I was raised in a home where a lot of emphasis was placed on proper speech. Not only the words, but the accent. We were from New York and having a certain local accent was NOT prohibited. Often we got lectured around the dinner table on how we would be able to tell if a perspective date came from the “right background” by how they spoke. This was drilled in and indeed, I still have a high awareness of how people speak, the words they choose and how they use them.
The NY Times is featuring an interesting piece right now on its opinion page titled How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk. It’s a quiz that finds your “personal dialect map,” which pinpoints where you are from by the way you speak. It’s not quite as detailed as what my family had in mind—which was really about the kind of “family” you came from, not the geographic area. However it is interesting especially in light of how much people move around and pick up different styles of talking, expressions and words, along the way. Indeed I took it and it did not anchor me to a particular place, which is accurate as I have lived a number of places, in the North, South (Virginia), and even in the British Isles.
If you are interested you can find the quiz here
And remember, people do notice HOW you speak almost more than the words you use. Raising your awareness to this will help you to make better first impressions and raise your Emotional Intelligence score by strengthening your charisma.
