Accents: Your Ability to Rule or Drool in the Boardroom

It occurred to me yesterday that an accent can change everything. Whether you are southern, british, australian, or african, accents have personality characteristics associated. For example, a southern accent causes a presumption of stupidity. Because of movies like Forest Gump, T.V. shows like Blue Collar Comedy Tour, and President George W. Bush, anyone with a southern accent tends to be automatically cast as dumb. Although this mentality has been around longer than the past examples have existed, they don't help the situation. As a southerner myself, I hate this connotation. People tend to think southerners are slow, lacking worldliness, and of below average intelligence. On a side note, on a trip to Charleston, I discovered the origin of the southern accent is actually a mixture of british, "dry american," and african. About 70% of the slaves brought to America were brought through the port of Charleston, SC. Because of this, the wealthy slave owners' children were raised by their nannies, who were african slaves. As the children spent more and more time with the nannies, they started to pick up little licks of the african accent. Also, their parents probably still had a bit of a british "twang" that they picked up as well, thus resulting in the southern accent. 

Back to stereotypes... have you ever noticed that british accents make everything more dramatic? For instance, a child who is cute becomes a million times cuter with a little british accent. People may even become creepier with a british accent, like the line "hello, puppet." from Pirates of the Caribbean. If that had been said in a straight american accent, it would have been goofy sounding. Also, if a presentation is being given, a british accent tends to up our perception of a person's IQ. What I mean to say is that, the british accent can make a pretty person prettier, a creepy person creepier, and a smart person smarter. 

An australian accent, at least in my mind, makes people instantaneously hotter, and I don't mean the temperature. 

So, when it comes to a successful trip to the the boardroom, who wins? Well, everyone can. It is the southerner's advantage to have the element of surprise. If a southerner is judged for their accent straight off the bat, they can surprise the room with a presentation of great intelligence, causing everyone to put you in a pristine, positive light. The englishman needs to be suave and intelligent, his/her intelligence will be boosted positively with the use of the accent. They just need to be careful not to seem sly or deceitful.  And the Australian is just bound for greatness. As pretty people tend to be more successful, an Australian is in!