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Accents happen (and yes, they do matter).

Some accents are pleasant, some are not. Some are understandable, some are not. And yes, accents and pronunciation matter. Take Cheryl Cole (really - please take her) for instance: Days after being announced as a judge on American X Factor, the former Girls Aloud singer is said to have been replaced by Nicole Sherzinger, formerly a singer with the Pussycat Dolls.

Whilst she had insisted her Geordie accent would not be a hinderance, she admitted she had “stepped out of her comfort zone to do the show in America.

She said: “Americans can always understand me. I've been here a lot, I've got a lot of American friends and we have the odd moments where they're like 'What? What did that mean?' - you know, a phrase. But I think that it's going to be something that people get used to. And I'm proud of my accent.”

She should be proud of her accent, but it looks as if she overestimated the tolerance of the show's producers, as rumours say she has been axed because of worries that her English accent would be too difficult for American audiences to understand.

What do you think?

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