Youse wanna work with me?

Obvious Australianisms can undermine your professionalism, writes Fiona Smith.

Is your accent giving you away? In meetings, tortured vowels may mark you as an uneducated bogan, while an upward inflection at the end of each sentence dashes any attempt at credibility.

The Australian accent may charm Americans, who think it is cute, but it can derail business negotiations.

People from other countries can find it hard to take seriously proposals that are delivered in a high, nasal voice - especially when every sentence seems to end in a question mark.

"It is often said that Australians who go overseas for trade don't have the language and voice skills that they need," the head of voice studies at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, Bill Pepper, says.

Pepper is often hired for private consultations by corporate types (mostly men) who want to improve their delivery.

"I get a lot of people ringing me who are very good at what they do, they have the brain, but as soon as they open their mouths, they undermine their position," he says.

"I was listening to the ABC the other day and I heard a young cellist who was going to England to study and he was after some funding, but I wouldn't have given him anything because he sounded so thick."

Think about the spunky and talented David Beckham and his squeaky little voice. The intelligent Julia Gillard and her nasal twang. Former Reserve Bank of Australia governor Bernie Fraser and his lugubrious drone that made those "It's the super of the future" ads on TV so entertaining.

Your voice can detract from your message. Pepper says training can help fix voice problems, with the gay male sibilance hard to eliminate.

"You have to strengthen the tip of the tongue... For actors, you can be the most brilliant King Lear, but if you have a gay voice, all anyone is going to remember is the sibilance."

People wanting to improve their voices are given exercises for breathing and mouth strengthening. Pepper says his students needn't worry about slipping up and revealing their inner whine, because the changes they make will become a natural part of their being.

"We are getting rid of the blocks that inhibit the human voice, so it becomes natural," he says.

Anita Ziemer, managing director of Slade Partners recruitment group, says employers discriminate against people because of their accents, even though it is illegal.

Sometimes it is a class issue, or assumptions about the education of someone who mispronounces, and sometimes it is a mask for racism.

Ziemer tells a story about a woman who was in the final stages of being hired for a job as a financial planner, but at her third interview, in front of the people who would have been her peers, she dropped the "youse" word.

"Then she was dropped."

In this case, the action by the employer was clearly discriminatory, Ziemer says.

The job applicant could have been advised that the use of "youse" was inappropriate in that business setting.

After all, the slang plural of "you" is used by about 50 per cent of the Australian population.

She says that in accounting and private investment firms, old rules still apply.
"It is about hiring 'people like us'," says Ziemer.

"The way you speak is still important in areas where it has always been important, there are particular areas where life hasn't changed very much."

This extends even to the recruitment of receptionists, where private school "gels" are often preferred, "but you can still be a beautifully spoken girl who is a cold-hearted bitch on reception".

People tend to remember how they are made to feel welcome, rather than the well-modulated tones of the person who greeted them.

"I was told by one client, a private medical centre, that the doctors would treat someone from a private school with more respect."

Conversely, she says, employers are less concerned about the accents of people in senior roles.

"They have already proved themselves," she says. No one is going to tell ad man John Singleton that he is too ocker for them to do business with.

If being discriminated against because you have a broad Australian accent is bad, it has to be far worse for people with an unfashionable foreign accent.

People in business in this country are unlikely to be biased against an American, Canadian, British (no matter what county), Irish or other western European accent.

But there is a reason for the proliferation of websites that promise to turn your accent Aussie.

Ziemer says that, far too often, she has been asked by employers not to send people for interviews who have an Indian or Asian accent.

"They say it is about language, but really, it is about race," she says.

Ziemer says that if her staff are asked to discriminate on the basis of race or perceived class, then they will not do business with that client.

Published: 14 August 2007