False speakers of language
In Chang-Rae Lee’s critically acclaimed 1995 novel, Native Speaker, a
Korean-American narrator called Henry Park tells the story of how he
came to fall in love with his wife, an American who is of interest to him
not just as a woman, but because as a speech pathologist she works with
children who are non-native speakers of English.
“People like me are always thinking about still having an accent,” he
tells her in their first discussion. What he does not say, but which is clear
to the character from real-life experiences is that people “like” himself
must always be thinking about having an accent, because that is what is
expected of them: to be different, and to externalize that difference with
language. Caught between his own and public expectations, Park can
please no one. When his wife leaves to travel without him, and perhaps