Opinion

Americans Wonder Why Melania’s Accent Is So Bad Even After Living Here for Nearly 30 Years

There wasn't a single other voice like hers at Trump's latest hate-fest in New York.

Goot eveninguh, New Yark CEEDEE!” Melania said to the cheers of thousands of MAGA fans. That was the opening to Donald Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden yesterday, and at least for me, it marked what seemed like the most ironic opening of all time for something that would turn out to be a mostly anti-immigrant hate-fest.

Melania Trump has been in the United States for almost 30 years, having moved to Manhattan in 1996. Now, I’m bilingual, and have relationships with many friends who speak Spanish in accents so thick, you’d be amazed when you hear them speak English.

But they’ve been here as long as Melania has, and their accents have faded over time. It comes back, of course, when they speak their native language, or even speak in English to a friend who sounds like them. I used to have an Irish boss that you’d never know was born in Dublin until you heard him call his sister Caroline back in Ireland on the weekends.

Some people keep their accents, despite relative immersion in American culture, because they retain homes where they came from. When an American fan of the latest Superman or Spiderman actors hears them in an interview, they’re astounded that both of them are British.

But some people never lose their accents despite living in America because the majority of people that they speak to only speak their native language, or have the accent at least.

Here’s Mel at the Sunday rally:

That’s what I think the case is with Melania. It may be too late for her to lose her accent, even if she wanted to, because — and I’m speculating here — Donald doesn’t talk to her much. I think all of her long conversations were with her parents after she moved to the States. And for the longest time, the extent of Amalia and Viktor Knavs’s English capabilities covered just enough for the naturalization exam they took when she chain-migrated them here after her.

I think she was lonely.

In fact, I think she passed that same thing on to her son with Donald, Barron Trump. Melania said as much herself when she and her husband made an appearance on Larry King’s show way back in the day, when Barron was quite young:

“He has an accent?” Larry asks. “Well, he spend[s] most of the time with me, so…” replies Melania, laughing. And that’s not a slight accent on the lad, that’s as thick as his mother’s. It’s like he sees his dad for media appearances.

Barron’s young, though. He’s mostly lost his accent at this point, although he does speak Slovenian. He also holds dual citizenship like his mother. But he’s adapted more to the “Trump” lifestyle than Melania ever has.

Whatever the reason is that Melania holds on to her accent, I don’t honestly blame her. Even if she gets made fun of sometimes for it — and I didn’t intend to do that at the beginning of this article, I was just trying to do accurate transcription to set the tone for this piece — it must feel like a little bit of the home she must miss.

A life of money and fame can hardly be enough to replace a feeling that you belong somewhere. She definitely doesn’t belong in a giant, famous arena filled with people who hate immigrants.

meet the author

Andrew is a dark blue speck in deep red Central Washington, writing with the conviction of 18 years at the keyboard and too much politics to even stand. When not furiously stabbing the keys on breaking news stories, he writes poetry, prose, essays, haiku, lectures, stories for grief therapy, wedding ceremonies, detailed instructions on making doughnuts from canned biscuit dough (more sugar than cinnamon — duh), and equations to determine the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow. A girlfriend, a dog, two cats, and two birds round out the equation, and in his spare time, Drewbear likes to imagine what it must be like to have spare time.

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