I irks me when Bahamian students go off to school in North America, and clad themselves with a persona of arrogance and superiorty.

I think that is because we lack confidence in ourselves.

Bahamians are the only people I know will leave home to go to school and drop their accents, and take on an "American" accent.

I would not say that is only to be found in Bahamians. Most people, when they live for an extended period of time in another culture, take on the accents and actions of the "locals." The one exception to this is the English. An Englishman can live for 50 years in a different culture and he still sounds like he just left England! I admire that! :uk:

I irks me when Bahamian students go off to school in North America, and clad themselves with a persona of arrogance and superiorty. Bahamians are the only people I know will leave home to go to school and drop their accents, and take on an "American" accent. What is up with that. I am proud to be Bahamian. I have been schooling in Canada for two years now, and I beam with pride when persons ask me "Where are you from?" I love to to say I am Bahamian. I love speaking with other Caribbean students and learn about their country and culture, as well as them asking about mine. Yeah there are some vibes there sometimes, put I dont let it bother me. I am Bahamian and that wont ever change. I'll try my best to get along, and hopefully other's will do the same. One can only try.

Please keep this discussion clean Teniel.

Thank you.

I am not trying to judge anyone, and the point of my discussion is not intended to focus soley on how a person talks, but there seems to be among some Bahamians a concious decision to eradicate their Bahamian culture in place of a more 'North American persona', and it just so happens to be nmanifested in their speech. It's deeper than that, it's more to do with loving and appreciate who you are, where you were born and raised, and the way you were brought up. I beleive that this way of thinking applies to a small number of Bahamians and not the majority, and to Delroy my apologies for insinuating bad language.

I am not trying to judge anyone, and the point of my discussion is not intended to focus soley on how a person talks, but there seems to be among some Bahamians a concious decision to eradicate their Bahamian culture in place of a more 'North American persona', and it just so happens to be nmanifested in their speech. It's deeper than that, it's more to do with loving and appreciate who you are, where you were born and raised, and the way you were brought up. I beleive that this way of thinking applies to a small number of Bahamians and not the majority, and to Delroy my apologies for insinuating bad language.

Thank you Teniel :)
We all have allot to learn about each other and there are many intelligent lurkers that visit this site frequently but never join in the discussions. Let's encourage them to join in by being kind to one another because you never know who you will meet here on Bahamas Issues.

Teniel, I know what you mean! I lived in the States for 7 years, and while I would not speak to an American or other foreigner with a rawbones dialect (ay?) I certainly would not perpertrate especially in front of other Caribbean people. I agree with Rory who says you pick up some inflections etc, but then there are the people who lose their minds. People I know who lived over there for about the same amount of time or less, come back with this lame (i.e. any Bahamian would know it is fake) black (sorry I mean URBAN) accent and then try to say they can't help it. Please, my 50 year old Bahamian aunt who lived in New York since she was 16 still sounds like a real Bahamian. :bahamas: