During the break in one of my training in Manhattan, one Asian-looking participant came up to me, ‘Sometimes when I speak, my accent comes out. I tried to hide it, but it comes out when I’m not careful. I went to an international school so my accent is all over the place. Do you have any tips for that?’

‘What’s wrong with that? I have an accent too. Did you stop believing what I have to say because of that?’

‘I don’t want people to hear it.’

‘Why not?’

‘It’s not right.’

‘Remember what we talked about earlier? That’s what makes you you! You have to let yourself out! You have to get over yourself!’

‘But I don’t like it.’

‘That’s you! That’s what makes you unique! If you got rid of it, you would be like everyone else! Why would you want to do that?’

‘Well my friends pick up on that and they pick on me.’

‘That’s the problem with society. We damage people without knowing we’re doing that. Whenever we say “you have this big bottom”, or “you have big feet”. We really should stop. We’re ruining people’s lives!’ Everyone has an accent one way or another! Otherwise we’d be robots!’

She nodded, seemed convinced.. I secretly hope she would embrace her uniqueness.