With only four years of college, international students don’t have time to focus on their insecurities.
This is the belief of Hailin Zhou and Duxing Liu, UO students from China who co-founded the Love My Accent campaign last year to give advice to international students and encourage them to be confident with their accent throughout their college careers.
When Zhou was a freshman, she struggled to get involved in communities on campus. This was mostly because she wasn’t confident in the way she spoke and she thought that most people couldn’t understand her.
After entering a business fraternity her sophomore year, she realized that she shouldn’t let her accent hold her back.
“I realized the point is not the way you speak,” Zhou said. “It’s what you say.”
She noticed that uncertainty with one’s accent was common among international students, and co-founded the Love My Accent campaign to provide a community for students overcoming the same challenges.
One of these students was Anne Lu, who struggled with being confident with her accent, especially when involved in group projects where other students were native English speakers.
“I can barely catch up with all of their ideas and points so at the very beginning I was afraid to speak in a group and share my ideas,” Lu said.
After discovering the Love My Accent campaign, she could relate to other students that had the same problems.
This was primarily through videos on YouTube called Senior Snap that feature UO seniors and alumnae from different countries. In each video, they offer students advice about how to succeed in college and a career.
Some students focus on how to be confident in an interview, how to network, or how to become involved with different groups on campus. The one piece of advice that is consistent with each video is to stay confident and not allow an accent to become a barrier.
“English is a language; it’s a form of communication and just because somebody doesn’t speak English fluently doesn’t mean that their knowledge level or intelligence level is low,” said Kyungla Chae, a speaker in the videos from South Korea. “It‘s a second language and it’s not going to be perfect.”
She stressed the importance of being confident with an accent and embracing its connection to a person’s nationality and culture.
A speaker at the Love My Accent showcase event in March, UO student from China Jing Li, used himself as an example of how accents don’t limit opportunities.
Even though he has an accent, he was offered an internship with Amazon, Jing said. He believes that as long as someone is well rounded, they have a chance at being successful.
The campaign encourages students to enjoy their time in college and be comfortable with their own voice, Zhou said.
“We want international students to be confident to speak their second language and to know that their accent is their identity,” Zhou said. “You don’t need to get rid of it.”