Your accent - help or a hindrance?

[gremlin]

A study by somebody who clearly had nothing more pressing to research, reveals that many people have their accents mocked or feel disadvantaged by it.

BBC News - MP Jess Phillips praises Brummie accent
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-b ... m-63502819

How's yours impacted your life?

I work in finance, among many smart, university educated people, some with more cut glass than Everest Windows, and I have a bit of a rare ol' south London accent which I'm rather fond of. It's been commented on once, many years ago, that if I could only try to raise it up to at least lower middle-class...

Fuck off. South London's in the house.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I'm properly straight down the middle "Standard Southern English" - which is basically "stock non accented English".

Couldn't get more mainstream and beige if I tried

[weeksy]

I think mine is seen as quirky and interesting but I don't feel it's helped or hindered me at all. It's obviously a product of my early life and I wouldn't change it.

Lucky 99% of my communication is virtual so people understand me

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I think mine is seen as quirky and interesting but I don't feel it's helped or hindered me at all. It's obviously a product of my early life and I wouldn't change it.

Lucky 99% of my communication is virtual so people understand me

Weirdly, your accent was a lot more Liverpool than I was expecting, I've no idea why I was expecting your voice to be different to how it is.

I don't have an accent, so I don't have a problem (actually I've no concept of how I sound to other people)

[Count Steer]

Not really either. Got the usual comments when I moved to London from one person whenever I said something like bath, cub, bun or castle. Funnily enough got told I didn't say Newcastle right in Newcastle but that was the new bit rather than the castle.

However, the biggest is hearing myself when recorded. Not the accent, just the sound without the resonance through the head.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Anyone who likes the sound of their own recorded voice is a complete and total psychopath.

[ChrisW]

Phew.

[DefTrap]

Apparently I have a twang of Suffolk, I can live with that.

[Asian Boss]

As well you know, as well you know, oft will I turn up the Home Counties accent and threaten to have people thrown out of their cottages.

Yet I have amounted to nothing. Nothing.

[JackyJoll]

Anyone who likes the sound of their own recorded voice is a complete and total psychopath.

My recorded voice sounds like my brother. I’m not saying I like it!

[JackyJoll]

non accented English

Go to Glasgow and tell them you have no accent.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

As well you know, as well you know, oft will I turn up the Home Counties accent and threaten to have people thrown out of their cottages.

Yet I have amounted to nothing. Nothing.

We all know you really talk like the Fenlander that you are.

[Mr. Dazzle]

non accented English

Go to Glasgow and tell them you have no accent.

I wouldn't understand the answer anyway.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

non accented English

Go to Glasgow and tell them you have no accent.

I wouldn't understand the answer anyway.

I think a smack in the gob is understandable in any accent

[KungFooBob]

I'm from Doncaster, but live in Barnsley (a whole 10 miles away) and I think all Barnsley people sound like simpletons.

[JackyJoll]

I'm from Doncaster, but live in Barnsley (a whole 10 miles away) and I think all Barnsley people sound like simpletons.

“Eeeeeh! Ooooooh!”

I think I made myself clear.

[mangocrazy]

At age 10 I moved from Sarf London (Bexleyheath, if you must) to Stafford. My accent initially got some comments from the other kids but over time it's been neutralised to Not London, Not Stafford and (most recently) Not Sheffield. I can do sort of Posh if I need to, but have regrettably lost most of the old Mockney Geezer...

[Felix]

Awa n bile yer heeds you fucking roasters.

Naw

[Noggin]

My mother tried to make damn sure neither of us had a Somerset accent!! I used to get called 'posh' at school, which was how my mother wanted it - wasn't ideal for me tho. Whilst I can copy most accents, blend in if you like, I generally sound pretty 'neutral', I think.

I do know that when I'm tired or drunk, the Somerset twang comes out!! Until then, no one really knows which area of the UK I come from

I'm hoping that my ability to 'copy' accents will help me lose the English accent when I speak French



I did share a house in Guernsey with guys from Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow. This was about 30 years ago and I hadn't 'met' many accents by then - the guy from Manchester had to translate for me to understand conversations with the three of them

[Mussels]

A study by somebody who clearly had nothing more pressing to research, reveals that many people have their accents mocked or feel disadvantaged by it.

BBC News - MP Jess Phillips praises Brummie accent
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-b ... m-63502819

How's yours impacted your life?

I work in finance, among many smart, university educated people, some with more cut glass than Everest Windows, and I have a bit of a rare ol' south London accent which I'm rather fond of. It's been commented on once, many years ago, that if I could only try to raise it up to at least lower middle-class...

Fuck off. South London's in the house.

Or somebody who wanted it to be a problem and paid someone else to prove it.

The Sutton Trust is an educational charity in the United Kingdom which aims to improve social mobility and address educational disadvantage