become familiar with accents ... or die?

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/learning-understand-unfamiliar-accents-save-life/19495301/

This fascinating article, entitled "Why Learning to Understand Unfamiliar Accents May Save Your Life," examines the issue of non-American accents and the role they plan in communicating with others. In an extreme example, the article opens up by considering a situation where a miscommunication because of an accent may have been seriously life-threatening. In this situation, a pilot landing a jet in Korea radioed in to the control tower to ask for permission to land. The Korean operator signaled that the plane was clear to land on airstrip "Zulu" - code for airstrip Z - but pronounced the Z like a J, as is common with Korean English-speakers. The pilot thought the controller was mispronouncing "Juliette," and began to land in airstrip "J" narrowly missing another airplane that was landing on the same strip.

The issue of understanding accents also plays a more realistic role in business as well. According to a recent study, multinational corporations better equip their employees in "accent reduction" training that American companies do. As a result, foreign businesses are more likely to conduct business with these employees rather than untrained workers.

These two situations bring up the issue of a "standard" accent for a particular language. Is it important to speak a language in a common accent? Do the above two examples justify the recent Arizona law that prohibits English teachers from speaking with an accent? Is there even such a thing as a universally-spoken accent within a language?

The one thing that this article does make clear is the importance of adjusting the way you speak a certain language to convey maximum clarity. Who knows, it might save your life one day.