The Importance of Standards in Speech Work

In the English language industry and like speech work in general, there's always the standard. The good thing about standards is that they're like a culturally agreed upon thing so that we can notice and speak intelligently about deviations from the thing. Standards are decided by the people who have the most power and then everyone else either does their absolute best to match the standards. Almost nobody actually speaks the standard. So it is a made up accent. It's a made-up accent. And it's arbitrary.