My accent is unremarkable. But it has almost certainly helped me

September 18, 2026 — 5:00am

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One thing I’ve probably benefited from growing up is my accent. While my parents, who moved here 30 years ago, speak with noticeable Japanese accents, both my brother and I sound pretty Australian … so much so that I’m sometimes told I sound a bit bogan.

It has meant that growing up, although I lived in a predominantly Anglo-Australian neighbourhood where I looked a bit different, ate strange foods at lunch and switched languages between home and school, I’ve never been bullied or discriminated against for how I speak.

When a stranger has said anything racist to me, a family member, or friend, based on how we look, they’ve generally been taken aback – and backed off – as soon as I opened my mouth. And like many others, I’ve seen the difference in how some people treat international students or migrants based on how they speak.

This differential treatment can have profound personal effects on individuals. But it can also shape their economic outcomes including employment and education opportunities, and our economy more broadly.

It wasn’t until university, when I was training to adjudicate high school debates, that I was first given a framework for what I’d been noticing. As adjudicators, we listened to students from various schools and backgrounds argue about topics, and graded them based on how persuasive they had been in their reasoning and presentation skills.

Australia, don’t demonise immigrants. Just thank them

Aruna SathanapallyGrattan Institute CEO

Grattan Institute CEO

We were taught about the tendency for adjudicators to unfairly evaluate a speaker’s intelligence, credibility or persuasiveness based on accents — and to make sure that as we were listening to students and grading them, to recognise our own listening biases and separate how an argument sounded from its substance. It’s something I still try to keep in mind when listening and speaking with people.

Australian National University linguistics senior lecturer Dr Ksneia Gnevsheva recently wrote a paper on language-based discrimination and inclusion in Australia. Her research showed that the way we see, evaluate and treat people continues to be........

© The Age