Berkshire Eagle: Accents in the Berkshires

GREAT BARRINGTON — Growing up in Leningrad had to be pretty bleak, right? Surely, escaping the Soviet Union for America must have been most Russians’ dream.

“No,” says Natalia Smirnova, laughing. “Growing up in the Soviet Union was great. We had a very nice childhood. Now, being an adult, I understand the value of the free day care facilities for kids. I remember those days as nothing bad.”

Read more at: http://berkshireeagle.com/stories/accents-podcast-meet-natalia-smirnova,515070

Read the story: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/meet-arsema-abegaz-education-is-a-lifelong-pursuit-for-this-williams-grad,513686

Born in Ethiopia, raised in Botswana and steeped in the very different cultures and languages of those disparate African countries, Arsema Abegaz speaks American English without even a trace of an accent.

“Being young and impressionable, I did not enjoy sticking out like a sore thumb every time I spoke,” Abegaz explains in her Pittsfield apartment. Now 25, she came to the Berkshires in 2010 to study at Williams College.

“And so I found myself putting on an American accent my first year,” she continues. “I do pick up languages and accents pretty quickly. By the time I was a junior, I realized one day that I wasn’t putting it on anymore.”

Abegaz speaks Amharic, the language of her Ethiopian parents. One of the stereotypes people tend to assign to Ethiopia is that the country has produced a lot of champion marathon runners.

“Well …,” she says, with the exact ironic inflection any American-born 20-something would add. “In high school, I ran cross-country.” She was actually good enough to be considered for Botswana’s national team.

“It is a stereotype because to some extent it’s true,” she says. “That is one of the most positive stereotypes that has come out of Ethiopia.”

PITTSFIELD — They fell in love through their letters; old-fashioned, handwritten envelope-with-stamp snail mail letters. But it took 14 years before the internet sealed the deal.

Alan Franco, from Mexico City, and Melissa Schermerhorn, from the Berkshires hilltown of Peru, met in 1994 in the Cozumel tourist resort where he worked. Franco was an entertainment director and dance instructor at the beach hotel.

Read more at http://berkshireeagle.com

PITTSFIELD — Ahmed Ismail’s bride, Michela, had tears in her eyes, but not necessarily because of wedding emotions. Tear gas and worse filled the streets of Cairo when they got married.

Ismail, from Giza, Egypt, and Michela Tagliapietra, from Lenox, met in 2010 when Michela and her mother toured Egypt’s archaeological treasures. Mom and daughter stayed at the hotel where Ismail worked. Ahmed and Michela fell in love and kept the relationship going between the city of the Great Pyramids and the Berkshires.

Read more of his story at BerkshireEagle.com

Her colleagues at Housatonic Curtains stopped sewing when the news broke about the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Gloria Escobar-Huertas could sense her co-workers' fear. But she didn’t understand.

“At that time I didn’t speak English and nobody around me could explain the situation,” Escobar recalls. “So I didn’t know if I had to get out of the building, or what else to do. Only when I came home and could watch the Spanish TV channels I understood how big was the catastrophe.”

Read the whole story and find Gloria's recipe at http://berkshireeagle.com

PITTSFIELD — Paul Saldana would have been a pilot if joining the Ecuadorian Air Force hadn’t been beyond his means.

OK, sure, as a boy in Azogues, Ecuador, young Paul’s real dream was to become a midfield star of his country’s most illustrious soccer team: Barcelona.

But next to the many hours of fútbol practice and pick-up games — “My happiest childhood memories” — he had studied physics and mathematics to be able to qualify for military flight training.

Read more at: http://berkshireeagle.com/stories/accents-podcast-meet-paul-saldana-a-chef-turned-developer-who-found-his-way-from-ecuador-to-the,507973,507973/p/stories/accents-the-voices-of-our-immigrant-neighbors-in-the-berkshires,492728

WEST STOCKBRIDGE — As a child in Indonesia, I’in Purwanti was the ringleader of a band of pint-sized private investigators.

“My childhood was very adventurous,” Purwanti says. “I wanted to be a detective. I read a lot of detective books so I would tell my friends every Sunday, ‘hey we need to go solve a mystery!’

“And then we would go out and find things and get into trouble.”

Read more of her story at: http://berkshireeagle.com/stories/accents-podcast-meet-iin-purwanti,507166?

PITTSFIELD — Baffour Tontoh already has the name, investors and a business plan for the intercity bus company he wants to start back home in Ghana. Roots of that enterprise – Impulse Transportation – will be in Pittsfield, where he has lived for the last six years.

“I came here for a reason,” Tontoh says, “and when that is accomplished I will go back home. Home sweet home.”

After graduating from the University of Ghana, he worked in the financial services industry in his home country and in Manchester, England. The reason he came to the United States was to get a master’s degree in business and to gain business experience.

Read more at http://berkshireeagle.com

WEST STOCKBRIDGE — Talk to Flavio Lichtenthal about his Argentinian childhood and soccer comes up a lot. On the streets of Buenos Aires that’s what boys play.

“I was actually a totally mediocre soccer player but when I came to the States I was one of the stars of my high school team,” Lichtenthal says. “Because I could actually kick the ball and make it go in the intended direction.

Read more of his story at: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/accents-podcast-meet-flavio-lichtenthal,505915

PITTSFIELD — Elegant Stitches, the customized embroidery shop now located at 237 First Street, started in Vivian Enchill’s basement in Pittsfield.

Vivian had left Ghana to join her husband Alfred, who had already made the move to the Berkshires. Designing clothes was both her trade and her passion in her home country. So, setting up shop and marketing her clothes in her new country made sense.

Read the rest of Vivian's story at: http://berkshireeagle.com/stories/accents-podcast-meet-vivian-enchill-a-woman-designing-her-path-in-the-berkshires,505282?