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I once watched a very high level computer science presentation given by a professor with a very heavy, twangy southern drawl. The whole time I struggled with t
by corysama 6y ago
I once watched a very high level computer science presentation given by a professor with a very heavy, twangy southern drawl. The whole time I struggled with the disconnect between how my mind knew he was very clearly much smarter than I ever hope to be vs. my gut's reaction to his manner of speaking.
- acomjean 6y agoPart of our team was in huntsville AL (we're based in massachusetts). We had to interface with them. Really great people. The accents were amusing (to me) for the first couple weeks, but after a while it just stopped. I now associate all UI/UX on unix discussions with southern accents.
- wmf 6y agoDon't worry, in the south we think your yankee accents are equally wild.
- TulliusCicero 6y agoI lived in Huntsville for a little bit, and the people there had greatly diminished southern accents compared to the rest of the state. It was super noticeable.
- DoreenMichele 6y agoI grew up in the Deep South. My German immigrant mother used to say "Southerners step on their words before they say them." I think she genuinely struggled to understand some Southerners. I don't think she was merely being catty. (I grew up correcting her English pronunciation. I can remember her still pronouncing the silent K on words like knuckles when I was a child. She spoke no English when she met my father.)
- spacemanmatt 6y agoNative Texan, here. Can confirm, southerners step on their words. Darn=dern. Can't=cain't. Pedernales=Perdenales.
- irrational 6y agoI have this same issue. We are a northern US company and one of our programmers is from the deep south. It is so hard to take him seriously with that accent which I automatically associate with uneducated rednecks. I've literally spent years trying to overcome my bias against the southern accent. One bizarre aspect to this is I was on the interview committee and am the one that convinced everyone else to hire him.
- TheOperator 6y agoMaybe you overcompensate and the bias is actually in the other direction? It's the subperceptual bias that's the real stinker not the stuff you notice.
- troughway 6y agoI remember in the last handful of decades some great mystery/thriller movies with sophisticated characters where they were using Texan and Louisianan accents (think No Country for Old Men). That, to me, is what made it all the more interesting, although these weren't full on accents by comparison to how people from these places can really speak like.
- rjsw 6y agoMost of the lead actors in No Country for Old Men are from outside the region, compare Kelly Macdonald speaking in that with Trainspotting.
- dctoedt 6y ago> sophisticated characters where they were using Texan and Louisianan accents And then there was Daniel Craig doing an atrocious southern accent in Knives Out.
- forrestthewoods 6y agoWest coast people are extremely biased, bigoted, and hateful against Southerners. The fact that you even have this bias is a tragedy. Source: Grew up in rural South. Work in west coast tech. :(
- claudeganon 6y agoAre you in SF? When I lived in LA, this seemed like far less of an issue than in Northern California, where people seemed incredibly stuck up and generally awful. Something like 40% of LA doesn’t speak English at home and I would imagine a comparable number (if not more) speak with some kind of accent. If you clung to judging people because of their accents, you’d find yourself outside most social circles there.
- chrisseaton 6y ago> I would imagine a comparable number (if not more) speak with some kind of accent Everyone speaks with ‘some kind of accent’.
- claudeganon 6y agoYes, of course. Native Californians often asked me where I was originally from based solely on my noticeable Midwestern accent.
- chrisseaton 6y agoI guess this comment is snark, but I don’t know what the connotation of a Midwestern accent is in California to know for sure. But anyway as you say, you do still speak with an accent even if it is a common one. We all speak with accents!
- claudeganon 6y agoNot snark at all. I don’t know the connotations because I’m not a Native Californian, but people would comment about how my speaking nasally and apologizing too much (both of which you can find in just about any parody of Midwestern culture).
- asciimov 6y agoAs someone who grew up in west Texas, the struggle is real to not sound like a moronic hick. I do a pretty good job, unless I spend any more than a day or two around relatives, then it takes me a couple of weeks to stop the drawl. Biggest difference for me though, is my regional vocabulary. For example, a refrigerator will always be an icebox for me.
- magneticnorth 6y agoI grew up in the rural south, and was explicitly taught that our accent would be perceived this way. It served me well, maybe; I was always aware of my accent and able to camouflage it and eventually lose it almost entirely when I went away to college.
- finder83 6y agoI'm similar in that I learned to hide my west Texas accent pretty well. I've started to embrace my accent more though in that it's always useful when people reveal their prejudices, and I'd rather people take me as I am. Otherwise they're probably not worth my time. There are situations where it's actually useful though to lay it on thick. My father was an expert at that, particularly after people tried to take advantage of them and he called their bluff, usually playing it up with, "Ya know, I don't know much 'bout this, but I was talkin' with a lawyer friend the other day, and he mentioned something about..."
- robocat 6y agoYou make me think of this interview https://lexfridman.com/jim-keller/ https://lexfridman.com/jim-keller/ where Jim sounds kinda hokey to me.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- cbozeman 6y agoHoly shit, I immediately thought of this interview while reading all these comments, but Jim is literally one of the smartest people I've heard speak.
- chromatin 6y agoThis is an internalized bias many hold (I am not criticizing you personally, really just making a diagnostic and/or societal observation). Anecdote: I know an executive at a major US biotech originally hailing from South Carolina who dials up the Southern accent to 11 when discussing science in order to mess with people’s heads