That's an easy answer -if they were taught English by American missionaries, they also picked up their accent. I love Dr. Rey, can't help it!!!
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That's an easy answer -if they were taught English by American missionaries, they also picked up their accent. I love Dr. Rey, can't help it!!!
OK, removing myself completely from my dislike of Roberto, and even setting aside that as he tells the story, the missionaries rescued him from a neglectful, seldom-present father, thus making it unlikely that Rey Sr was faithfully attending English classes, and with the qualifier that just about anything is possible, and even the most likely things have happened somewhere, sometime, to somebody, it is about as close to impossible as we can get that anyone, in any class taught by anyone else, is going to actually become fluent in another language without day-to-day regluar life exposure that would be extremely difficult and unlikely to be present in an environment where a language other than the target is predominant.That's an easy answer -if they were taught English by American missionaries, they also picked up their accent. I love Dr. Rey, can't help it!!!
Even someone with an extremely high natural flair for language, and an exceptional talent for mimickry - and mimickry is what we do when we practice pronunciation in a language we are learning - is not going to achieve the same result as someone with even a lower natural ability for language learning who lives for a time in an environment where the target language is heard almost exclusively. And the "time" for most people would be in terms of years.
Even then, it is not unusual for someone to live for decades in, for example, the United States, study, work, raise a family, and still retain to some degree, an "accent."
The English proficiency of Rey Senior is that of a native speaker, and the accent he has is an American regional accent, some elements of which might be picked up in a class, but whatever the true story of the Rey family, missionaries, or anything else, including Rey Senior's language-learning abilities, or the teaching methods of the missionaries, this is a man who at the very least, spent a considerable number of years, most probably starting when he was very young, living in the United States, and hearing and speaking all English all the time.
It would be interesting to hear with just what accent he speaks Portuguese. Unfortunately, the show did not give me a chance to hear that, but Rey senior is either a native speaker of English, or so very nearly so that the difference in fluency is imperceptible, and that is not something that one comes by even going to very good classes for a long time and studying and practicing, even watching TV and listening to music in the target language exclusively - the best language-learning method - will not produce that result.
And I will re-emphasize that my opinion on Rey Sr's English would be exactly the same even if I really liked Rey Jr, or even if I had never seen the show, and saw only that part of that episode.
OMG me too!! I am always talking about the gap in her teeth. She is so obsessed with her weight and clothing and hair, etc...why not fix your grill?
I cannot stand her. First she complains because he is not ever home, then he comes home more and now she complains that he is home. She hated his martial arts, she wants to spend a million on a kitchen...ugh...the list can go on. I find myself feeling sorry for Dr. Rey sometimes..works so hard and makes all that money only to come home to her...
I don't remember hearing Rey Sr speak portuguese on the episode, but I can tell you that Rey Jr speaks portuguese with a heavy american accent. HEAVY. and this is something I've never understood because my family came to the US from Brasil over 20 years ago, and not one of us speaks portuguese with anything but natural fluency and 100% native accent. it's driven me crazy on so many episodes, I always wondered if he did it on purpose as way to remove himself from brasil and being brasilian. but when I heard Rey Sr speak perfect english, it all made sense: Rey Jr must have grown up in a house hearing his father speak portuguese with an american accent, so he does too. I'm sure Rey Sr is either an american who moved to brasil long ago, or spent a good part of his childhood in the US, or he had american parents.
He says he was 11 when he came to the US. In Utah, it is unlikely he would have much of a chance to hear Portuguese, use it, etc and I guess it is possible that his command of the language really could have degraded to the point it is now, as you say, his American accent is so heavy he sounds more like an American who took a year of it in high school, and didn't do so well with that.
However, by age 11, whatever languages we have learned are pretty firmly embedded in our neural pathways, and though our vocabulary and grammar skills might be frozen in time at that 11 year old level, even if decades pass and we do not hear a word of any of those first languages, we are not going to lose our basic ability to pronounce words!
I have wondered the same thing you have, if that might be an affectation, although he is not that old, if the community he was raised in was very conservative and solidly and even exclusively rooted in the US mainstream demographic, he might have indeed found it to his advantage to minimize his identity as a Brazilian, even though his appearance - and his father's - are more similar to that of South Americans who moved there from Europe toward the middle of the last century, in some communities, association with any "foreign country," especially one with such a large non-European population, could definitely impact one's ability to interact socially to the extent that people have been known to do a lot more than pretend they can't pronounce Portuguese!
One of those things that it is easy to condemn, until we reflect that in some situations it could be seen as a legitimate security measure.
I have also speculated along the same lines you mention about his father - Could Rey Sr have moved to Brazil from the US, and Roberto just doesn't mention that because he thinks it might have some bearing on how his story would be perceived? That we would think a neglectful, abusive father was any less awful because he had been born in the US and not Brazil? If so, that is just whack.
[edit] Childhood & Early Life
Roberto Miguel Rey Júnior was born in São Paulo, Brazil to Avelina Reisdörfer and Roberto Miguel Rey, an American-born naturalized Brazilian. The family lived in São Paulo until 1974, when Mormon missionaries brought Rey and his three brothers to the United States. Rey's family moved to Prescott, Arizona where he attended Prescott High School.[1]
He became a member of the Screen Actors Guild in 1980 and has appeared in national television advertisements, most recently a Carl's Jr. commercial in which "he advises a chicken to undergo breast augmentation surgery."[2] -
From wikpedia. Does this help?
Roberto Miguel Rey Júnior was born in São Paulo, Brazil to Avelina Reisdörfer and Roberto Miguel Rey, an American-born naturalized Brazilian. The family lived in São Paulo until 1974, when Mormon missionaries brought Rey and his three brothers to the United States. Rey's family moved to Prescott, Arizona where he attended Prescott High School.[1]
He became a member of the Screen Actors Guild in 1980 and has appeared in national television advertisements, most recently a Carl's Jr. commercial in which "he advises a chicken to undergo breast augmentation surgery."[2] -
From wikpedia. Does this help?
^^^ It does! And thank you mshel, not only for solving the mystery, but giving us such an exellent object lesson in common sense. I bet I'm not the only one slapping my forehead and going "now why didn't I think of just looking it up?" 
Mshel -- thanks for shedding light on this mystery! No wonder Rey Jr speaks Portuguese with an American accent -- it's because his dad did, too!
The funny and ironic thing is, Rey Jr. also speaks English with an (Brazilian??) accent!!!
The funny and ironic thing is, Rey Jr. also speaks English with an (Brazilian??) accent!!!
anyone thing Dr. Rey's wife is pregnant again? the preview for th next show looks like she might be announce something big.
OMG I cannot stand how she draws her lipliner on the outside of her lip!! Who does that anymore, ewwwww!!!!
I honestly think her elevator is stuck between floors!!! But I do think Dr Rey is a hoot, and I love how he said Oh now I cant go in my band room because of "those tigers" LOL!!! I dont mind him at all, he seems like a nice enough guy!!!
It sure seems like it, or maybe just announce that she is willing to start trying for a baby.
I cant believe the season is over already
.On my Tivo, one of the episode's synopses said that Hayley has to "choose between having another baby and her CAREER." Uh, what is/was Hayley's career? I wasn't aware of one....?
Her career is spending her husband's money...ie- a million dollar kitchen just because she doesnt like it. I cannot stand her.
I know a lot of people don't like dr. reys wife. I just have to say she is the one who stopped him from delcaring bankruptcy. When they got together she is the only who helped him get out of debt. Something like 50 clients he forgot to even bill. I know she has a ton of issues but she does love him and their kids. I just think she needs to get out more and stop revolving her entire life around him and the kids. Everyone needs some down time and friends in their life, which it seems like she does not.
last note, fix that gap! I know they have enough money.
last note, fix that gap! I know they have enough money.