So I am writing a short story...

Question

and i'm using dialogue. the person in the story has a Chinese accent.

this is an example

"Where you go today?" my father said with his typical Chinese accent.

Does that sound weird to you? How could I make it sound more sophisticated?

Answer 1

Ok, English is a very hard language to learn... thus many people who learn it as their second language do leave out some words and/or forget things (ex. 's).

So if you are trying to convey a chinese man who was born in China and moved to America, this would fit.  If it was an American born man with Chinese decent... he would have proper grammar.

But properly put, your sentence should be used this way:

"Where you go today?" he responded in his heavy Chinese accent.

Typical doesnt sound right.  And my father after the dialogue doesnt fit, make sure to introduce him earlier in the story... if you already have, then "he responded" would sound proper.

Answer 2

sorry i would just have him say where have you been? said pops, with his heavy/piercing/stereotypical/disapprovin... Chinese accent? i hope that helped :D

also yours does sound a bit racist

Answer 3

If you write the dialogue well, there should be no need to add "....with his typical Chinese accent...."

"Where you go?  Where you go today?", my Father asked.  

His voice rose in pitch and in volume at the end of his sentence.   I squirmed with embarrassment at his very Chinese sound...

"Where?  Where you go?   Today!  Where you go?   Huh?"

  His voice rose to nearly a scream....I was humiliated.   Could my new friends hear this, I wondered?

Answer 4

That sounds very racist...

And using "typical Chinese accent" implies that all people with Chinese accents have bad grammar...

Just because they are Chinese doesn't mean they need to have bad grammar.

There is a different between poor English skills and a Chinese accent.