Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Accents


Interesting. Seth Godin makes a point on his blog today that differentiation shaped by your accent can work as a disadvantage if you're not aware of it... He refers to how you speak, not necessarily your accent as such. It's about "the way you write and act. More than geography, accents now represent a choice of attitude." (read Seth's blog post here)

His point is that if you are different from him, he is less likely to trust you. This is where it gets interesting. Naturally we all relate to people we can easily connect with as they seem to be LIKE us and we all know like attracts like. The question should be: which kind of people would be open to the conversation on your particular accent? It's a mistake to want to appeal to everyone, you want to appeal to certain someones, and you should know who they are.

This natural selection process can work as a means of navigation in this crowded world of voices that: want to be heard, are looking to find answers, solutions and meaning. Instead of screaming loudly on twitter that you should be followed because you are so darn special, it would pay to listen first. They may listen if you have a news worthy accent and bring a remarkable story to the table. So the accent is not just a 'front' which enables you to connect to similar accents, but to lift this accent in such a way as well that it becomes something that by nature will attract attention, not because it's aiming to find it.

An accent is only interesting if it has value because people want to know about what story it is telling, not because they need to hear it all. Listening however is more of a factor in connecting with others then it is to speak. Put your ear to the ground, talk later.

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