Successful Presentation Strategies (Collection)

72. Mark Your Accent

Eliza Doolittle Is a Myth

The inexorable march of globalization in business has created a vast landscape of diverse workforces of diverse origins, all working together but speaking in a Babel of tongues. In their desire to communicate effectively, transplanted workers seek to learn the language of their adopted homes in classes and books, from CDs, computers, and online programs. These expatriates also seek to speak their newly acquired language more clearly, which has created a surge in a veteran niche industry called “Accent Reduction.”

An Internet search of that term yields more than a million entries posted by scores of present-day versions of Henry Higgins offering their services to multiple variations of Eliza Doolittle ...