San Diego Voice and Accent

Is there such a thing as a “corporate accent”? TikTok seems to think so! I’m not quite sure TikTok knows the true definition of  the word “accent,” at least not the definition that I learned in graduate school. Broadly speaking, an accent can be defined as the “features of pronunciation which identify where a person is from, regionally, and socially,” according to David Crystal in his book, “A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics.” Mr. Crystal is an honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor, so - and I’m going out on a limb here - but I think it’s fairly safe to say that his definition is much more credible than whatever TikTok is putting out into the world. But that being said, the “corporate accent” TikTok trend possibly has some truth to it, though I don’t think it necessarily means it has to be negative or harmful. It’s not the “accent” of the corporation that “Corporate Erin” on TikTok is upset with. It’s the way she was treated by those in leadership positions that’s made her so mad. What are your thoughts? Is there such a thing as a “corporate accent”? https://lnkd.in/gJ3_W4RH

This is incredible! The brain never ceases to amaze me with what it can do - even a dog’s! Intonation and melody make up a HUGE part of an accent (maybe even more than strict pronunciation of vowels and consonants), and this dog nails it! What do you think? Does this dog convince you that he’s “speaking” Italian? 😅 https://lnkd.in/ghvmcJuS

This absolutely shocked me when I read it. A study that was published in the August 2023 issue of the journal Languages found that university students who speak English as a second language (i.e., non-native speakers of English) are usually overly harsh on themselves when speaking English. The study found that the participants (who were all non-native speakers of English) underestimated how much they were liked by about 14 percentage points. This is called the liking gap, and it exists for native speakers of English as well as non-native speakers. It appears that everyone, regardless of their first language, gender, or nationality, underestimates how much they are liked by others. But this study showed that the liking gap is even BIGGER for people who speak English as a second language. And even more shocking? The female participants underestimated their English speaking skills and social interactional behavior by a whopping 16 to 17 percent (!!), regardless of the gender of the person they were talking to in the study. Wow - that is staggering! Let’s extrapolate this finding to the future academic and social interactions that a non-native speaker will have in their lifetime: - If a non-native speaker has lower confidence about their ability to communicate in English, this can lead to that person believing that they aren’t liked. - This belief about being unliked could potentially limit that person’s ability to interact with others, and essentially create a barrier to having beneficial interactions with others. - This barrier to having beneficial interactions with others could hinder that person’s ability to develop their English communication skills and foster meaningful relationships with other people. - And this could have cascading effects on that person’s academic performance, social life, and career. Key takeaway here: This can’t be stated enough: Confidence is key. If you want to speak with more authority and clarity, you have to believe in yourself and your capabilities as an English speaker. The #1 outcome of English pronunciation training is greater confidence. This has been true for every single client I’ve worked with, and it will be true for you as well. If you want to boost your confidence when speaking English, let me know in the comments or reach out via the link below. Let’s create a game plan to help you become the confident speaker you’ve always wanted to be.