20.533 --> 00:22.566 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% That's tonight's In My Humble Opinion. 00:22.566 --> 00:25.433 align:left position:20%,start line:71% size:70% HERNAN DIAZ, Author, "In the Distance": I work at a university in New York with a large 00:25.433 --> 00:28.400 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% population of international students. 00:28.400 --> 00:33.400 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% Walking around campus the other day, I was perplexed to see flyers advertising accent 00:34.600 --> 00:38.166 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% reduction or even accent elimination. 00:38.166 --> 00:42.466 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% Having been born in Argentina, grown up in Sweden, and spent most of my life in the United 00:42.466 --> 00:47.433 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% States, I have, to some degree, a foreign accent in every language I speak. 00:49.466 --> 00:53.233 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% Something in my Spanish makes taxi drivers in Buenos Aires ask me where I'm from. 00:55.266 --> 00:58.366 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% In Swedish, my accent is very slight, but I have the vocabulary of a 12-year-old. 01:00.433 --> 01:03.733 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% In my early 20s, I lived in London for a couple of years, which left its mark. 01:05.366 --> 01:08.700 align:left position:20%,start line:77% size:70% But the fact is, I got English almost as a gift, through Swedish. 01:08.700 --> 01:12.633 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% And there is still a Scandinavian lilt in there. 01:12.633 --> 01:15.633 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% Does my accent need correcting? 01:15.633 --> 01:17.333 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% I don't think so. 01:17.333 --> 01:19.133 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% To sound like who, exactly? 01:19.133 --> 01:21.533 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% A native speaker? 01:21.533 --> 01:23.633 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% What would that even mean? 01:23.633 --> 01:28.166 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% Looking at accent-reduction classes online, the third hit I got wasn't aimed at Eastern 01:29.333 --> 01:30.866 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% European or South American immigrants. 01:30.866 --> 01:35.300 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% It actually read, "Want to get rid of your New York accent?" 01:35.300 --> 01:40.300 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% An accent can be a stigma, even within native speakers of the same language. 01:42.300 --> 01:46.100 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% These variations, determined by geography, class, and race, are always identified with 01:47.566 --> 01:52.033 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% stereotypes, and fleeing from one means embracing another. 01:52.033 --> 01:57.000 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% In England a Russian writer may adopt an upper-crust British accent. 01:59.000 --> 02:02.466 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% In California, a Texan actor may aspire to a San Fernando Valley cadence. 02:04.966 --> 02:08.466 align:left position:10%,start line:71% size:80% Even though everybody has an accent, there certainly is such a thing as accent discrimination. 02:10.266 --> 02:14.566 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% Most of us have either suffered or witnessed it at some point. 02:14.566 --> 02:19.566 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% I can easily tell when I'm not being understood or when someone is underscoring a difference 02:21.600 --> 02:24.733 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% in pronunciation just to show me my place, because accent discrimination is, in the end, 02:26.966 --> 02:31.966 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% all about place, who belongs and who doesn't. 02:33.433 --> 02:36.333 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% An accent is the echo of one language or tone in another. 02:36.333 --> 02:41.333 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% I, for one, enjoy these ghostly presences of something strange in a familiar environment. 02:43.233 --> 02:47.166 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% They are a reminder of the fact that language doesn't belong to anyone, not even to its 02:48.833 --> 02:51.333 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% native speakers. 02:51.333 --> 02:53.833 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% Language is shared. 02:53.833 --> 02:57.600 align:left position:10%,start line:71% size:80% It is, in principle, a space where everyone is welcome and cooperates toward mutual comprehension. 03:00.333 --> 03:05.300 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% And the very fact that there are accents in the first place, the fact that we can still 03:07.700 --> 03:11.166 align:left position:10%,start line:71% size:80% understand each other through all the differences, is the most conclusive proof of the hospitality 03:13.066 --> 03:15.200 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% at the heart of every language. 03:15.200 --> 03:19.766 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% JUDY WOODRUFF: Pulitzer Prize nominee Hernan Diaz.