Regional Rants: The Answer to Creative Thinking

Whether coming up with an essay structure, life plan or menu for tea, every student needs new ideas, so you might as well have a party while you ponder. It sounds ridiculous, seems crazy and could be entirely flawed as a concept, but thinking aloud in an accent deserves some listening to.

Whether coming up with an essay structure, life plan or menu for tea, every student needs new ideas, so you might as well have a party while you ponder. It sounds ridiculous, seems crazy and could be entirely flawed as a concept, but thinking aloud in an accent deserves some listening to. Not only talking to yourself, but muttering away in the dulcet tones of a random region, could help you come up with more creative gems and less dull duds of ideas. A sweeping statement, but one I'm willing to pursue.

Unless we're distant relatives of Narcissus and his pals, we all get bored of our own voice. Oh, for the husk of Emma Stone or the slinky syllables of Alan Rickman; my midland accent doesn't take the biscuit but leaves it limply disintegrating in the dregs of my PG Tips. On hearing our voices played back to us, most of us insist at supersonic decibels 'there is NO WAY that is me!!' and hear ourselves as a mutated remix of a whiney child disturbingly married with the butch gravel of Phil Mitchell.

Add to this the weird awe inspired by Kevin Bridges being able to switch from a thick Glaswegian accent to the bumble of Leamington Spa, or Renee Zelwegger's impeccable British Bridget and Hugh Laurie's slick Stateside switch and it's clear that accents have the ability to confuse perception. The brilliant thing about these twists of the tongue is that they own a modesty which bursting into song or performing a backflip might not, but still showcase a skill that most people will cock an impressed smile at.

Most people will be familiar with the long buried moments of responding to a question at school with the voice of a squashed mouse, or the high-pitched response to your boss which suggests your personality would benefit from an enthusiasm cull. Playing around with our voices, rather than meekly masking them, could be the key to creativity.

Actors often say that hiding behind a character is what gives them the confidence to perform, so why not test this skill off camera? Playing out your ideas in different voices could give you enough distance from them to realise if they are totally naff, as well as enough interest in them to hear yourself out as you chuckle as your Geordie lapses into Welsh. It's not as if you have to walk into an interview wearing a technicolour flag-coat or spout eloquent Brummie on command; quite the opposite, no one needs to know about this weird habit I'm advising. In education and indeed in life, ideas have to be formed before any social interaction is earned; whether you're thinking of a dissertation topic, brainstorming for interviews or creating entrepreneurial gems, there's a good deal of turning over thoughts before you hit the jackpot. So you might as well have a belly laugh while you're at it.

Something can be made funny by a Dorset accent, sexy with an Irish twang and just plain distinctive by a Yorkshire drawl, so try talking yourself through things with some new vibrations. You might actually listen.

Disclaimer: If you do take this skill into the public sphere, you can start to seem what most people term 'bizarre' or, more likely, 'irritating'.

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