Should you change your accent?

I saw on my feed yesterday that parents in Nigeria are paying for their children to “acquire” or “learn” a British accent. This has been touted as “elocution or pronunciation” lessons.

As someone who is passionate about helping people communicate effectively and speak well, and having offered such lessons to public speakers in the past, I have a number of thoughts on the topic.

Coincidentally, I watched an interview on Good Morning Britain today where British celebrity Mark Wright admitted to taking elocution lessons. He was accused of discarding his roots by polishing his accent. Mark’s response was that having got a gig in LA, he was made aware that his Essex accent posed a problem because it was difficult for people to understand him properly.

The fact is that accents have become a form of social capital. People immediately form opinions about you when you open your mouth. They place you, assess you and judge you just by the way you sound.

So for better or worse, certain accents have emerged as acceptable whether it is the posh British accent or the American twang.

The question is to what extent should we allow ourselves drawn into this form of social categorization?

Our striving Nigerian parents are echoing the sentiments that have long being an issue in the same Britain they are aiming to emulate.

So, the question is “does your accent affect your chances in life?”

A survey by Census wide for Good Morning Britain has found that one in four people think you should change the way you speak to be more successful at work.

I know the complexities of growing up in the Nigerian environment especially in certain cultures that have problems with correct articulation of sounds. These can affect a person’s speech. We have the “h-factor” for the west, the “r factor” for the east and the “f factor” for the North.

If you have problems with the way you currently sound and want it addressed then, please go for it.

If you feel your current accent is hindering you from being properly understood, work on it. There are exercises to do that would help you speak clearly and be understood.

If you are a public speaker and have difficulty being understood, hire a coach. Identify the problem areas and commit to working on it.

My advice is this “strive to be understood, strive for clarity”.You don’t want your content getting lost because people are unable to understand you or are having a hard time wondering if you said air or hair.

If you feel your accent affects your chances of success, then like everything in life, work on it. But work on it to the extent that it does not become an obsession with being who you are not. Elocution and sounding like an Americana or British by force smacks of an identity crises.I would caution parents, that you don’t/should pay for children to acquire an accent but you can pay to have your children taught the right principles of enunciation, elocution and pronunciation. These with a dollop of good character, a serving of sound education and right opportunities will give them a great start in life.

Speaking well is not about an accent. It is the making the right sounds, properly voicing the vowels and consonants, difficult words and phrases etc. This is about articulation, place of articulation and manner of articulation.

The truth is that everyone has an accent. You can’t really eliminate an accent. It is what makes you who you are.