Well, for me at least, the good is that they make you sound interesting (all other things being equal of course, which they never are!). I remember reading some research (which I can’t find to reference, sorry!) suggesting that call centres tended to employ people from certain places because they and “generally trusted” accents – mild Scottish, Geordie and northern accents in particular.
BBC’s Today programme on radio four ran a fascinating section this morning (26th of March 2007) on accents and dialects (the listen again facility will be over-written by tomorrow’s programme I expect) prompted by work at the British Library.
As a presenter, of course, accents have a major downside too – and I hinted at it above when I referred to “mild” accents. Strong accents and dialects will tend to make your presentation, no matter how wonderful the content, harder for your audience to access.
Dialect – regional or class variations in grammar, syntax or vocabulary – is (relatively!) easy to spot in your presentation when you practice. Of course, it’s easier to do that if you’ve got someone listening to you who will pick you up on what you’re saying. Accent is altogether harder to deal with, because it’s sooo instinctive: you literally start learning it at your mother’s breast, so to speak.
There are dozens of elecution tutors out there who will help you deal with an accent if you want to change it – but I’m inclined to think that’s a bit of a shame. Your accent is a fundamental part of who you are and shouldn’t be abandoned without some serious consideration! Instead, what I suggest to the budding presenter-with-a-noticable-regional-accent is this….
- don’t sweat it – it might not be as strong as you think – don’t judge yourself from recordings;
- slow down slightly when you speak – but you should be doing this when you present in any case
- work hard on your clarity of diction – pay particular attention to pronouncing your consonants and (even more particularly) consonants at the end of words.
Between them, these three simple tips won’t solve the problem overnight, but they will mitigate it pretty efficiently!
