0127 – The US Waitress Who Didn’t Understand My UK Accent

0127 – The US Waitress Who Didn’t Understand My UK Accent  VOICE BOXIt is well acknowledged that we often adapt our diction or pronunciation to fit in with those around us. If you’ve ever spent time in another country or another area of your own you may have started to speak in a similar way to those who were born and raised there.  A friend of mine who moved to the north of England speaks with a southern accent until she talks about the bathroom, when ‘barth’ is replaced with ‘bath’ with a much shorter vowel.  Most of us may change diction or pronunciation even just for a few minutes or hours, to fit in with a social group. The way you speak to a manager may differ from how you speak with your friends in a bar. And on other occasions you may have to put on a fake pronunciation to be understood. When in a restaurant in the U.S, a waitress asked me if I’d like a pre-meal drink. I asked for water in my ‘BBC-English’ accent. She didn’t understand and asked me again, and then a third time before I realised what the problem was. When I deliberately pronounced it “wah-ler”, she understood… Research commissioned by Santander in 2020 found that nearly half (46 per cent) of people questioned admitted they changed their voice to make themselves sound more well-spoken. 30 per cent of people changed their voice on the phone because they wanted to sound intelligent, and over a quarter (28 per cent) just wanted to make themselves sound posher.  For just under one fifth (17 per cent) it does not seem to be much of a choice as their regional accent comes through more on the phone and over one in 10 admit their voice changes depending on who they are speaking to. Brits seem to be putting on their phone voice for anyone and everyone, including strangers (18 per cent), clients (16 per cent) and even work colleagues (12 per cent). Although over a fifth automatically do it if they answer a number they do not recognise.  When it came to best celebrity voice, David Attenborough was voted the favourite, closely followed by Joanna Lumley and then Idris Elba.  Scots are the people most likely to change their voice on the phone to others with 46 per cent of Aberdeen residents admitting to doing this, closely followed by Brummies (45 per cent). People in Sheffield seem happiest with their normal accent, as 60 per cent say they do not change the voice when they are on the phone. People in Norwich feel the pressure to sound intelligent the most, as 52 per cent of people here who change their voice admit that’s their intention, whereas the lovely people of Sheffield feel proudest of their roots as 21 per cent say they try to sound more local on the phone.  The research also revealed that 46 per cent of people use their fingerprint to access banking and payment services, but less than one in ten (9 per cent) use Voice ID – despite your voice being as unique as your fingerprint.  =Through these under-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios.And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2021.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license  "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70 License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license Hosted on Acast. 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