How foreign accents subconsciously shape the way we interact

By Alice Foucart, Researcher in psycholinguistics and bilingualism, Universidad Nebrija
Luca Bazzi, Phd, Boston University
Susanne Brouwer, Assistant Professor in Psycholinguistics, Radboud University

Imagine that you invite a friend, a non-native speaker of your own language, round for dinner. While cooking, you get distracted and the food ends up burnt to a crisp. Once the smoke detector stops shrieking, your friend might crack a joke to puncture the tension, something along the lines of “Wow! I didn’t know you were such an good cook!”

Among native speakers, the irony of the comment would be obvious, as is the intended response – ideally you say “Yes, I’m the best!”, then everybody laughs and you order takeaway. However, with a non-native speaker the irony of such a comment might…

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