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You don’t need to sound American

Ascencia Fike
5 min readApr 3, 2021

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“I fought my accent for so long,” Gadot says. “Like, I gotta sound more American. I was a little bit shy about my accent. Until I let it go. My dialect coach told me, ‘As long as you’re clear and understood, own it.’ And since I’ve started to own it, I feel free.”

Gal Gadot in GQ

a group of women discussing
Source

What’s your first language?

Mine is Indonesian.

I was exposed to the English language when I was 6. Or maybe earlier, I’m not really sure because my mom was a kindergarten teacher and she always brought home some books in English from the library.

From the age of 6 to 18, I always had English classes at school. I also was enrolled in some courses here and there.

English was my favorite subject, for sure.

I was always fascinated by languages. Other than English, I’ve also (tried to) learn Mandarin, Spanish, German, and French. It’s always an exciting moment when you finally grasped a language’s grammar pattern. Or when you can recognize a word in a German online article. When you finally can consume content in a language you’re learning, it’s like opening a door to a new world.

But presenting your own ideas in your newly acquired language is a completely different animal.

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Ascencia Fike
Ascencia Fike

Written by Ascencia Fike

I publish an essay a week, sometimes in English, sometimes in Indonesian. Life. Family. Friendship. Creativity. Human.

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