Have you ever judged anyone on how they sound, their accent, their pronunciation,

their use of slang? Or maybe you've been on the other end of that. Someone has looked down on you

because you don't sound like them. Yes, to both questions, it's not just what we say that can

lead to misunderstandings and division. It's how we say it.

This is Let's Find Common Ground. I'm Richard Davies.

And I'm Ashling Naltite. I'll guess this week a journalist, Jessica Mendoza,

and Jing Nan Peng of the Christian Science Monitor. They're the hosts of a new podcast called

Say That Again, about how we sound, how we listen, and how we can all come to better understand

each other. An accents are also about identity. The four of us know this first hand because we've

all been newcomers to the US. And we share some personal stories in this episode. Actually kicks

off our interview. Can you tell us a little bit about your own experience with Accentral,

I say, which you've both had since moving to the US. Jing, maybe we can start with you.

So I grew up in Beijing until the age of 18. And then I came to the US in 2011 for college and

then for work. And so the past 10 years, I've pretty much been living in the US. I started learning

English since I was two. And perhaps because of that, I've managed to not have a

pronounced non-American accent. But because my English does not have a obvious foreign sound,

I think that has definitely helped me integrate and perhaps be treated as more competent.

And intelligent. And to not have a lot of those times when people become annoyed at me or impatient

at me because they can't understand me. Well, Jess, what about you? I think to many people,

they just assume that you were born and raised in the US. Yeah. So I grew up in the Philippines,

have been speaking English. Basically my whole life, I don't actually recall learning the language.

But I think really what it is, I started my career in broadcasting. I was a radio DJ and had

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