Don’t make accent a communication hurdle

Swati Rai

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At times, lack of clarity in communication could be because of accents at play. This is especially true in case of multinational companies that have offices in various countries and that hire employees of several nationalities. Do accents — even if the language is  the same, that is English — affect corporate communication and should we acquire a foreign accent for better communication? Here’s finding answers.

A reality across the world 

Sound of words differs from region to region and country to country, which effects their pronunciation. Also, the stress on a word and sentence, rhythm of a language and intonation patterns vary in languages. Stereotyping workforce on the basis of accent is what communication in the corporate world should not subject itself to. 

Considering the many differences in English that exist all across the world, in the global communications context, the focus is largely on pronunciation techniques, rather than on training the manpower in acquiring an ‘accent’. 

Learn the dialect, don’t fake

Faking an accent is not the way to communicate effectively. A way to enhance one’s auditory understanding is to familiarise oneself with different accents. This could be done by recording authentic speech samples to get attuned to different-sounding words and intonation patterns. Websites, apps and podcasts also help in this process of understanding various accents.

Listening right

Upping one’s listening quotient, especially for understanding nuances of a second language, will help develop a better speech. Observing rhythm and tone of the language and zeroing in on key words to gauge the meaning will help. Some ground work on the language and modulation of voice supplementing it can greatly enhance one’s understanding of a foreign speech. 

Don’t let ‘r’s overpower 

There exist many varieties of English all over the world. This is also found true for countries where English is the first language. Therefore, laying premium on one particular accent could well be a mistake. The key aspects of communicating right are clarity and intelligibility, rather than rolling one’s ‘r’s to imitate an accent. Faulty choice of words and sentence structure can be more detrimental to communication than just accent. Working on avoiding lexis and slang or out-of-place words can go a long way in ensuring a smooth communication. In the modern-day business world, where communication spans borders and technology, one benefits from celebrating different accents and being sensitive towards many ways of speaking a language.

Practice is the key

Practising with a friend, reading aloud and listening to yourself and observing the rhythm of the English language as against one’s mother tongue can also help in understanding one’s own as well as the other’s accents. Having a very strong accent may sometimes negatively impact communication with a client, however working on it, and speaking slower than the usual pace serves the purpose. Focusing on pronouncing the sounds clearly can help. It will be difficult for us to pronounce some sounds of a foreign language as it would be for others to pronounce ours. This can sometimes cause confusion between the words pronounced. At the heart of it all is cultural tolerance in global communication, of which accent forms an integral part.