One of the things you don’t want to do, however, is try to match a person’s accent. So when my brother-in-law’s midwestern drawl comes out, I wouldn’t want to start throwing in a few “Y’alls” for good measure. Research shows that when we try to match the accent of the person we’re talking to (British, Australian, etc.), it comes across as disingenuous and ruins whatever rapport was previously built.
