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‘My friends would make fun of my accent’: Arunachal Pradesh woman recalls IIT Bombay experience
An Arunachal Pradesh woman has shared how friends mocked her accent at IIT Bombay, before she realised it helped her stand out in job interviews.
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An Arunachal Pradesh woman has recalled how her accent became a source of jokes during her years at IIT Bombay, prompting her to change the way she spoke to fit in. In a video shared on Instagram, Misaki said she later realised the same accent was helping her stand out during job interviews and while working with international clients.
‘I tried to sound more Desi’
“When I was in IIT, my friends would make fun of my accent. They would say things like, ‘Why don't you sound Indian? You are faking an American accent. You're a wannabe,’” Misaki said.
The comments made her conscious about the way she spoke, and she eventually tried to sound more Indian so she could fit in and feel accepted.
“So I did the dumbest thing possible: tried to make myself sound more Desi just so I could fit in, just so I could feel like I belong here, just so people could accept me,” she recalled.
Misaki said she felt she was “shrinking a part” of herself to make other people comfortable. She added that her friends sometimes found her accent unfamiliar, which made them hesitant to interact with her.
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Her perspective changed when she began appearing for job interviews. The accent she had once felt embarrassed about started helping her stand out among other candidates.
“When someone is interviewing 10, 20, 30 people a day, you really need to max out on everything possible to stand out,” she said.
According to Misaki, interviewers would often react to her accent before discussing her qualifications. “Because of my accent, people would often be surprised, and then I would have their attention, and they would say things like, ‘Oh, your English is really good.’”
She also pointed out that while some of her friends were better at grammar and vocabulary, she felt her accent created an impression of competence.
‘The accent builds trust’
After starting work in the corporate sector, Misaki said she noticed the difference even more while interacting with international clients.
“It was very clear to me that the accent builds trust even before you've said anything smart,” she said. She described how people appeared to pay more attention as soon as she began speaking and said she started sounding more “premium” and “elite” to them.
However, Misaki clarified that she was not suggesting an Indian accent was inferior.
“I’m not saying that Indian accent is bad, I’m just sharing with you jo bhi maine experience kiya,” she said.
Her message was that people should not let criticism about their accent hold them back. “So don't limit yourself because people are talking shit. If you want to refine your accent, go for it,” she said.
Check out the full video below:
People share their experiences
The video also prompted several people to share similar experiences in the comments. One person wrote, “I faced the same in my NIT college times.”
Another said, “This has also happened to me. My colleague asked me, ‘How come you don’t speak English in an Indian way?’”
“Why are people so obsessed with accent?” another person asked.
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Some commenters, however, offered a different perspective. One wrote that an accent may help create an initial impression, but “corporate communication is more about lucidity of thoughts than ornamental language.”
Another commenter said they sometimes felt interviewers appreciated their English more than their technical knowledge, adding that an IIT background and strong English could influence how candidates were perceived during interviews.
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)
