Adaptation follow up

Q:  How serious is dialect?

Dialect has an amazing impact.  The effect of that impact is divided by intent of your project.  If you have a corporate project where the goal is training, then there are merits to be balanced, such as where will this training be viewed and by whom and for how many years?  The usual accent for training is “neutral”.  It is harder to find, but gives your training a long shelf life, because no matter what direction your company goes, this training can follow.  When training is recorded using a dialect voice talent, your project will work well for persons of that dialect, but listeners of any other dialect has the emotional reaction “Well, that is not for me!”, so the impact lessens.  The impact does not disappear by using anothe dialect, but the message is dimished.  For advertising - such as commericals and radio spots - intelligent use of dialect is a very powerful tool.  The reaction “That’s made for me!”  is what nurtures the emotional impact to buy.  So, a neutral accented commercial has less impact than a dialect commerical - on each individual in the audience.  A Mexican voice will sell better to Mexicans than a neutral voice, and far better than Puerto Rican accent or Cuban accent.  The accent in Spain is so radically different that Latin American Spanish that will probably not sell anything at all.  Another technique that can be delightful is mixing accents.  If there are more than one voice needed for your project, selecting one from each accent group can be a charming combination and lots of fun.  Content often brightens with multiple accents, particularly content with potential to be dull (apologies to all training directors!)  However, if the subject matter you are trying to convey is extremely serious, such as safety rules or chemical mixing, the charm of multiple accents can actually hinder absorption of the message.  So, where mixing accents can stimulate a training session, mixing accents can  decrease retention for something that is extremely serious.

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