Will accent rule him out as boyfriend, eh?

DEAR AMY: I recently met a wonderful man through an online dating site. He lives in northern Michigan. I live in Minnesota. He is sweet, honest, good, kind and unspoiled, and we had a very nice, fun time during the weekend he came to my town to visit. He thinks a long-distance relationship could work between us, and I believe he could be right. Early on, before we spoke on the phone, he warned me that he has a certain kind of "northern Michigan/Canadian" accent. Amy, yes, he does! And it really is a discordant note to my ears. I came from a rural area in Wisconsin, and the first thing I worked on when I went off to college was the sloppy diction, etc., that I grew up with. Now, no one would guess where I was born. He brought up this issue first. I responded, "Oh, you don't sound like the people in the movie 'Fargo,' do you?" He does. Can I ask him if he'd be willing to work on his accent? Or do I just have to take it or leave it? My friends are divided, and I am torn.

Mystified in Minneapolis

DEAR MYSTIFIED: As someone whose accent arguably resides within the "Fargo" spectrum, I fail to see what is so awful about this, although you obviously find this (or maybe any other than your own "no one would guess where I was born") accent grating.

But when everyone in North America starts to sound like an anchorman, we will have lost something important, not to mention charming.

Because your friend brought this up before you two spoke, you have to assume that his accent has been a factor in other encounters and relationships.

The nice thing about first getting to know someone is that you can raise these obvious issues and use your discussion as a way to further your understanding of the person.

Go ahead and bring this up. But please remember that the content of a person's character will always be more important than his pronunciation.