Broken Accent

144 words

While in France I constantly had to tell people I didn’t speak French, yet in Mexico, I am sometimes told I speak my timid, limited Spanish with a French accent.

Months ago on Air France from Madrid to Paris, I hesitated to use Spanish, afraid I may seem to be a Frenchwoman avoiding her own language.

Walt Kuhn, Chico in Top Hat, 1948. As seen at the Thyss…