LOL, he says "your language is the language of Shakespeare, Milton and the Bible"... I wonder if it was meant to be funny , out of ignorance or arrogance...
As I've posted before, there is this sort of inherent imperialist bias people have with someone who does not have a good command or English. A hundred years ago, it may have been an indication of class (and to some degree still is today). But to look down and be utterly dismissive of someone because they have an accent is just plain dumb.
In PGs defense, just because someone is dumb doesn't mean people will cease to engage in such behavior. And given that the entrepreneur is the one on the selling side, it may behoove him/her to brush up on whichever accent is appealing to those to be sold.
I personally have several accents in English and I subconsciously switch from one to another depending on whom I'm speaking with. If necessary I change languages all together. Reality is, I am better able to connect with the other person this way.
The original play was by George Bernard Shaw. Any commentary on the absurdities and arrogance of the British class system is deliberate. Though by "the Bible" he's equally referring to the King James translation, which was regarded as a major literary influence, on par with Shakespeare.
> As I've posted before, there is this sort of inherent imperialist bias people have with someone who does not have a good command or English.
I think that's true in any language. I see this in myself sometimes, and I have to consciously correct myself that one's accent or grasp of a foreign language has nothing to do with intelligence or any other quality other than time spent practicing.
> I personally have several accents in English and I subconsciously switch from one to another depending on whom I'm speaking with.
Not being a native English speaker, I do this too. My American accent is just as fake as my English one, but I think people are used to you speaking a certain accent, and switching seems fake to them. I'll have to start talking to the next Englishman I meet with an English accent, and see how they react when I switch to an American one, which is what I usually use.
