By the time he is twelve, Frank Levy understands that to attain his wishes, he must depend upon himself. In the young adult edition of Life with an Accent we meet Levy as a happy toddler oblivious to political dangers. Seeking safety, in 1936 his family moves from Germany to the British Mandate of Palestine. Ten years later they emigrate to America to be with grandma. Again, Levy must change languages, cultures, even his name. With every effort to adapt, he sees that the history we live through matters.

Do You Like the Way Your English Accent Sounds? How you sound in English matters. Research shows this very clearly. Native speakers judge people with clear, easy to understand accents as proficient in English (even if in reality they're only beginners). On the other hand, they judge people whose accents are hard to understand as being low-level (Even if they're

In Neutral Accent, A. Aneesh employs India's call centers as useful sites for studying global change. The horizon of global economic shift, the consequences of global integration, and the ways in which call center work "neutralizes" racial, ethnic, and national identities become visible from the confines of their cubicles. In his interviews with call service workers and in his own work in a call center in the high tech metropolis of Gurgoan, India, Aneesh observed the difficulties these workers face in bridging cultures, laws, and economies: having to speak in an accent that does not betray their ethnicity, location, or social background; learning foreign social norms; and working graveyard shifts to accommodate international customers. Call center work is cast as independent of place, space, and time, and its neutrality—which Aneesh defines as indifference to difference—has become normal business practice in a global economy. The work of call center employees in the globally integrated marketplace comes at a cost, however, as they become disconnected from the local interactions and personal relationships that make their lives anything but neutral.