In school he talks little, and has made friends mostly with other Korean-speaking students. Carla Chamberlin, assistant professor of intercultural communication at Penn State Abington College, said even perfect English spoken with an accent can cause problems. People who have spoken English their whole life will often assume that anyone with an accent is unable to hold a conversation. For example, people whose jobs require them to speak with lots of customers, like store clerks, often assume anyone with an accent can barely speak the language. So rather than actually listen to what immigrants say, they will hear the imperfections in their pronunciation.
Biases affect what they hear.
Chamberlin is researching the effect those language breakdowns and racial divisions have had on Penn State's Abington campus. So far, none of the white, native-born Americans has freely admitted their own prejudices, but many have talked about an ambivalence toward learning about other cultures and subtle attitudes against people who are different. But they are also the most easily discouraged, especially because their speech allows locals to quickly draw assumptions about their intelligence. That's why they need supportive people around them to help them learn. Few native speakers can appreciate how difficult English is to learn, especially for immigrants with a different alphabet.