Say Goodbye to your Southern Accent?

Recently I read an article in the Macon {Georgia} Telegraph "Gosh Dang.  What is wrong with a Southern Accent?"  I discovered while reading the article that there's a book out entitled "Say Goodbye to your Southern Accent."  The book's authors, Jennifer Adams and Joanna Chapman run a firm called Atlanta Accent Management.  These ladies are helping Southerners lose their Southern accents, and they are based in Atlanta...of all places.

  

Lord have mercy, this all reminds me of the scene in Gone With the Wind when Rhett and Scarlett are riding through a burning Atlanta...

Rhett tells Scarlett, "Take a good look my dear.  It's an historic moment, you can tell your grandchildren about how you watched the Old South fall one night."

 I cannot believe that people in the South want to lose their Southern drawl.  Learning proper grammar is one thing, but losing your Southern accent?!  When I lived outside the U.S., I had to enuciate my words better so that people could understand me.  One day I called home and my Daddy said "Why are you talking like that?"  I said "Like what?"  He said "Like a Yankee!"  I said "I'm NOT talking like a Yankee!"  But I guess that I had lost a bit of my Southern accent...not intentionally!  You can bet that I regrouped and went back to my Southern way of speaking.

Apparently, there a lot of folks who love a Southern accent!  Read this article Hey Y'all: Southern Accents Voted Most Attractive.  There are also books that teach you how to speak Southern..."How To Speak With a Southern Accent" and "The Dixie Dictionary."

The author of the above mentioned newspaper article, Mr. Dick Yarbrough, goes on to talk about his successful career...with his Southern drawl and all!  I can tell y'all that I never had any complaints about my Southern accent during my working years.  Of course, I was often asked "Can you just talk for us?"

So what do y'all think?  Would you try to change your accent or do you think practicing proper grammar is sufficient?