Quote Originally Posted by Johanna
Then I travelled to Asia and heard people in ex-colonies speak TERRIBLE English, with very strong accents and full of grammatical errors. I noticed that they were not embarrassed and that people could understand them fine and nobody laughed....
Depends on what company you keep. If you have an accent and your in the midst of insidious teens, then chances are you will be a laughin stock every time you say something off. With teens its all about mediocrity - being different will push them to pick on you. Teens don't care for people who do not conform.
If your aquaintances are business people who do busiess with you, they could care less about your accent, so long as they can take in everything you say (ok, lets lower the bar, most of what you say). All they care about is their profit margins.
I speak english with a slight accent, but a few years ago my accent was horrendous And I'm still trying to put an end to my accent, to have it licked so I will sound like an all around died in the wool American. (Ok, I have a liking for the USA, its my favorite place on Earth)