I can mimic accents pretty well and I have less trouble than many of my friends and co-workers when trying to understand people with heavy accents or who are not native English speakers.
I consider myself to be quite well spoken (I have much better diction, pronunciation and a better vocabulary than most Australians) but I deliberately alter the way I talk depending on who I'm talking to. For instance I would naturally usually say to someone on the phone "to whom am I speaking please" but at work I usually dumb it down to "who am I talking to please" because it causes less confusion. Also, Australians (and especially working class Australians) tend to have "tall poppy syndrome" and don't react well to people if they think they are trying to put on airs and graces.
In any case I always try to be polite. Good manners are one of the tools we have to assist us in not having people wanting to kill each other all the time IMHO.
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 "It is better to be feared than loved" - Nicolo Machiavelli
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