I Wasn't Born In East L.A.
I wasn't even born in a town at the far eastern end of Los Angeles County. Neither was Tiffany Hwang (born in S.F.), but that's where she grew up, in Diamond Bar, California.
Also, despite SNSD's making my album of the year*, I've not gotten to the point with them where I've figured out who sings what, which face associates with which name, etc. I know Sunny due to Invincible Youth and Sooyoung because she danced with me at the Freaky Trigger Awards Gala and 'cause of her screaming fan girl.
So I made the same mistake Howie Mandel made, which is to think that Tiffany was a Korean speaking English very well, rather than an American speaking English with an east of East L.A. accent:
I do think Tiffany was adopting a Korean accent right at the start of the interview when she said the phrase "audition process." But what I told Trevor was that it hadn't occurred to me that Asian Americans born and raised in North America would have any Asian sound in their English, any more than my Dad had any Yiddish or Russian in his; but seeing as how the place where Tiffany spoke English age 1 to 15 is fifty percent Asian American and twenty percent Hispanic, she's probably simply got a Diamond Bar accent (just as my Dad probably spoke a modified West Chicago accent that he managed not to make too severe), and maybe some of that sound is Mexican as well as Asian. So Tiffany's American accent differs from my American accent more than, say, Jessica's does. "Accent" is a loaded term.
I guess it's Confront The Stereotypes Week on livejournal.
*The 1st Japan Album, not The Boys.
Also, despite SNSD's making my album of the year*, I've not gotten to the point with them where I've figured out who sings what, which face associates with which name, etc. I know Sunny due to Invincible Youth and Sooyoung because she danced with me at the Freaky Trigger Awards Gala and 'cause of her screaming fan girl.
So I made the same mistake Howie Mandel made, which is to think that Tiffany was a Korean speaking English very well, rather than an American speaking English with an east of East L.A. accent:
Click to viewI do think Tiffany was adopting a Korean accent right at the start of the interview when she said the phrase "audition process." But what I told Trevor was that it hadn't occurred to me that Asian Americans born and raised in North America would have any Asian sound in their English, any more than my Dad had any Yiddish or Russian in his; but seeing as how the place where Tiffany spoke English age 1 to 15 is fifty percent Asian American and twenty percent Hispanic, she's probably simply got a Diamond Bar accent (just as my Dad probably spoke a modified West Chicago accent that he managed not to make too severe), and maybe some of that sound is Mexican as well as Asian. So Tiffany's American accent differs from my American accent more than, say, Jessica's does. "Accent" is a loaded term.
I guess it's Confront The Stereotypes Week on livejournal.
*The 1st Japan Album, not The Boys.