‘White girl' shares why speaking English with an Indian accent feels natural to her now

Hindustan Times

3 days ago

A German woman is capturing widespread attention on the internet — not just for her fluent Malayalam, but for her unique explanation of why she speaks English with a distinctly Indian accent. A viral video showed a German woman explaining why she speaks English with an Indian accent.(Instagram/keralaklara)
(Also read: 'Refuses to speak Tamil or Kannada': Bengaluru man calls out neighbour's English-only parenting)
The woman, identified as Klara, is a German language teacher by profession and is currently learning Malayalam. Posting under the Instagram handle @keralaklara, she recently shared a video that has since gone viral, garnering over six lakh views and numerous comments. "Why does this white girl have an Indian accent?"
In the now-viral video, Klara candidly addresses a common question she receives:
"Why does this white girl have an Indian accent when she speaks in English? She's not Indian."
To this, Klara responds with clarity and humour:
"No, I'm not Indian. I'm actually German and I should have a German accent while speaking in English. But, I'll tell you why I have an Indian accent."
She elaborates, "One reason is that I only talk to Indians in English. So, obviously, you adapt to what you hear. If I only talk to Indians, I will hear the Indian accent. So, I'm going to adapt to it and I will also talk like that."
She also ties it to her Malayalam studies: "The second reason is that I speak Malayalam. And while speaking Malayalam, you don't say everything in pure Malayalam. You use English words in between. And how do you pronounce those English words? In an Indian accent. Imagine I want to say, I want a fridge in Malayalam. I pronounce 'fridge' like Indian English. Now imagine I would use British English. I think that's the main reason."
Take a look here at the clip: Internet responds with fascination
The comments section on her video turned into a buzzing conversation. One user wrote, "Wow. So you know German, Malayalam, English accent, Indian accent English. That's awesome." Another added, "It's a Malayali accent, in fact."
Others praised her grasp of regional nuances: "Your accent is particularly specific to Kerala. Accents in each region differ and the Kerala accent is particularly distinct." Another commenter shared a personal anecdote, "My fiancée is German too but she's got more of a German accent. Recently her uncle told us she's slowly developing an Indian accent — that would be my Bangalorean accent."
(Also read: French man lists hilarious Indian English phrases he learned from his wife: 'It's normal only')
Not everyone was serious though. One user quipped, "Okay okay, we get it, you've got Malayali friends," while another offered empathy, "I would speak English with an Indian accent when conversing with elderly Indians because that felt more natural, even though it would drive my family crazy."