Recently, a prospective parent/client stopped by my facility to make inquiries regarding my school operations, I told her what she needed to know and do, in response she said "good, that's interesting but you have an accent, where did you come from?" I told her that I was born in Nigeria and also asked her if she understood me or needed more explanations. I repeated the highlights of my operations to her and asked her if she has questions. She said she understood me and will decide and get back with me. She left.
I decided to focus on the issue being the operations of my facility instead of accent. I am aware of the fact that accent is a relative term. Instances of accents abound in the United States from the eastern, western, northern, southern and central regions which have different accents. Therefore, operation of my facility was the focus of our discussion and not accent. The way she presented the issue of accent was very belittling to me. While reflecting on microarression this week I was able to learn that they happen more often than we think and in many forms of settings. So I need to be aware of my words and actions toward others.
It is great you kept referring to the focus at hand your operation and did not play into her discussion of your accent. The studies this week have been extremely informative to me as well.
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