paraphrase of 250 words. due after 4 hours.

1-From this movie I was most learned everyone have accent. This movie was very interesting, because everyone they have different accent, but they can't noticed they have it. I am a Chinese, in China, every place have they are accent. I can clearly distinguish who come from which part in China. And also, in American, sometime I can know they are has different accent but I can not know come from where. Everyone come from different place, people accent get affect from they are family, friend, social circle and the city. Like the speak speed and tone. Specially, American is a immigration country. In American do not have official accent because, In the history, had people come from England, African, South American and so on. because have many people are come from different country, become American style accent. In different place have they are specific words for some thing. Like in China, ‘father’ this word maybe have hundred accent because, in the different part have different accent to speak this word. When people speak they are local accent, they are very proud of it. In the social, people are already are used to listen slang, like some advertising agency will use slang to make the advertisement have local features. Accent is culture, include country features and history. 

2-As a non-native English speaker, English accents sounded almost the same for me, and when I watched the video, I was so impressed of how Americans have that many accents, even though I knew that the United States of America is almost a continent with all of its different regions and parts, and I was not supposed to be that surprised of such a thing. I learned from the video that there are accents that I will not even try to understand, not only that it is hard to understand, but also because it is not as much of a useful language as the academic and simple English is. I also learned that people in the US have the habit of judging people by the way the talk, they usually consider the speaker’s accent as a first impression, and they build expectations upon it. I learned that people engage with those who match their accents; they usually act more confidentially since they expect their actions to be more understandable. I also learned that hand gestures are mostly affected by the speaker’s culture, and every culture has different tones and hand gestures that match the way people speak and act. Also, every accent has a significant way to express itself, some has that strong tongue that usually filled of bad word, other has that smooth tone like a pouring water, and each one of them has its way to specialize it from the other accents. Finally, accents usually express identities, and that is why people tend to hold on to their accents and encourage the upcoming generations to get attached to it.

3-I immediately connected with this film because of how it began.  The first woman, who spoke with a strong southern drawl, sounded just like my grandmother.  Since I grew up in South Carolina, I too had a southern accent, and although I eventually lost my accent, my mother still speaks with one. Everywhere we go someone stops her and asks where she is from. Although my mother takes it as a compliment because she is proud of her heritage; it would not surprise me if someone who is self-conscious of his or her accent would be bothered by it.  One of the biggest things I learned from this video is the stereotype that comes with each accent.  I always understood that a particular accent will come with a stereotype, but it was really interesting to see how each region would classify the other accents or dialects from different regions.  I also enjoy seeing how each region has a combination of languages and the history of each influence is really complex as well.  Between foreign language influences, geographic influence and pop culture, languages evolve and become almost unrecognizable from where they first began.  One thing I didn’t like about this video is that it played into stereotypes to exploit differences.  Because I am from the South, and have family near the Appalachian region that the video showed, I understand that those regions exist, but you really have to go search for it in order to find it.  One of the most amazing things from the video is the idea of code switching, where someone can turn off an accent and then regain it once they get back around people who are speaking with a similar accent and dialect. 

4-It is incredible how many different ways americans can talk and yet we all live in the same country. It is quickly realized how people are to jump the gun and make a judgement about somebody. The most stereotypical judgement is the southern accent quickly means they are unintelligent which is far untrue. There are many people who are highly educated but whose to judge if they grew up in that setting. Everyone has some type of accent; no matter what you think. It is unique and people who are not from your area could easily hear the accent or even the lingo and jargon that you use. For example, a workplace has certain jargon that the people who work there use. Its the language around but take that out to the world and people could be completely confused with what you're saying. Same goes for language and accents. You may not hear it, or even realize youre using something different but looking at you, someone else hears it. The video helped show me the ignorance inside me when it came to the dialects that people spoke. At first occurence, it never really occured to me the subtle judgements that I do when i hear something I'm not accustomed to naturally. In rebutle, i tend to try and fit the message to them when really, I should just accept it and want to learn more about their jargon and their culture. its quite intereseting that we are in one country yet so many different dialects are spoken. America really is a great big Melting Pot

5-I found this documentary to be eye opening. It is amazing how easily and severly people can be judged based purely off of their dialect. This is because people become familiar to the accent around them, so they find it weird when others have different accents. Plus, they associate different accents with different stereotypes.We are taught words from the people within our region. Which means we develop accents from our family members, and peers. There is more prejudice with the southern accent then any other, because in the northern mind it is associated with ignorance and racism. Regional accents such as a southern one, are used as comedic relief, or are viewed as the “bad guy” in media. Whereas the hero’s speak close to Standard English. Unfortunately having a certain dialect can limit a persons job opportunities, because they have the stereotype that they are not as smart. In reality, the reason Black English is not as socially accepted is because of the people who are speaking it. This is racism. There is no right or wrong accent, and everyone has one. However, there is a particular English accent that is favored by media, because it is easy for everyone to understand, and does not sound like it is coming from anywhere in particular. One interesting detail that stuck out to me was at that the video mentioned when people migrated from England they had many different accents from different areas. As people moved west in the United States, accents mixed together and became less distinct. This is why in the west it is harder to identify different accents. We use the words that are required within our regions. In Oklahoma there are many more ways to describe a rainstorm. Also, that people generally have one way for talking in a social setting, and one for talking in a business setting.