Asian American Stereotypes
The United States is thought to be the nation of immigrants and a melting pot, which immigrants from all over the world come to the US to settle in. In particular, Asians comprise about 5% of the US population and it is considered the fastest growing minority group in the United States. Asian Americans are often overlooked in the media and the Asian American speech have only recently received attention from the media. Nowadays Asian Americans are being portrayed more in popular media pieces. However, these media representations tend to be stereotypical, often portrayed as negative. The stereotypes of Asians range from martial arts master to hard working, diligent nerds. Even though Asian Americans resided for 4,5 generations, Asians are still
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Asians who are non-native English speakers will have something in common – the way they speak English in an accent or wrong use of grammar (Lippi-Green, 1997 p.286). Some of the features of Asian English would include neutralization of the phonemic distinction between /r/ and /l/, and between /r/ and /w/, and alveolarization of voiceless interdental fricative “th” // to /s/ (Chun, 2004). Example of neutralization of the phonemic distinction between /r/ and /w/ would be the word “wrong” can be pronounced as “wong” in Asian English. Back in 2002, the clothing retailer launched a line of T-shirts using jokes about Asians. One particular T-shirt said “Wong Brothers, Laundry Service; Two Wongs can make it white” (Facebook). One representation of Asians are that Asians work in the service industry by referring to the laundry service. Also, it mimics the saying “two wrongs can make it right”, playing on the stereotypical difficulty of pronouncing the /r/ sound in Asians. When Asians can’t pronounce the /r/ sound like speakers of Standard American English, wrong turns into wong and right turns into white. Another example of stereotypical phonological features of Asian English would be alveolarization of voiceless interdental fricative “th” // to /s/, as in “thank you” (Chun, 2004). Asians, especially Chinese people often says “sank you” on the media by turning the “th” sound to “s”
Asians who are non-native English speakers will have something in common – the way they speak English in an accent or wrong use of grammar (Lippi-Green, 1997 p.286). Some of the features of Asian English would include neutralization of the phonemic distinction between /r/ and /l/, and between /r/ and /w/, and alveolarization of voiceless interdental fricative “th” // to /s/ (Chun, 2004). Example of neutralization of the phonemic distinction between /r/ and /w/ would be the word “wrong” can be pronounced as “wong” in Asian English. Back in 2002, the clothing retailer launched a line of T-shirts using jokes about Asians. One particular T-shirt said “Wong Brothers, Laundry Service; Two Wongs can make it white” (Facebook). One representation of Asians are that Asians work in the service industry by referring to the laundry service. Also, it mimics the saying “two wrongs can make it right”, playing on the stereotypical difficulty of pronouncing the /r/ sound in Asians. When Asians can’t pronounce the /r/ sound like speakers of Standard American English, wrong turns into wong and right turns into white. Another example of stereotypical phonological features of Asian English would be alveolarization of voiceless interdental fricative “th” // to /s/, as in “thank you” (Chun, 2004). Asians, especially Chinese people often says “sank you” on the media by turning the “th” sound to “s”