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Faith Liversedge's avatar

I can’t imagine you saying “gosh” Lewis 😂Great post and a useful skill. It reminds me of the time I was doing an Australian accent in a bar once and an actual Aussie started chatting to me asking where I was from. I was very drunk 🥴

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Lewis Holmes's avatar

To this day, no idea where that 'gosh' came from. It was like I'd been possessed or something.

Did you tell them where you were from?

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Faith Liversedge's avatar

I did. I said ‘Perth’ they replied “great to hear the accent!” and walked off thankfully 😅

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Julie Dee's avatar

I enjoyed that. Thank you :)

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Lewis Holmes's avatar

No no, thank YOU for reading, I'm glad you liked it.

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Lesley Hughes's avatar

This resonated with me! Having attended a girls’ boarding school from the age of 10, elocution was high on the agenda. I quickly lost my Lancashire accent, but eventually learned to switch between the two codes to survive back at home as well as at school. This ability has stood me in good stead in all the different walks of life. I do find though, that I pick up other people’s accents when speaking to them!

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Lewis Holmes's avatar

Thanks Lesley, glad you enjoyed it. Switching vocal lanes is a gift, isn't it?

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Daniel Puzzo's avatar

Another excellent piece and thanks a lot for the next few days' worth of nightmares!

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Lewis Holmes's avatar

Thank you and you are most welcome!

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Sharon Joslyn's avatar

I hear you Lewis. When I step into a cab, and talk to a chirpy cockney driver, I immediately turn into Eliza Doolittle pre ‘enry ‘iggins….

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Lewis Holmes's avatar

Haha, funnily enough, talking to cabbies is up next. It's an art, isn't it?

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Kay Stratton's avatar

I actually did a presentation on a version of this (communication accommodation theory) for my linguistics Masters. A case study on a friend who switched between RP English and broadest Falkirk Scottish accent. It was uncanny to hear, but obviously the more extreme end of the scale. Thanks for sharing this, Lewis, and may your linguistic convergences bring more entertainment!

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Lewis Holmes's avatar

No shit, it's got a real name and everything? That's awesome! Thanks Kay, glad you liked it.

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Joanna Milne 🏺's avatar

So interesting - especially this bit for me

At some point in the next 12 months though, I’ve got to get back out there. I’ve got to job hunt. I’ve got to interview. Which voice gets trotted out? Or will a new one emerge?

It reminds me of the different jargon we use in different contexts too. I have often felt a hypocrite for adopting one over another or struggles to make sense of jargon because I have moved around so much in work and never stayed put in one place for long enough.

You can go a lifetime without ever having come into contact with certain words. So it can be hard to a lot in when you don’t know what people around you are actually talking about. My preference has been for plain English, which is ironic given I studied Classics. I’m increasingly realising it is all about empathy as you say. As long as it somehow manages to not sound like we’re trying to hard (so so hard to get right and I’m a bit rubbish at judging this ).

The difficulty lies when you’re in a group, don’t understand what is meant and don’t want to pipe up about the fact. I’d be curious to know what your chameleon brain would advise in those circumstances …

Really interesting ideas though - has made me think :)

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Lewis Holmes's avatar

Thanks so much for reading Joanna. I must be honest, I don't set out to write thought provoking pieces, so I'm really happy that this one has landed in that way.

I'm not sure I'm the best person to advice on group situations. ADHD means I often charge in like a bull, cause chaos and then wonder why everyone's looking at me funny. ADHD also means that I do tend to clam up if I don't understand certain things in a group setting. Like my two wildly different ways of speaking, I'm trying to bring the two extremes together so they work for me, not against me.

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Joanna Milne 🏺's avatar

Lewis, I hear you and I often find group settings difficult in just the exact same way !

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Francis F's avatar

Love this ! Firstly that picture cracked me up , I couldn’t stop laughing 😆 if I’m with ‘posh’ people my north London accent ramps up , massively, alright babe, blimey, init, what the heck, I don’t know why 🤣🤣 great post , good luck with job search in the future 😊

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Lewis Holmes's avatar

Having actually had a conversation with you in person, I thought your London accent was strong. Not EastEnders or anything, but definitely there!

Full disclosure: this whole piece basically came from the image of my face on Hyacinth's head!

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Francis F's avatar

That’s funny you thought my accent was strong 🤣🤣 ok and I thought you did the imagine for the story 🤣🤣 now I need to know why your head was superimposed on Hyacinth head then ?

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Wendy Varley's avatar

Lingo chameleon. What a useful skill, Lewis! My mum had elocution lessons as a girl, and was mortified that my brother, sister and I picked up South Yorkshire accents, telling us it would hold us back in life. I assured her I could speak 'proper' if I wanted! I slip back into a Yorkshire twang within seconds of arriving in the county. Down south, you'd never know.

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Lewis Holmes's avatar

Thank you Wendy. I'm a big fan of accents, if everyone sounded like me the world would be a dull place.

"Down south, you'd never know." Quite the chameleon yourself!

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Sara's avatar

Great piece, Lewis! This is so fascinating. I’m a massive mirror-er as well. My first job in London was telesales and the first thing ppl would pick up on was my Aussie accent, and they’d mock “G’day mate!” It took about 3 months to start speaking with an English accent - this was around the time Madonna got an English accent when she married Guy Ritchie - so all my friends at home called me “Madge”- she speaks like the queen now! I kept that accent going strong for 11 years 🤣

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Lewis Holmes's avatar

Ha, funnily enough I spent three months in Australia when I was 23 and I picked up an Aussie accent. For a full year after coming home, people asked me where I was from in Australia.

Glad you liked the cover photo, I put a full three minutes into making it!

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Sara's avatar

I think we could have futures as spies - seamlessly integrating into new lives with our new accents. If only I didn’t publicly give away our identities just now.

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Sara's avatar

Ps the cover photo is 💯!

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Maggie Jon's avatar

I do the same!

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