Accent reduction in the movies: My Fair Lady

The idea that people are evaluated by the manner of their speech is far from new, nor surprising. How someone talks immediately provides clues to their socioeconomic status, level of education, self-awareness, self-confidence, and geographic location. Logically, simply changing the way someone talks should help them function more fully and functionally across a broad range of social situations. 

My Fair Lady was a musical drama so popular it was made into a movie for wider distribution. Accent reduction is the central plot, though in this case, the ideal is British English as spoken by upper class people in the U.K. in the 1900s-- definitely NOT American! Professor Higgins bets his friend that he can make anyone speak properly. The challenge is to make over an ignorant street vendor, Eliza Doolittle, into someone who can mingle with the upper class, merely by transforming Eliza's "cockney" accent. 

As anyone who has tried to improve their accent knows, this is frustrating and difficult. Only with many repetitions and a lot of practice can you make progress. For the sake of the story, the poor street vendor happens to be a very cute young woman. The professor drills her constantly with little success and much comedy, until the breakthrough comes. As a learning strategy, the professor has Eliza repeat the phrase, "The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain" innumerable times until finally she masters it. Here is a link to this scene from the movie The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain .

In case you have not seen the play or movie, I will not ruin the story for you. Instead I recommend getting  it from the library, or better yet, see a live musical production. Many community theater groups present My Fair Lady because of its enduring popularity, great music, and theme of personal development. Professor Higgins finds himself developing as much as his student does. 

Pygmalion falls in love with his own creation.

The five-act play Pygmalion, by the renowned British playwright George Bernard Shaw in 1912, formed the basis of the musical play My Fair Lady about 50 years later. Pygmalion is also a wonderful drama, though without the rousing music. Shaw based his play on the ancient legend of Pygmalion, the sculptor, who falls in love with his stone sculpture of a woman. The original legend has nothing to do with accent reduction; that is entirely Shaw's creative mind at work. 

Millions of people who have seen My Fair Lady and Pygmalion have accepted the premise that our way of speaking influences how we appear to others. Maybe it is not always true, but thinking of an exception is hard.