Kiwis have the sexiest accents, says survey

Forget putting on a foreign accent if you’re trying to impress – the sound of our very own Kiwi accent is the best, says a new survey released this week.

The survey asked more than 300 New Zealanders what accents they liked and disliked the most, and surprisingly, our own Kiwi accent came out on top.

The survey was commissioned by leading hearing solutions company Phonak to raise awareness about Hearing Awareness Week. The survey found out what sounds respondents loved and hated and the accents they found the most romantic - and the least attractive.

Almost 30% of respondents said that they think the Kiwi accent sounds the best, followed by the British English accent (25%) and Irish at third (24%). The least preferred was Australian, with 24% of respondents believing this to be the worst accent to hear English in, followed closely by Cockney (23%) and South African (22%).

When it comes to foreign languages, however, the survey revealed strong preferences for those of the European variety. When asked which foreign language sounds the most romantic, the favourite was French at (53%), followed by Italian (23%) and Spanish (12%).

Japanese, Mandarin and Arabic trailed behind with less than 1% each.

David Crowhen, Head Audiologist for Phonak New Zealand says the survey was a different way of raising awareness about Hearing Awareness Week, which begins on Sunday 27 March.

“Hearing loss affects a wide range of people across the social spectrum – more than 4000,000 in New Zealand,” says Mr Crowhen. “Yet, most people wait 10 years to do something about it”.

“Phonak strives to help all people are able to hear, understand and fully enjoy life's rich landscapes of sound, with the help of our hearing aids we hope more people will take care of their hearing and see a professional if they think it isn’t as good as it should be.”

For more information about hearing loss or to try an online hearing test, visit Phonak at www.phonak.co.nz.