Gaining Insight into the "Neutral" Accent

I talked to a "neutral" accent trainer in India this week. It was actually fascinating. I could clearly understand him, yet his accent was not one anyone would recognize.

He tells me that at some point, the decision makers around outsourced call centers in India decided to take the "best" of various accents and combine them - best meaning the easiest to pronounce, and perhaps the clearest.

For example, he mentioned the American /k/ sound is thought to be cumbersome and "too much work," so the British one has been integrated into the "neutral" accent. Likewise, the American stop /t/ in "important" is thought be easier to pronounce than the British equivalent.

It seems to be ( from the cursory phone meeting we had - very brief) that "tense" articulation is also part of the "neutral" accent. The focus was very much on the vowels, which makes a lot of sense. Clarity is key in this pursuit, not authenticity.

I'm planning to have a more in-depth conversation with him to determine exactly what "neutral" accent trainers focus on when working with Indian first-language speakers, (and also, how in the WORLD they can stay up all night just to be on US time and make that work for them long-term).

He mentioned they use my You Tube videos for training purposes, and that was the wonderful. I'm glad they are helpful to people in a remote land.