aganiké @neeti@eldritch.cafe

Is it time for a #reintroduction #introduction?

- I'm a writer, ex-journalist, now at a branding agency.
- I'm bi. My family doesn't know this.
- I talk about gender stuff, mental health, films/tv, linguistics.
- I speak ok French but I understand it well. Also: Malayalam, Hindi, Arabic.
- I grew up in the Middle East, studied/worked in India, live in Toronto now. All these places are home but also not home.
- I like meeting/talking to people virtually! Say hi!
- I also like bullet points.

https://catapult.co/dont-write-alone/stories/let-translation-guide-you-into-writing-writing-prompt-writing-exercise-poupeh-missaghi

the last time i went to the theatre was dec 27, 2019

hmm toxic relative i haven't talked to in 5 years has sent follow request on ig, should i accept yes or no

brb currently making plans to replace unhealthy obsessions with healthy obsessions

When I moved to Canada, my first job was at a call centre that was 95% immigrants. My first thought when I got the job was, "shit, I don't have the accent, how did they even accept me" -- followed by the thought that they'd teach the accent in the training period. Except, they didn't. It wasn't important. I thought that was amazing.

But outside of that industry (where immigrant accents are accepted, almost *expected*), things are just ugly in terms of bias.

The repercussions of this bias OUTSIDE of North America forces people without this mainstream accent to "put on" the desired accent; to have centres where education in English includes accent training; to even establish differences among their own kin as the "accented" one (meaning well-educated, higher in class and stature) and the non-accented one (not educated).

Sometimes I feel like companies here say they're big on diversity etc., but what they really mean is diversity that speaks in the same North American English accent as themselves.

You're not really "inclusive" until you include people who speak differently, until you stop going "what?" every time someone with a different accent speaks, until you unlearn the bias that a different accent means they don't know the language as well as you (and this bias is something I've faced personally).

excitttinggnggng

today's challenge: finish 50+ pages of proofreading before body crashes from caffeine boost

In other news, I am now in a "play ARK for many hours a day while ignoring real-life survival" phase

sorry but everything else seems to pale in comparison to the dumpster fire that is india's covid situation right now