“Social skills” were, explicitly, taught in law school - admittedly, long ago - and most of the kids had already polished themselves before then.

The young man I encountered was in his second year as a military cadet - which is why the accent surprised me.

I had never heard any cadet speak with an uneducated accent.

quote:

Originally posted by iron chef:

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
The networks considered Dan Rather ok with his accent and country euphenisms.

Dan Rather had a country accent?

quote:

So certain accents are better than others. Which one is the best?

Mid-Atlantic/Chesapeake Bay area is considered the most neutral American accent and the one to emulate when foreigners learn English as a second/supplemental language.

I always thought it was understood that if you wanted to be an anchor or newscaster on a national news program that you had to have a Mid-Atlantic accent. Now someone will name someone who didn't, but what about the other 99%?

quote:

No accent sounds as stupid as Ebonics.

Ebonics is strongly rooted & derivative from the Deep South pronunciations & etymology. The fact you find it stupid relates to the point of Aglifter's thread.

that area, (MD VA and parts of NC?) has a large variety of accents,

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
So certain accents are better than others. Which one is the best?

There is zero chance you are a Texas native.
Zero.

quote:

Originally posted by Muddflap:
Nobody told Senator Kennedy.

I can understand him fine. He went to highschool about 10 miles from me.

Indiana is pretty neutral as is Michigan, at least in the cities and larger towns. People from small rural towns often have a drawl but it's not nearly as prominent as the south. Only thing odd about Michigan is they say "ash-phalt" instead of "as-phalt" and "coun-sole" instead of "con-sole".

Haha! I poke at my friends from Michigan a little.

“Hey, Jim, what’s that thing you’re carrying your laptop in?”

“What? That’s just my byackpyack.”



After I pointed out to him that funny “inserted y” in some things he says, he said he and his wife became way more conscious of it, and laughed about it the way I do.

(This fun-poking, of course, from a guy who spent his young years in West Virginia…)

I've been listening to scanners for 50 years. I mostly listen to law enforcement agencies in my area. Never had a problem understanding dispatchers in all those years. Some hand some Cajun accents, Southern accents and really country accents, even some yankee accents.

But for about the last 10 years I have had a hard time with my local Sheriffs office. East Baton Rouge SO. had gone down. I guess it's the ebonics but I can't understand most them from EBRSO now.

You would think one of the first requirements to be a emergency dispatcher would be able to speak clear English.

My better half was a 911 dispatcher and she has a great radio voice.

I've been spending a lot of time at one my my companies factories in North Carolina. It's in a smaller town and a lot of the employees are black.

First few times I went there it was very hard to understand them when they talk to each other. When they talk to me they still have an accent but it's not as strong and I can understand them fine.

I'm certainly familiar with northern city black accents and know they originated in the south, but had never heard a real southern accent before.