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
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Interesting that as I watched the clip for the first time my original binary was "Asian" versus "American." But once I'd worked out that I was incorrect in identifying Tiffany as "raised in Asia," I then went to, "OK, what sort of American is she," homing in on Diamond Bar's Asian and Hispanic population. So my binary became "multiculti quasi-urban American" (Tiffany) versus "mainstream American" (Jessica), despite assuming that Jessica grew up in a city and knowing that of the two Jessica's actually been in Korea longer. And really, someone with Jessica's accent (American Standard, I'd say) could be a news reader or do "average American teen and young woman" voiceovers.
But note that (1) I was still thinking primarily of ethnic accents (recognizing that Tiffany might have picked up pronunciations from Hispanics as well as Asians); (2) the next binary I imported into the discussion was Urban versus Suburban Standard, despite my urban representative (Tiffany) being from the 'burbs and my suburban representative (Jessica) from the city; (3) I - of all people - was forgetting to think of social class, which leads to potential other groupings; (4) and I wasn't thinking of grammar and word choice, even when the actual central city urbanites of Far East Movement became a subject of discussion - and from what I could tell in that short clip, both Kev Nish and Prohgress (James Roh) speak Standard English; (5) I immediately jumped to Black versus Nonblack when Prohgress's strong urban accent showed up, though Wealthy versus Not Wealthy certainly can be part of the convo.
None of this is wrong, and when kids from the 'burbs veer urban the accent is often seen as veering black. But we do have at least a partial choice about which binaries to use; and the typical black-white binary has served to make Asian Americans invisible.
Interesting to me was how much more "urban" and "black" Prohgress sounds (leaning strong on the "n" and dropping the "g" in "ing" - which, by the way, would seem to me to be opposite of Korean, which hits the "g" really hard in its equivalent to "ing") in comparison to Kev Nish. The two went to the same high school, according to Wikip. [This is assuming I've identified who is who correctly.]
Unrelated to this - or possibly very related to this - is that, running through my mind during the SNSD interview, was the question, "Why isn't Sunny speaking? Why isn't Sunny speaking? Why isn't Sunny speaking?" I'm assuming either her accent is too strong or her English too weak. But since I've pegged her as a future President of South Korea or Secretary General of the UN, or at least as the next Oprah, she really does need a command of English to fulfill my plans for her. Not so sure how her current dazzling blonde party-girl look fits my forecast, either. Not that I dislike the style, or think that the presidency shouldn't be held by someone who appears capable of bringing out the spirits and dancing a little jig at a moment's notice, but I don't believe that the voters or the Very Serious People who anoint candidates are ready to allow the most capable person in the room to look like that. (Assuming Sunny is all that. My estimate of her is based almost entirely on her tractor etiquette and the ease with which she's learned to handle potentially obstreperous chickens.)
Sunny making moves towards the goalposts you've set (context: pretend court where a real quarrel between two slightly troublesome boys has its seriousness taken out of it):
But note that (1) I was still thinking primarily of ethnic accents (recognizing that Tiffany might have picked up pronunciations from Hispanics as well as Asians); (2) the next binary I imported into the discussion was Urban versus Suburban Standard, despite my urban representative (Tiffany) being from the 'burbs and my suburban representative (Jessica) from the city; (3) I - of all people - was forgetting to think of social class, which leads to potential other groupings; (4) and I wasn't thinking of grammar and word choice, even when the actual central city urbanites of Far East Movement became a subject of discussion - and from what I could tell in that short clip, both Kev Nish and Prohgress (James Roh) speak Standard English; (5) I immediately jumped to Black versus Nonblack when Prohgress's strong urban accent showed up, though Wealthy versus Not Wealthy certainly can be part of the convo.
None of this is wrong, and when kids from the 'burbs veer urban the accent is often seen as veering black. But we do have at least a partial choice about which binaries to use; and the typical black-white binary has served to make Asian Americans invisible.
Interesting to me was how much more "urban" and "black" Prohgress sounds (leaning strong on the "n" and dropping the "g" in "ing" - which, by the way, would seem to me to be opposite of Korean, which hits the "g" really hard in its equivalent to "ing") in comparison to Kev Nish. The two went to the same high school, according to Wikip. [This is assuming I've identified who is who correctly.]
Unrelated to this - or possibly very related to this - is that, running through my mind during the SNSD interview, was the question, "Why isn't Sunny speaking? Why isn't Sunny speaking? Why isn't Sunny speaking?" I'm assuming either her accent is too strong or her English too weak. But since I've pegged her as a future President of South Korea or Secretary General of the UN, or at least as the next Oprah, she really does need a command of English to fulfill my plans for her. Not so sure how her current dazzling blonde party-girl look fits my forecast, either. Not that I dislike the style, or think that the presidency shouldn't be held by someone who appears capable of bringing out the spirits and dancing a little jig at a moment's notice, but I don't believe that the voters or the Very Serious People who anoint candidates are ready to allow the most capable person in the room to look like that. (Assuming Sunny is all that. My estimate of her is based almost entirely on her tractor etiquette and the ease with which she's learned to handle potentially obstreperous chickens.)
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http://youtu.be/OBnQ8Kt6OoI?t=1m27s
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