Is Having an Accent a Bad Thing?

Accents are subjective.

If a Bengali comes to the US, then he will have a Bengali accent.

If a Bengali who has been living in the US visits Bangladesh and speaks Bangla, then he will have an English accent.

I’ve experienced both.

When I came to the US, all my classmates were like:

‘Why do you talk like that?’

And whenever I would communicate in Bangla with my Bengali relatives, they’d make fun of my Bangla.

They’d say:

‘Arman speaks broken Bangla!’

Throughout my life, I hated my accents.

It’s bought an unwanted spotlight.

During my time at Toastmasters, I realized that accents can be leveraged.

Let me tell you about the dark parts and the good parts of having an accent.

The Annoying Part of Having an Accent

Have you ever been very skinny or fat in your life?

When talking to someone new, you couldn’t tell if they were going to bring it up.

I was very skinny for a while.

During my skinny stage, I would be having normal conversations with different people.

Then one day, they would just blurt out:

‘Bro, you’re so small! Don’t you eat?’

I’d hear that from multiple people who didn’t know each other.

It felt like they were just waiting to make a comment like that.

That’s what it’s like when someone has an accent.

They think they are doing a good job communicating with the other person.

The other person seems to be understanding…

Then one day, the other person blurts out:

‘It’s so hard to understand you, bro!’

They make the comment in a joking way.

Still, it stings.

Many folks who have an accent suffer from self-esteem issues.

They go out of their way to change it.

Changing an accent isn’t easy.

It’s because our voice is a part of who we are.

Should You Ever Change Your Accent?

I believe most accents are fine the way they are.

The people who have the accents are overthinking it.

They blow small comments out of proportion.

Some accents allow the speaker to have a strategic advantage.

They are unique when they get on stage.

I believe you should work on your accent when you are difficult to understand.

Some accents have a lot of mumbling involved.

If you’re still in your local region, that’s fine.

However, if you are moving to a new region where people enunciate, then a mumbling accent is bothersome.

Basic accent reduction is a fine strategy to take here.

You can either get a coach or just do a few exercises by yourself.

One exercise is to read a book out loud and enunciate.

Focus on breathing life into each word.

Once you are capable of doing that, go from “word mentality” to “sentence mentality.”

Read sentences while articulating.

Another habit is to post more public content.

Creating content online forces you to be more cognizant of your words.

The accent won’t fully melt away.

However, the bad parts will fade while the good parts remain intact.

Leveraging your Accent

I knew this one guy who had a big online audience.

I thought he had an understandable voice, but he struggled with confidence.

He kept thinking something was wrong with his accent.

So, he hired an accent coach.

For the next few months, the accent coach worked with him to change his speech patterns.

And this guy’s speech patterns changed.

But I wouldn’t say the change was for the good.

Soon, his audience began making fun of him.

They were like:

‘Dude, you need to fire your voice coach. You sound so fake now!’

That’s the first thing that I noticed.

He sounded fake.

He was trying to act like someone he wasn’t.

And that was a problem.

Trying to radically change your accent will ruin your credibility with others and yourself.

Soon, he fired his voice coach and went back to owning how he sounded.

Can You Be Successful with an Accent?

I believe one of the best examples of someone who owned his accent was Conor McGregor.

In 2016, Conor had a meteoric rise in the fight scene.

He was knocking fighters out, stealing the spotlight in press conferences, and creating memorable punchlines.

Not only was he a fighter, but he was also a talker as well.

He had this strong Irish accent that was noticeable.

However, the way that he carried himself made the accent unnoticeable!

I never thought for a moment:

‘Hm… his accent is really bothering me.’

Instead, I thought his accent was a breath of fresh air!

Arnold Schwarzenegger was like that too.

His accent allowed him to have a memorable movie career.

In Toastmasters, I noticed that the top speakers didn’t shy away from their accents.

They leaned into it.

The best way to lean into your accent is to act like it doesn’t even exist.

When you act like it’s not a problem at all, it becomes a weapon.

When you get on stage, others are like:

‘He seems unique for some reason. Let me hear him speak.’

The audience has a problem with the speaker’s accent when the speaker has a problem with the speaker’s accent.

Read that again.

When the speaker has a problem with how they sound, they mumble and refuse to enunciate.

But when they are like:

‘My accent is a weapon! I will utilize it.’

That’s when they keep the color of their accent while enunciating boldly.

Your accent is a weapon!

There’s No Such Thing as a Perfect Voice

Who do you believe is the greatest speaker out there?

Take some time to think about it.

• Jordan Peterson.
• Barack Obama.
• Steve Jobs?

List someone.

You see that perfect speaker?

Guess what?

There are 1 to 5 million people on the planet who hate the speaker’s voice.

They think the speaker sounds nasally and boring.

Where there is love, there is hate.

If someone doesn’t like your accent, it’s all good.

• No one likes everything of anyone.

Be real with yourself.

Do you enunciate?

If not, then consider taking basic accent reduction classes or doing basic accent reduction exercises.

If you do enunciate, then understand that your accent is a part of you and your brand.

Rather than eliminating it, leverage it.

For more public speaking insights, check out the Speaking Wizard eBook: