@Moto
I'm a "what you see is what you get" kinda guy, I never really paid much attention to my Essex (very strong Saffend) accent until I started working in Cambridge. There have been occasions recently where I have been conscious of how I speak.
There is an odd twist to this. While I speak (according to the 'standard' anyway) relatively poor english, I tend to look down on people who use 'chav speak' as if I was the bastion of good diction. In fact while I'd be mortified if someone were to judge my intelligence based upon how I talk, I personally think of people who talk in that way as being 'thick'.
What would life be like without a little hypocrisy to spice things up? ;-)