I am a graphic designer and I work with clients and colleagues in other countries most weeks. My accent was never a real barrier, but it slowed conversations down, and I noticed myself staying quiet on calls rather than saying something twice.
Jay never made me feel self-conscious about any of it. He shaped the work around the situations I was actually in, which for me meant presenting design work and explaining the reasoning behind it, not general conversation practice.
The change I noticed first was not my pronunciation. It was that I stopped bracing before I spoke. I present my ideas now without rehearsing them in my head first. My accent is still there and I would not want it gone. It is part of how I sound, and I am no longer trying to hide it.
