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Y'all Keep Talking: Lab Scratches 'Southern Accent Reduction' Course


Sancho Panza

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Teach them to not say goddamnYankee & goddamnfederalgovernment as all 1 word & that Yankee and federal government do not have to be proceeded by goddamn, or damn while you are at it...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/07/29/336364371/yall-keep-talking-lab-scratches-southern-accent-reduction-course

Y'all Keep Talking: Lab Scratches 'Southern Accent Reduction' Course

by Alan Greenblatt

Government scientists can speak Southern after all.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory has announced that in response to complaints from staff, it's canceling plans to hold a six-week "Southern Accent Reduction" course, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports.

Officials at the scientific complex in east Tennessee said they had only been responding to an employee request. They've now responded to the anger of offended workers.

"Given the way that it came across, they decided to cancel it," lab spokesman David Keim told the News Sentinel. "It probably wasn't presented in the right way and made it look like ORNL had some problem with having a Southern accent, which of course we don't. That was not the intent at all."

Oak Ridge had distributed a notice announcing instruction would be available from "a nationally certified speech pathologist and accent reduction trainer."

"Feel confident in a meeting when you need to speak with a more neutral American accent, and be remembered for what you say and not how you say it," the notice promised.

The lab is not the first entity to suggest that a Southern drawl sounds ignorant to some listeners. "Studies have shown that whether you are from the north or South, a Southern twang pegs the speaker as comparatively dimwitted, but also likely to be a nicer person than folks who speak like a Yankee," Scientific American noted in 2012.

But bear in mind, a <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/07/29/336364371/Last%20year,%20a%20dating%20site" data-ipb="nomediaparse" data-cke-saved-href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/07/29/336364371/Last%20year,%20a%20dating%20site" s%20survey%20found%20that%20southern%20accent's%20are%20considered%20the%20nation's%20sexiest."="">survey last fall by a dating site found that Southern accents are widely considered the nation's sexiest.

Edited by Sancho Panza
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Funny story

Several years ago I was living in Pa. and selling a tonearm on audiogon, a fella from Harrisburg Pa called to discuss the arm and we agreed to meet. He came to my home and I auditioned the orishorn system I had at the time (powered by Welborne DRD 45 amps and an Emotive Audio Erato pre-amp) He proclaimed my system sounded veiled and invited me to look at his set up.

I went to his house and listened to his set up which used sonas faber concerto speaker and Bat amp and pre....................I asked why all the background noise, to which he replied that is what tubes do............I simply nodded and went on home over the next year or so we visited on and off and became friendly...........In time his system morphed to you guessed it Horns and SET (I guess it was not veiled after all :D ) While talking audio with him and another he stated

" First time I spoke with Joe on the phone and heard his accent, I told Nicole (his girlfriend) there is no way he knows anything about audio, and I dont think we should make the trip for the tonearm"

I was raised in Ky. and have been told I have a strong accent at times :D

Edited by joessportster
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  • 2 weeks later...

And for those who need to be Southern, we have our brand new course "Hooked on Hillbillyonics". For further information call 1-800-A-B-C-D-E-F-Y'all. What is worst about this article, I lived in Oak Ridge, TN for some years. And I am an Oak Ridge High School graduate, class of '85. And I know Mr. Keim.

Edited by Kent T
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