Absorbed

Since I work in a technical support field, I have to talk to people. Not an inherently bad thing in itself, but there is a problem to it. Something I haven't had to deal with for a while, and had somewhat forgotten.

Possibly due to my interest in linguistics, or possibly due to something else, I have a problem talking to people with relatively thick accents. The problem is I will tend to absorb them in my speech with them, and my accent will shift to mimic theirs. This happens completely against my control, I have to be paying careful attention to what I say when I'm speaking to someone. I can literally feel my throat and tongue shifting positions to speak in the new accent. This happens most often in speaking with British people, but any accent I will absorb without notice.

I'm sure it may offend someone eventually, which is why I have to try hard not to do it.

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Date posted: 08 January, 2008
Tags: accents computer
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