Tuesday, November 4, 2008
What's Your Speaking Perception?
What kinds of perceptions are created in your speech? Can you discuss a time when someone judged you or created a false perception of you based on your speech? Was it your accent or some other quality of the tone of your voice (rate, pitch, volume)? Was it your word choices? Vocabulary? Sarah Palin, a 2008 Republican Vice President Nominee has an Alaskan accent? Will you judge her capability or credibility for the role of Vice President by her voice qualities? Do you automatically jump to conclusions or have preconceived perceptions about someone based on a person’s speech qualities? Share with us briefly the situation, what was the incorrect perception, and your self-reflective thoughts on the incidence? Could you have created a different perception by changing your speech? Comments due Nov.12
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3 comments:
The image one presents through their speech, actions and appearance are undoubtedly the strongest on a first impression, rather than what one may be saying. Sarah Palin, for example, talks with an accent, giving the impression she is from a small town which won some voters over. As I have worked in sales for quite some time, I know first hand that presenting a proper appearance makes all the differece. By talking correctly, avoiding slang and being informal, one can avoid seeming like an idiot and help ensure a sale. On the other hand, after I gave my two weeks notice, I had put this to the test. With each customer I would fake a different accent, either British, Irish or southern. When I would talk with an English accent, people were more interested and actually seemed to buy more from me, when I talked with an Irish/Scotish accent people just enjoyed it and wanted to hear me talk which was rather hard to keep up after the first few minutes. However, when I talked with a southern accent, people would get the impression I wasn't as educated and despite what I told them, they would ask to talk to someone that "knew more about the topic", even though I was sales manager and knew more than anyone else there and was capable of answering every question to the fullest detail.
My own speech is fairly high-pitched and often times, especially over the phone, people think that I'm a child. I also have the tendency to talk fast and loud, especially if I'm passionate about what I'm saying, which also blocks my message. I think people judge others on their accents. I know that I have. When I hear someone with a British accent, I automatically think that they sound sophisticated and intelligent. There is a customer where I work with a British accent, and the first time or two that he came in, I admired him. Then he actually got to talking, and his opinions were ignorant, biased, and not founded on any sort of truth. I realized how wrong my initial judgment of the customer was.
People are quick to judge. A first impression is cast upon a first speech. A person with a midwestern or Alaskan accent may be perceived (BY THE MEDIA) as someone who isn't intellectual, while others may perceive it as common folk talk and connect with them right off the bat.
I have jumped to those conclusions before. I once had a teacher who mumbled, spoke softly, and stumbled to find his words and perceived him to socially inept or afraid of his. I wound up learning a lot from his class. His speech never changed, but it wasn't important because my education wasn't effected by his volume or nervousness.
I am a box office representative at Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, and I take phone orders for concerts all day. I tend to speak like a "bro" sometimes and use words like "dude" with a surfer twang. One time, I was taking an order and a woman insisted I was her daughters type and asked for my name so her daughter could meet me at the theatre for perhaps a date. I declined, but the mother was very insistent. The daughter stalked me out at work, and realized I wasn't her type. (I wasn't upset because she wasn't my type either.) Here was one crazy instance in my life where my voice brought me a stalker.
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