Accent

This post was not designed for children.

Are you aware of your accent?

Do you enjoy hearing people speak with a familiar accent?

How long does it take you to become comfortable listening to a different accent?

I just finished listening to a great lecture by a woman researcher. I LOVED her lecture and wanted to learn more about her research, so I looked her up on LinkedIn to see if she had shared anything recently. I quickly became sidetracked looking at her profile. It looks like she grew up in Illinois. That is a state in US Midwest. But I remembered she had a fast-paced "California Valley Girl" accent during her lecture. I looked closer. She did an internship in Southern California. Seems she picked up the accent there. It made me chuckle and reflect on my own experience.

I grew up in Southern California. I didn't think I had much of a "valley girl" accent, but I did. In fact, I worked very hard to drop any hint of my natural-leaning accent when I went to graduate school in Ohio. Why?

Feedback I had gotten early on in my PhD from unnamed colleagues was that my voice sounded annoying, unprofessional, and excessively perky with my natural accent. (Imagine me using that accent now) Ok. Offensive much? Like, I totally did NOT know what to do with that feedback.

So I started noticing more than that. I saw very quickly that I would lose the attention of my students if I spoke that way. Especially men. Which there are a lot of in science courses. I needed to communicate.

So... (Back to my new normal accent)

I intentionally slowed down my pace, mellowed out my tones, smoothed things out, and gave myself a lot of personal coaching on how I really wanted to sound when I spoke. I started capturing people's attention with the way I spoke. I decided to make it my new normal voice. It stuck. Sometimes people assume I am from Ohio. I am ok with that.

Sometimes I use my old accent as a pretend voice when playing with the children, but that's not common. They don't recognize that voice as me.

Have you seen the musical "My Fair Lady?" It's celebrating its anniversary this month.

When I watched "My Fair Lady" with my daughters my oldest was confused about why anyone would want to change their accent. So, I started speaking in my Valley Girl voice. Her jaw dropped. She realized I had done just what Eliza Doolittle did.

She told me that she loves the voice she has always known for me. She thought my "valley girl" accent was just a goofy voice I used sometimes. She told me that she felt bad for not loving the "real me". I told her that it's ok, that I worked really hard to speak the way that I do, it is the real me now, and I love my voice.

I explained that sometimes I might fall into my other accent, especially when I am with others that speak that way. She nodded and understood.

We spoke about how she needs to respect and love people no matter how they speak. That accents can be broken if we want, but none of them are truly "bad". When someone has an accent that might be tricky for you, remember that they're people with great ideas, no matter how they talk. And the more you listen, you can get familiar with their accent, and conversation becomes easier. Our conversation really sunk in. She started to become more mindful of how she speaks, and patient with people who speak differently.

When I spend time talking with my colleagues in Space Biology research, I am overwhelmed by the range of accents and voices that I hear. Great minds from all over the world are coming together to contribute to this very important research. 

It's beautiful. And humbling to be a part of.

These are my personal thoughts posted to my personal blog, during a break in the NASA Human Research Program's Investigator's Workshop. February 14, 2024. None of these words may be used for profit. Thanks.