What happens when your communication gets impacted by your belief that your accent makes you incompetent of telling others your story? What are the consequences of having a second language but feeling unsecured about your ability to speak it without an accent to make your point effectively go across?
So, is it the accent or your lack of self-confidence the one jeopardizing your networking skills and a successful job transitioning process?
On my former corporate life I was exposed to a diverse platform of clients that were from everywhere you could think of, even from places I did not know existed in our global geography. The meaning was that I worked in a particular organization with a very inclusive culture in which accents were taken as part of the day-to-day communications and where everyone was able to ask, if not understanding somebody else's words due to this reality. It was not a barrier but a cultural enabler that made it cooler, funnier, more relaxed and certainly inclusive to the point in which you would feel at ease and at your best by the acceptance of it. No offense was taken as no offense was intended. There was a global management team that felt like the Miss Universe contest but without the looks!
Certainly, though we experience everyday the consequences of a global market, we also live mostly in a domestic/local job culture in which we'll likely face what is called 'minority' or 'majority' tagging games. Does this matter when we talk about your accent and your level of confidence to market your brand? Do you feel a 'minority', I mean, less that something bigger and greater called 'majority'? Hopefully, you don’t.
You make your own brand with your history and then, you reveal it to tell the story that will connect you to those wanting to hear it and buy it.
So, do I believe in Accent Reduction programs? Certainly, if it is going to help you make yourself understood and at ease under any circumstance, then go for it but if what you are having is not an accent problem but a self-confidence issue, then you are looking at the wrong resource to get you on the right track.
First, let me give you some very old news, everyone, yes, EVERYONE has an accent. It is part of your roots and who you are. The trick is not to let the accent determine your professional identity but your own brand to be the one that speaks by itself with its own attributes. Do not misunderstand my words, I believe that if you live in a host country and you call it home, wouldn't it make sense for you to learn the language of it? However, there is a big difference between the accent and the lack of language proficiency, don't you think?
Second, TRUST yourself, your own guts and instinct more than anything else. I get quite often clients that have forgotten their STAR which is the inner talent that made them successful in their career journey to a point in which they can list the value of what they did with clear and tangible contribution. How can you go to an interview if you do not believe you've got what it takes and blame it to your own 'minority' sense or 'accent' image? It is just an image you made with words that does not tell the whole story of who you are and your previous successes. Life is no accident, so do not make your career a matter of coincidences when it's always been a matter of preparation, hard work and readiness to take on the next steps.
Third, yes, some people suck! But at the end, it is how you react to what they do what gets you closer to your goal or takes you away from it. I confess I have an accent! Ops! Now you know, I share this amazing ‘unique’ attribute with you and guess what? I looove it. It is who I am and my story is to play with it. I speak faster at a social gathering and much slower at a professional one. It supports my openness to those willing to hear me and struggling to get me whenever my pronunciation does not come across in the way their listening is used to or my tongue is intending to. It also ensures my own willingness to be at my best squeezing every single chance to communicate. I learn everyday; I listen to the stories behind the accents to SEE the person that is telling it. I am amazed at the talent, the dreams, the goals, the possibilities, the incredible contributions people with accents have made and will keep making ensuring our world is a diverse and inclusive one in which we all do our homework to be open and to get what others are telling beyond the accents, beyond the biases and beyond the self-doubts.
Open up to the possibility that comes from your own self, your identity, your strengths, your own special and unique accent…your brand
And please, stay one more minute here to reflect on the amazing words shared by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander in their book The Art of Possibility (Harvard Business School Press):
‘We can make a conscious use of our way with words to define new frameworks for possibility that bring out the part of us that is most contributory, most unencumbered, most open to participation. And why not say that is who we really are?
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2 comments:
Excellent article.
That happened to me in the beginning when I first tried to communicate in this country.
I learned throughout the years that I do not need to improve my accent, because I always will have accent (more or less) if the English is my second language. I am not talking about lact of language, only accept – pronunciation.
You grew up talking and molding your tongue in a different language, where your first language is spoken.
If within a country you can have different accepts, in different cities within it, imagine when you come from another country.
As you said in your third point, some people sucks... and those are the ones that do not want to listen the message; they just complain about your accent with their attitude. And the worst part, the typically only speak one language.
I have friends that get upset and frustrated when they have had a conversation with those "kind of people", and my only advice to them is:
“You will always have an accent, if your first language is not the English (talking about this case). That "kind of people" will love to talk another language as good as you talk their first language”
So, go there and feel confident about you, and about your accept. The most important is to transmit effectively the message.
Regards,
Miguel S.
Miguel,
Thanks very much for your comments.
A couple of generations ago a lot of foreigners that came into the US faced first hand the discrimination of speaking a second language. Some decided not to even teach their kids that second language as a way to prevent that they lived through the biases/discrimination related to either the language or the accent. But there have been some giant steps on the evolution of this global job market and diverse society in which having an accent has become more the rule than the exception. Doesn't it make you happy to realize the change we are all creating by being at our best? When we realize we all fall out of any tag or category to simply compete against ourselves to excell, then there is nothing that can prevent us to get to our destination.
Best Success on this journey!
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