Yooper-Speak and Southern Drawls

I am a computer applications trainer. Most of my job is actually training over the telephone. Yeah, it's a strange job, but I've certainly done worse. Anyway, I've been noticing something lately.
I have a habit that seriously annoys my wife which is that, whenever I hear an accent that is different from mine, I immitate it. It's an unconscious action. Thankfully, I generally do it very well, so the people to whom I'm speaking don't realize I'm immitating them. I've found that this really comes in handy in life.
Years ago, when traveling in Kentucky with my parents, I went into a gas station to buy something to drink. I spent a few minutes chatting with the cashier, who was a middle-aged man with fewer than his allotted quota of teeth. After a few minutes, my dad walked up to me at the counter. He handed me a pop and asked if I would pay for it while he used the restroom.
When he walked away, the clerk leaned over closer to me and asked, "Why're y'all travelin' with that YANKEE?" He was decidedly unfriendly to my dad when he came out.
By the way, my habit of telling long, drawn out stories to illustrate a point also really grinds on my wife, BUT I tell it because it shows how someone's accent afeects his relationship with the people around him. My friend Drew, who's from Louisiana, points out that while people from the South say "y'all", we Northerners generally say "you guys". He says this makes us all sound like the unpopular kid on the playground. ("Wait up YOU GUYS!") I was conducting a training this morning with a gentleman in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and he stated how comfortable he was with me because I have a Minnesota/Yooper/Canadian accent. And so I reach my thesis, which is...
They should teach dialects in school.
Think about it, if everybody could just blend into their surroundings by sounding like the natives, you wouldn't have to worry about regional prejudices. Anyway, it's just a thought. And if anybody sees Coach Lucky, tell him I said "Howdy!"

Laterz