Speech
Somehow yesterday conversation turned to accents. A friend has a parent who speaks something other than English as a first language and didn't teach it to the kids in order to keep them from speaking accented English. She was trying to keep them being discriminated against due to their speech. While I think learning more than one language especially as a kid rocks I do get the reasoning. When you've been mocked or dismissed based solely on how you talk it sticks out in your mind and who doesn't want to keep their kids from unnecessary pain? If only it were so simple.
I don't have a pin pointable accent. I sound like any middle classed north american when I talk which has been rather amusing in work situations where I've had phone interviews. When I show up in person people are often taken by surprise since based on my voice and speech patterns I'm most often assumed to be a young college educated white female. I am female so that's something. Sad to say that this has actually been beneficial. Funny how common assumptions are made by speech alone, the frustrating thing is when no matter how often some people are presented with evidence to the contrary they insist on believing I am an anomaly and all the other black women sound completely different. I'm actually pretty average in that I speak one way while working and another while relaxing.
The way I speak isn't an indicator of worthiness simply an example of my understanding of what is appropriate. Now while I don't think business calls need to be littered with slang or profanity I see accents as a completely different thing. Some people's speech is easy to recognize by region some highlights that English isn't their first language. What accents don't do is make it easy to determine who is more qualified, intelligent or worthy. Hell they don't even consistently mark native born folks from those who are immigrants. With that in mind I think it behooves us all to take a second to examine what our reactions are to the various accents we hear and how that shapes our opinion of the people talking. Basically we need to check ourselves and be more aware of our prejudices and stereotypes.
I don't have a pin pointable accent. I sound like any middle classed north american when I talk which has been rather amusing in work situations where I've had phone interviews. When I show up in person people are often taken by surprise since based on my voice and speech patterns I'm most often assumed to be a young college educated white female. I am female so that's something. Sad to say that this has actually been beneficial. Funny how common assumptions are made by speech alone, the frustrating thing is when no matter how often some people are presented with evidence to the contrary they insist on believing I am an anomaly and all the other black women sound completely different. I'm actually pretty average in that I speak one way while working and another while relaxing.
The way I speak isn't an indicator of worthiness simply an example of my understanding of what is appropriate. Now while I don't think business calls need to be littered with slang or profanity I see accents as a completely different thing. Some people's speech is easy to recognize by region some highlights that English isn't their first language. What accents don't do is make it easy to determine who is more qualified, intelligent or worthy. Hell they don't even consistently mark native born folks from those who are immigrants. With that in mind I think it behooves us all to take a second to examine what our reactions are to the various accents we hear and how that shapes our opinion of the people talking. Basically we need to check ourselves and be more aware of our prejudices and stereotypes.
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