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Hi, everyone. I'm Jade. Today, I want to talk to you about accents and emotion, how
people show emotion in the way they talk, but specifically about how your social
class -- the family you were born into, whether you come from a posh family or a
working class background, and you have something like a cockney accent -- how
this also has something to do with the way you express emotion in your speech. So
those are the ideas I'll be exploring today, okay?
I'm exploring ideas and sharing an opinion. And I invite you to watch the video if
you're someone who can handle an opinion because that's what I'm offering you
today. And my opinion is based on observation plus quite deep reflection about how
accents, communication, and how we show emotion in our speech -- these are ideas
that I return to again and again and I think about quite deeply. So today's offering is
all about how your social background does affect the way you show emotion in the
way you speak. So let's get started. There's this old idea of the British as being
very reserved, very distant, and not being able to show emotion. It's an old idea.
It's partly true in comparison to the whole world. But I want to talk a little bit
more about it in the sense that this idea always actually reflected the poshest people
in society -- the upper classes -- because the posher you were traditionally,
the less able you were to express your emotions. You were not meant to show emotion
in public. We have this expression called the "stiff upper lip". And it means
not to show your emotions in public. So that's a traditional British value, you could
say; "keep your emotions under control". But importantly, this applied to the upper
classes -- upper class and the middle classes, aspirational middle classes, to an
extent. But the people who didn't act this way were the working classes. So for example,
a cockney is someone who wouldn't be retrained about emotions. They in general
would show emotion to their children, be more tactile, touch their children more.
And if they're angry, they'll express anger in a visual way, in a way that you can
see. They might even start a scene. They might argue in public. This difference
in expressing emotion is also found in accents between posh accents and working class
accents. I've made videos before about something called
the "conservative RP accent". And I say I don't like this video. This video? I
say I don't like this accent because nobody speaks like it, and it's old-fashioned. But
I realized that I needed today change my opinion on this because I've decided there's
nothing wrong with an accent. But some accents suggest things that are just
not nice on the ear. So someone with a conservative RP accent -- every time I do
it, it sounds like this, "A conservative RP accent. I have my head very high and stiff,
and I don't move my face very much." What I hear when I do that admittedly not
very good impression of a conservative RP is no emotion. There's no heart in those
words. Everything is happening in the head. And it is just simply not nice on the
ear. It's very harsh. I get -- when I hear this accent, I have a feeling that there's
a complete lack of empathy in the person. And I realize that's the reason I don't like
conservative RP. It's not because of the accent, it's because of the way of speaking and how
I react to hearing a very cold and detached voice, which is -- it's up to
me, but I just don't like it. At the same time, a posh accent today, a more
current, modern version of a posh accent, can sound like music to my ears. I
can -- I really love listening to posh accents if, if, if, if, if there is that heart
in it, if there is some emotion in the way the
posh person speaks. So pretty much any posh actor you see on TV
-- if you think about Harry Potter, for example, that's a modern kind of accent. That's
posh when you hear someone like Daniel Radcliffe speaking in Harry Potter.
And it's a nice voice. And you know why? Because actors are in touch with their emotions.
They can express their emotions better by far than your average person in
their voice. And that's why we like to listen to them so much.
So let's say every very, very, very, very posh accent spoke in such a connected
heartened way, well, it would be fantastic accent. But I don't care who you are, if
you speak in a way where you're so detached from your feelings in your voice, I'm
just not going to like it. Whether your accent is RP or some other label you want to
give it, I'm not going to like it. At the same time, if you're not posh, if your
accent is a working class accent -- I'm going to talk about cockney, for example -- if
you have a cockney accent, you have the opposite problem, okay? You show too much
emotion in your voice. You can quickly shout about things. Maybe you're too
loud, or maybe your laugh is very intrusive, a very big, powerful laugh, and
-- I'm just getting the feeling that there's way too much emotion in your voice, okay?
You've got the opposite problem. When your emotions are, like, leaping out
at people, it's disturbing them. It can be disruptive, especially if you've got a mix
of emotions, and you're throwing out -- they're negative emotions. You want to shout.
You're unhappy about something. And I think that is a reason that so many people
hear a working class accent and think, "Oh, it's horrible. I don't like it." I don't
think it's the way the person speaks in terms of accent. There's nothing wrong with an accent.
There's nothing wrong with any accent. It's the way you react to some -- it's
the way you react to hearing something that makes you uncomfortable.
So some people react negatively when they hear too much emotion, when it's just
out there, when we say someone wears their heart on their sleeve, which means
that that they just let you know how they're feeling. So for some people, that's a
very uncomfortable thing to hear, too much emotion. I don't like it, personally.
For me, what's worse is to hear someone speak who is cold, has no heart. And I can
hear that. And I can feel that when they talk. So I think that's what happens. When we react
to the way people speak, it's not actually about the accent. It's about the
tone. We're either drawn to that tone, or we're repelled by that tone. So give it some
thought. I now would like to say if you want to see
more videos about accent, communication, or simply more videos by me,
take a moment to subscribe here on my channel. I'd appreciate it so much. Until
next time, then. See you.