Beware - Your Accent May be Affecting Your Credibility

Author: Judy Tobe

Imagine your mother returning from her long awaited doctor’s appointment. You call her to find out what the heart specialist said about her upcoming surgery only to hear that your mother had no idea what he told her. “He was a very nice man” she said, “but I didn’t understand anything he said.” You asked her if the doctor used medical words that she didn’t understand or if he didn’t take time to explain the procedure or if he was rude. “No, he seemed to answer everything I asked and he took his time. I just couldn’t understand what he was saying because of his accent. I’m not sure where he is from but he doesn’t know how to speak English. I don’t want him to do my surgery.I don’t think he is as smart as that other doctor and I’m afraid he does not really know what he is doing.”

The above scenario, unfortunately, is a frequent one in hospitals and clinics. With the influx of medical professionals, physicians, nurses and therapists, who are non-native English speakers, interactions and perceptions like the one above, are commonplace.

As a non-native English speaker, your accent may be preventing others from understanding you, which makes for frustrating conversations. If you have an accent that is difficult for others to understand, eventually people will stop listening. Studies suggest that people with foreign accents often are regarded as less credible and competent. People with accents are perceived as less capable and less intelligent as people without an accent.

It takes 2 people to communicate. Each is equally responsible for an effective communication exchange. You have to be a good listener, you have to ask good questions, you have to empathize and you have to speak clearly to be understood. So, if you are a non-native English speaker with an accent that is affecting how people understand your message, while it is the listener’s responsibility to attempt to understand your message, it is your responsibility to learn to present that message as clearly as possible. That means, that while it is not necessary to lose your accent, it is necessary to learn to pronounce the sounds used in English so that you are upholding your end of the communication dyad.

By successfully getting your message across, you convey your thoughts and ideas effectively. When not successful, the thoughts and ideas that you actually send do not necessarily reflect what you think, causing a communications breakdown and creating roadblocks that stand in the way of your goals – both personally and professionally.

In a recent survey, communication skills were cited as the single more important decisive factor in choosing employees. The survey, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Business School, points out that communication skills, including written and oral presentations, as well as an ability to work with others, are the main factor contributing to job success.

As a medical professional who is a non-native English speaker, your accent may be affecting your job. Your skills may be seen as less valuable than others, your may have difficulty exhibiting confidence and credibility and you may lose the opportunity for advancement. In addition, communication with your patients take longer and, perhaps most important, the risk for confusion and errors is great.

There are, fortunately, steps you can take to eliminate these communication breakdowns. By changing how you pronounce certain sounds as well as changing the stress and intonation patterns that are used, you can easily learn to speak more clearly and effectively. S.A., a physician from India, can relate. As an intern in a large teaching hospital, the competition for recognition was great and it was important to make a good impression. It was not until a superior pointed out to S.A. that her accent was affecting other’s perceptions of her intelligence as well as her patient’s confidence in her abilities did she choose to address her accent . She signed up for an accent reduction course with a speech pathologist specializing in working with non-native English speakers. “After working on several vowels and consonants, as well as paying attention to how I stressed certain words, my accent improved dramatically. As a result, people no longer ask me to repeat what I said, I feel more confident when speaking, especially in front of a group and I believe people now want to listen to and respect what I have to say.”

Article Source: www.articlesbase.com

About the Author:
Judy Tobe M.A. is a certified, licensed speech pathologist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is the principal of Claro.

Claro specializes in accent reduction for clear communication for non-native English speakers.

Visit us at www.claroaccent.com, email: judy@claroaccent.com or call 412.576.5684