Perception of the English Accent???

[jimgraves]

I am from California and occasionally when I call into business the receptionist or voicemail greeting is with an English accent (American dialect). For some reason, I am always impressed when I hear this accent and tend to value the business entity a little more. I have always liked the soothing, sophisticated and worldly sound of the English accent and I wonder if others do too. I find myself responding more positively when conversing with a person/business using an English accent. I am very curious to know your perceptions of the English accent and in particular how you may perceive a business that may have/use an English speaking voicemail and/or receptionist. Also, please let me know if you are aware of any research on this topic. Jim

[Temico]

when I call into business the receptionist or voicemail greeting is with an English accent (American dialect) For some reason, I am always impressed when I hear this accent and tend to value the business entity a little more. I have always liked the soothing, sophisticated and worldly sound of the English accent and I wonder if others do too.

Would you be kind enough to elaborate what you mean exactly by English accent (American dialect), please? To my knowledge, one cannot speak an "American dialect" with an "English accent".

[Tdol]

He means that the pronunciation is British, but the forms are American, I suppose- if I said 'I have gotten', I would be using American English, but my accent would be British.

Here in Japan, most of the recorded voices I have heard have used American pronunciation, though I did take a bus that used a rather upper class British pronunciation. It sounded rather incogruous to me as it was a fairly isolated example.