Accent

Someone said they couldn't understand my accent today. It made me feel different, external, inferior. Even when speaking mother tongue English sometimes I am misunderstood. 

I start to soften my accent and pronounce words in a more American way. I wonder how important an accent is. I wonder if it is a part of me that I would be betraying to change it. It seems like accents are picked up from parents and our communities as we grow up. They are a part of us, unique to our own background. They are a way we carry with us our history with every word. 

In South Africa someone told me I sound American and had lost my accent and I was shocked. Someone else asked me where I'm from. Yesterday someone asked surprised if I went to school in South Africa.

It seems I am losing my accent. Or maybe, it is changing with me.