Get Rid of Your Accent For Success

Whatchu talkin' bout Willis?

No matter how good your credentials and technical skills are, getting a job always comes down to how you come across in an interview. Because of this just 10% of Chinese professionals land a job in their field of expertise in their first year in Canada. And a large number of those are people who have worked on improving language skills to make themselves better understood.

Accents should be eradicated ASAP so you can fit in with the Anglophones. To beat accent problems, say words clearly over and over again. It takes four months of daily drills before changes become part of your everyday speech.

The MBA program at the Ivey business school has a speech program to make its students more marketable. If you are afraid of sounding bad you're not going to shine. But once students get rid of their accents, they are more relaxed in interviews and get job offers.

Now, in the province of Ontario, it's against the law to discriminate against someone because of her accent and in some circles discussion of accents can get you in hot water. You might be accused of prejudice. I'm not joking. Once, when I told someone who works for the government that it's important for new immigrants to minimize their accents, he accused me of racism, as if an accent has anything to do with your race. (My father has an accent and, for some reason, I think that he's of the same race as me).

Paraphrased from the Globe and Mail. Hat Tip: Biswajit Das

Comments

[Tiffany]

You can't discriminate against someone with an accent in the States, either- "national origin" is a protected class. You can't even discriminate against someone who doesn't speak English unless the job specifically requires that ability.

You can, however, require "excellent spoken communication skills."

All that said, none of that means that it's NOT a good idea to try to reduce one's accent. It does help one communicate more clearly, and that's a reason to do it all by itself.

[Recruitomatic]

Kofi Annan seems to get by. Henry Kissinger too. Arnold Schwarzenegger comes to mind. Golly, we could list many more - just in politics!