I was in a shop just now when a Sikh was talking to his wife, in I presume Hindi.
I live in an area of England where we have what is known as the Estuarine accent, which to foreigners would probably be described as Cockney(though it isn’t and genuine Cockneys can tell the difference).
Though speaking in a language that I don’t understand, he sounded distinctly Estuarine, and when I had a brief chat to him in English he still had an Estuarine accent.
His wife had an Indian accent when they were conversing.
Now I realise that I’m probably completely wrong, but do second, or third generations of migrants who’s homeland languages are not English slip into the accent of where they live even when they 're speaking their hereditary accent ?
Do third generation people of Arab descent speak Arabic with a Scouse accent ?
Do the descendants of Poles who settled here during the war speak Polish with a Brummy or Geordie tinge ?
I have heard Chinese-Americans (born in the States) speak Mandarin with a noticeable American accent. Which wasn’t terribly unusual to me, until I met a cousin who lived in Arizona and his American-accented Chinese (when forced to speak the language) was definitely twangy.
I even know several people who speak English with a foreign language accent, spanning Chinese, Italian, and Russian, who have little or no ability to speak that language. Kinda warped but there you go. The Kissinger Effect, in a way.
I know several residents of Belize. English is their native language, but they all speak it with what sounds like a mild Central-American Spanish accent.
Not really the same thing but I used to take spanish classes with a girl who had a very strong Valley Girl accent in her English speech that translated into her Spanish. It was a little weird hearing her say, “Hola? Me llamo Courtney?” in that weird up inflected way.
Most people have a language they feel most comfortable with, and that tends to influence whatever other languages they speak (IME). I’ve met plenty of x-generation Koreans abroad who speak Korean with some sort of accent.
I knew a Chinese guy who spoke most English with a Chinese accent, because he’d learned to speak English in China, but swore in a southern accent, because he’d learned to swear at NC State.
I have a few second-generation Hispanic friends, and I find their Spanish sooooo much easier to understand because it has a distinct American accent. But I think they were not so diligent in keeping the language as they grew up, and had to relearn much of it in HS. IOW, they understood it fine all along, and picked up the speaking part again very easily, however they can’t quite get the accent right because they didn’t speak it much as kids.