Unpacking Accents, Dialects, and Colloquialisms with Mike Todd
Mike Todd
Senior Advisor of Consumer Products, Dearin & Associates
Why Regional Accents Are Cultural Assets
Mike Todd returns for a second conversation, this time focused entirely on accents, dialects, and colloquialisms and why they matter for creating native experiences. Growing up in Whitehaven in the north of England, Mike spent years trying to lose his Northern accent after joining the Royal Navy at 16. He was embarrassed by it, reticent to speak in meetings, and the more nervous he got, the more pronounced certain words became. Now, decades later, he revels in it.
His argument: regional accents and dialects are not obstacles to communication. They are cultural assets that should be preserved and even supercharged. He points to a recent darts championship where a 16-year-old from a Northern English town reached the final, and young children from Northern clubs appeared on international television speaking in strong regional dialects. That, Mike says, is a massive asset for the country.
Dialect Changes Every Two Miles
In the Lake District where Mike now lives, dialect can change within two miles. You can tell whether someone is from one village or the next by how they speak. His mother compresses "do you want me to put another mat out" into something that sounds like a single word. His cousin once said "tin tin tin" which translates to "it isn't in the tin." These micro-variations are disappearing as communication homogenises, but Mike believes the counter-trend is already underway: people want to hear regional voices on the news, in advertising, and in the stories being told about their communities.
Communicating Across Cultures: Slow Down and Measure Your Words
Mike shares practical lessons from decades of international business. When working with Japanese distributors, he learned to speak slowly, use fewer words, and avoid open-ended sentences that are impossible to translate accurately. Even this morning, he was on a call with a Spanish distributor who said "I don't understand you" multiple times. The advice is simple but hard to execute under pressure: speak in a slow and measured way, and be conscious of words that carry no meaning in translation.
The Star Wars Cantina as a Metaphor for Diversity
In one of the episode's most memorable moments, Mike reflects on the Star Wars cantina scene. As a child, he laughed at all these strange aliens gathered in one place. Now he sees it as a profound metaphor: every creature is individual, with their own hairstyles, skin, piercings, lumps, and bumps, and they all get along around a typical watering hole. Luke Skywalker walks in and nobody cares. Whoever created that scene, Mike says, was very clever, because it suggested something that was coming.
Let People Tell Their Own Stories
Mike's parting advice ties back to preserving culture: we need to open up local communities that have been underserved. Understand how cultures smile. And most importantly, let people tell their own stories in their own way, because their telling of those stories is going to open up colour and vibrancy that we would never otherwise see.
Beyond Translation: The Native Experience Podcast is produced by LEXIGO, Australia's trusted translation and multicultural communication agency.
Beyond Translation: The Native Experience Podcast explores multicultural communication, translation, and culturally diverse engagement in Australia and beyond. Each episode features experts sharing real stories and practical insights on topics from multicultural campaign strategy to CALD community engagement and localisation best practices. Produced by LEXIGO, Australia's trusted translation and multicultural communication agency with triple ISO certification and NAATI certified translators across 171 languages.
Mike: At the time, we sort of laughed at that Star Wars bar concept. Oh, look at all these strange aliens living together and they will all be fighting because they are all different. But in truth, they are all around a typical watering hole, maybe not drinking, but having some sort of gathering, and all individual with their own hairstyles, skin, piercings, lumps, bumps everywhere, and they all got on.
Brian: Today we are back with Mike Todd, Senior Advisor of Consumer Products at Dearin and Associates. Mike and I had a fantastic conversation a couple of episodes ago. Today we are talking about accents and dialects. Mike specialises in assisting consumer products companies in expanding their operations and market presence on a global scale. Mike, welcome back to The Native Experience.
Mike: Thank you very much for having me back so soon.
Brian: Tell us what you are nerding out on right now.
Mike: I am nerding out on children's prams. One of my clients is a beautiful pram brand out of Sydney called Red's Baby. The guy who created it is a husband and wife team called Brett and Megan Redelman. When Brett was a father-to-be, it was Red's Baby coming because he was Redelman. Many years later, this pram is heading overseas from Australia. I am into Spain in two weeks for a trade show. I have become quite an expert looking at pram architecture, engineering, and brakes. They are not cheap.
Brian: How are they trying to internationalise?
Mike: One of the marvellous things Australia has is they do a lot of great inventions but they don't do particularly well at taking them overseas. One of the things they sell more than anything is the Australian vista. They sell a lifestyle. If you have a product with a lifestyle attached, you sell the lifestyle first. The product has to work and be fit for purpose, but people will buy the belief that they are touching something that is not quite attainable. You are not going to move to Australia, but you get something slightly near that.
Mike: I could spot an Australian brand from its website by the shades of colour. They all have a certain sense of Australia about them. If you can capture that and have a good product, people will buy into the totality. Australians don't really know this because they live in it. Whereas I, as a Brit, am still on holiday 13 years later. I still get a kick out of putting sun cream on every morning.
Mike: One of the keenest markets right now is Ukraine. You forget that people still need prams. Babies are still born. In a country that is struggling, that distributor is getting people into the shop or online to dream a little bit. That dream comes through every touch point of the product. Maybe you see something you cannot attain, but the dream is still there. A bit of hope.
Brian: Can AI get accents, dialects, and colloquialisms down yet?
Mike: I don't think it is too far away, but some of the nuances may take a while for machine learning to pick up because they developed over thousands of years. Here I am in the north of England, not too far from where I was born in a small town called Whitehaven. If I said Whitehaven to anybody, they would say where is that? I would have to say Whitehaven, because the haven goes and it becomes heaven. I am from Whitehaven.
Mike: By the way, Whitehaven is the port where the Americans invaded the UK. But they did not make it past the Paul Jones pub and all got very drunk. Every year there is a celebration. They didn't get too far out of the dockyard and just got into the local pub and never came out. The invasion was finished.
Brian: How important are accents and dialects and colloquialisms when communicating across cultures?
Mike: In Japan, I had to learn to talk slower and more clearly. It is very difficult when you are passionate about a product. With the Japanese, it has to be slow and a small amount of words to be translated. I have to be careful not to add words that don't mean anything in translation. Even this morning I was talking to a Spanish distributor and he said many times, I don't understand you. You have to talk in a very slow and measured way.
Mike: Some cultures are streets ahead at learning English. In the Philippines, every young person speaks the most incredible English. That country is seamless. You can sit in a restaurant with music and hand gestures and looseness with alcohol and it all goes in. You don't have to think about it. That is 20 years of education coming through.
Brian: How important is it to preserve dialects and accents versus trying to be more universal?
Mike: I am in a little town called Windermere near a lake. When I come back, I find it marvellously English and Northern. Everything about it I want to preserve, not only the architecture and way of life, but also how people speak. There has been a darts championship where a 16-year-old from a Northern town got to the final. When you saw all these Northern clubs, young people eight and nine talking in big strong dialects on international TV, you almost went, this is a massive asset for the country. This needs to be not only preserved but supercharged.
Mike: Because of communication, TV, radio, YouTube, I think this becomes a massive bonus. Other countries want to know about it. Maybe we went through a period trying to strip it out and all be the same. I think the counter is going to happen. It will become stronger and a much more noticeable part of what being from somewhere is all about. In this part of the world, accent and dialect can change in two miles. Somebody is from that village or the next village. It is that different.
Brian: When I joined the Navy at 16, I remember being very embarrassed about my accent.
Mike: When I ventured down South, the Navy was based on the South coast of England and I was a Northern boy. I tried my hardest for years to lose my accent, purposely to rid myself of it. I did not see myself fitting in until I changed it. I was very reticent to talk in meetings. The more nervous I got, the more pronounced certain words became. I fought heavily against it. Now when I come back, I revel in my accents. I like what I sound like. But for a long time I did not.
Mike: The Scouse accent, the Liverpool accent and the Beatles. The Liverpool accent to this day is still quite a hard accent, almost fearful. One of my best friends at sea, God bless him, was a Scouser. We would take him out as insurance. If he opened his mouth and people heard him speak, they would immediately go, he is a Scouser, don't mess with him.
Brian: I have friends from the Provence region of France and the Parisians looked down on them. And a Pilates instructor from Russia who has been in the US for 20 years and tries to hide her accent because of what is going on in the world.
Mike: The Queen's English gave a sense of assurance to the population. We think of the wartime broadcasts, very stoic, done to give everybody hope. But now hearing very serious subjects in a North East accent is strange because it almost makes them joyful and playful. The BBC moved its office into the North to bring more Northern accents. Without that, everybody assumed the whole of Britain was London.
Brian: Are you a sci-fi fan?
Mike: If we start talking about Interstellar, I will never stop. I have always had particular thoughts about the Star Wars cantina. I realised the massive metaphor was all these different cultures all getting on but being individual. At the time we laughed at all these strange aliens living together. But in truth, they are all around a typical watering hole, all individual with their own hairstyles, skin, piercings, lumps, bumps, and they all got on. Luke Skywalker walked in and nobody cared. Whoever put that together was very clever because it suggested something that was coming.
Mike: 2001 Space Odyssey, one of the characters gets into a little booth and phones his daughter from the moon. It is Skype. It is Zoom. And this was done at a time when there was not really a TV.
Brian: What is your parting advice?
Mike: There is a lot more work that needs to be done, not only in countries like ours but also in countries we have not even touched the surface of. What makes them smile and laugh? What do they say around a breakfast table that means something very local? We need to open up local communities that have been underserved. If we can expand that, we will flower these regional towns and villages and see and hear so much. It will be a delight.
Mike: Let people tell their own stories. As they tell them. Because their telling of them is going to open up so much colour and vibrancy. That is something to be cherished.
Brian: 2024 should be the year of hearing people's stories and understanding them better. Shut up and listen more.
Mike: You tell it because that is something that is really to be cherished.
Brian: Mike Todd, Senior Advisor of Consumer Products at Dearin and Associates. Remember, always strive for authenticity and embrace the power of native experiences.