I recently saw a situation where people were saying to Xiran Jay Zhao that the only way they were going to score a perfect 10/10 is, and I'm paraphrasing, "if their accent got better." Worse yet, the example that they ostensibly gave 9/10 to was spoken in perfectly grammatically correct French, and the accent was just a bit funny because it was spoken in a non-francophone accent, much like mine.
Way to invalidate the plethora of accents around the world. If football on the telly is any indicator, it has become easier for us to follow the flow of accents around the world. Enunciation and pronunciation are one thing, but there is no excuse to nitpick an accent when there are no enunciation and pronunciation issues. I am immediately inclined to see a racist streak, when that happens.
As someone based in the UK, this brings back a communal memory of the BBC in decades past where they insisted on Received Pronunciation exclusively, to the detriment of all regional and foreign accents. We know that that is problematic. In this day and age we only need to watch Match of the Day to know that we have moved on from that. The amount of top-level players we hear speaking in thicker accents that tell us the story of where they came from should surely tell us something?
If it is racist / divisive in one language, it is racist / divisive in another language. We're not talking about someone who is deliberately mispronouncing a language to take the piss out of it here (now that would be inexcusable). We're talking about someone who 1) not only speaks decent French, but has also posted in that language on occasion in socials, and 2) made an "almost perfect" go of it and was nitpicked for their foreign accent.
I can't begin to tell you just how fucking scared I have been to sing in French because of this. What difference is there between that, and fomenting uncertainty and crippling doubt among nonnative English speakers who want to sing in the language they have come to love, but fear they can't for fear of being nitpicked in the same way? I know a whole slew of musician friends who are in this situation, but in English. I've heard people in my own country say "if you can't speak in our accent, go back to your own country." This is inexcusable to us English-speakers, and I've witnessed this behaviour too many times. That's grounds for a hate speech report, by the way.
What gives French-speaking communities a pass to basically turn round and say "your accent does not pass, therefore your French is not perfect"?
Xiran has previously recommended another channel that examines media from a Chinese perspective, called Accented Cinema. If the presenter of that channel were to even ask for their accent to be rated, then as a native English-speaker, it is NOT MY PLACE.
NONE OF THIS IS FUCKING OKAY. FULL STOP.
And, I want to stress, it is NOT a "cultural difference" to nitpick someone for their accent when their language has no problems. That is not a "cultural difference," that is something more sinister.