In general, you should do you, and live an honest life. But there are two times when accents are useful -- when you're learning a foreign language, and when your native accent causes you problems. Your accent does affect how people treat you and having a disfavored accent can open you up to discrimination. In America, people with southern accents are perceived as less intelligent, regardless of their smarts. (source)
Foreign Accent Syndrome happens when the brain is injured. "The first case of Foreign Accent Syndrome was recorded back in 1941, when a Norwegian woman was struck in the head by shrapnel during an air raid. She suddenly found herself mispronouncing vowels and juggling stresses in such a way that she seemed to have a German accent. The social isolation she endured because of the accent eventually caused her to seek treatment." "One woman in the US state of Oregon, who had picked up a Britishy-Irishy-Scottishy accent, discovered that her new way of speaking made people respond to her more positively. According to the woman, it inspired her to become more outgoing." (source)
So, despite duplicitous deceitfulness, faking an accent can sometimes be a good thing.
Interestingly, you accent subtly changes when you move to a different region. An English-speaking American youtuber who learned French and lived in France for ten years, moved to Canada and people told her that she sounded French.
According to a 2010 study at the University of California, Riverside, people subconsiously mimic other accents due to "The Chameleon Effect," because it helps us bond with each other. "Humans are incessant imitators... We intentionally imitate subtle aspects of each other's mannerisms, postures and facial expressions,” said Professor Lawrence Rosenblum. “We also imitate each other's speech patterns, including inflexions, talking speed, and speaking time. Sometimes we even take on the foreign accent of the person to whom we are talking, leading to embarrassing consequences." (source)
Curiously, an experiment found a sex difference with mimicry. "Men mimicked the speech they heard automatically and didn’t change the amount they imitated over time. Women, on the other hand, tended to increase their accommodation behaviors over the course of the experiment. The more attractive that women rated a male speaker, the more they imitated him. For male participants, the more unattractive they rated a male speaker, the more likely they were to imitate his vowels." (source)
I read a Spanish teacher advise against faking an accent because "nobody will believe you," but some people are good enough to pull off a convincing accent.
Research by Johnathan R. Goodman, PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, found "Overall, participants were able to detect mimics 66.7% of the time. This is well above the at-chance rate (50%), which is what would be expected if participants were responding at random. When broken down by region, the data suggests that participants from the Northern UK and North Ireland may be better at accent mimicry detection, with average rates closer to 70-80%. Although further exploration is needed, Jonathan suspects the higher detection rates may be linked to how multicultural these regions are. These findings would be predicted from an evolutionary point of view: with a greater number of accented groups, there is a higher probability of imposters, and so better detection of fakers would be advantageous... Jonathan’s data shows that humans are good at detecting accent mimicry, with an average detection rate of 66.7%. But this number also suggests that we’re fairly good at mimicking accents. That is, evolution has selected for both sides of the trait: really good accent mimics, and really good detection of mimics (this is what Evolutionists would call a “Co-Evolutionary Arms Race”). And more interestingly, it’s possible that stronger mimicry detection evolved in regions with exposure to a greater variety of accents." (source)
Since the United States is relatively monocultural, this would suggest that a foreigner being able to convincingly fake an American accent is relatively easier than other countries.
For most people who learn a foreign language, speaking with a convincing accent is not a goal. You have to speak well enough for people to understand you, but perfection is not paramount. Speaking English with a French accent wasn't a goal of mine until I watched this video on Youtube, which explains how speaking with a foreign accent in your own language can help you learn a foreign language --
Foreign Accent Syndrome happens when the brain is injured. "The first case of Foreign Accent Syndrome was recorded back in 1941, when a Norwegian woman was struck in the head by shrapnel during an air raid. She suddenly found herself mispronouncing vowels and juggling stresses in such a way that she seemed to have a German accent. The social isolation she endured because of the accent eventually caused her to seek treatment." "One woman in the US state of Oregon, who had picked up a Britishy-Irishy-Scottishy accent, discovered that her new way of speaking made people respond to her more positively. According to the woman, it inspired her to become more outgoing." (source)
So, despite duplicitous deceitfulness, faking an accent can sometimes be a good thing.
Interestingly, you accent subtly changes when you move to a different region. An English-speaking American youtuber who learned French and lived in France for ten years, moved to Canada and people told her that she sounded French.
According to a 2010 study at the University of California, Riverside, people subconsiously mimic other accents due to "The Chameleon Effect," because it helps us bond with each other. "Humans are incessant imitators... We intentionally imitate subtle aspects of each other's mannerisms, postures and facial expressions,” said Professor Lawrence Rosenblum. “We also imitate each other's speech patterns, including inflexions, talking speed, and speaking time. Sometimes we even take on the foreign accent of the person to whom we are talking, leading to embarrassing consequences." (source)
Curiously, an experiment found a sex difference with mimicry. "Men mimicked the speech they heard automatically and didn’t change the amount they imitated over time. Women, on the other hand, tended to increase their accommodation behaviors over the course of the experiment. The more attractive that women rated a male speaker, the more they imitated him. For male participants, the more unattractive they rated a male speaker, the more likely they were to imitate his vowels." (source)
I read a Spanish teacher advise against faking an accent because "nobody will believe you," but some people are good enough to pull off a convincing accent.
Research by Johnathan R. Goodman, PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, found "Overall, participants were able to detect mimics 66.7% of the time. This is well above the at-chance rate (50%), which is what would be expected if participants were responding at random. When broken down by region, the data suggests that participants from the Northern UK and North Ireland may be better at accent mimicry detection, with average rates closer to 70-80%. Although further exploration is needed, Jonathan suspects the higher detection rates may be linked to how multicultural these regions are. These findings would be predicted from an evolutionary point of view: with a greater number of accented groups, there is a higher probability of imposters, and so better detection of fakers would be advantageous... Jonathan’s data shows that humans are good at detecting accent mimicry, with an average detection rate of 66.7%. But this number also suggests that we’re fairly good at mimicking accents. That is, evolution has selected for both sides of the trait: really good accent mimics, and really good detection of mimics (this is what Evolutionists would call a “Co-Evolutionary Arms Race”). And more interestingly, it’s possible that stronger mimicry detection evolved in regions with exposure to a greater variety of accents." (source)
Since the United States is relatively monocultural, this would suggest that a foreigner being able to convincingly fake an American accent is relatively easier than other countries.
For most people who learn a foreign language, speaking with a convincing accent is not a goal. You have to speak well enough for people to understand you, but perfection is not paramount. Speaking English with a French accent wasn't a goal of mine until I watched this video on Youtube, which explains how speaking with a foreign accent in your own language can help you learn a foreign language --
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