#205

like if you are speaking in English it would make sense but if you are speaking in French to French people but call it London?

#206

From NORF KEN’ INNIT. Strong crossover with SAARF LAANDAN. Filled and field are pronounced almost the same.

@ericVII on first meeting me was surprised at how Estuary I sound.

Constantly happens to me- people who have only interacted via email in work settings being surprised when I have a (mild) regional accent in real life, or the opposite way round, people with posh voices assuming I’m a bit thick and then being really surprised in a patronising way when I say something sensible or turn out to have academic qualifications. I hate the way the accent of the area I grew up in is associated with being stupid, ignorant and aggressive. I was pleasantly surprised recently when I was watching a documentary about an artist from South London, and she just spoke in her natural accent and was presented in the film as being an intelligent and educated person, not some kind of hahah isn’t she a funny little urchin got above her station.

I find that posh drawling Home Counties accent really really annoying. It’s been added to in the last few years by the fact that I live in a place where there’s a lot of resentment towards “Down From Londons” coming and buying up all the cheap houses and then looking down on us illiterate local peasants. A particular resentment is those kind of people acting like I have some kind of incredibly thick accent that is impossible to understand, and making me repeat words because they can’t understand my vowels, like a passive-aggressive form of correcting my pronunciation.

(I regularly get accused of being from “somewhere up North” or Australian too, don’t know how that works- a taxi driver in Tasmania asked me if I was from Melbourne)

(Also have a very Vienna accent in German)

1 Like
#207

I have a Bristolian accent, a Scottish friend initially thought I was Irish .

He might have been awful with accents though

2 Likes
#208

I do not like it.

(Essex)

#209

i sitll laugh thinking about you telling your ‘pale ale’ story on here

1 Like
#210

also haven’t read the thread but if you point out words people say in their accent as “wrong” i.e. it’s waTer, it has a t in it, then you’re a real prick

1 Like
#211

:laughing: is there a particular story?

it’s just 1 pow ow pls

7 Likes
#212

haha nah maybe story was the wrong word but just you talking about ordering it in a pub or something, i’m sometimes tempted to say pow ow when i’m at a bar, might do that tonight

#213

[Posted as a former “Brainree and Wi’ham” resident]

2 Likes
#214

I’m from Dundalk so had this accent till I was about 13.

Then I did speech and drama at school and suddenly everyone thought I was posh or English, which was terrifying because Dundalk is not a place you want to sound English.
Then I moved to Dublin and that neutral “I’m from the country but moved to Dublin” accent kicked in.

I went through a few years where people always thought I was American, which was terrible.
Now I think it’s just a soft, generic Irish accent. :man_shrugging:

1 Like
#215

I don’t like the sound of my voice but I like my accent, it’s a Merseyside-but-not-scouse/Lancashire hybrid. Like a traditional St Helens accent as opposed to the plastic Scouse one which seems the accent du jour there nowadays.

#216

Hello there border neighbour!
I grew up in Newry.
No idea what my accent is like these days having lived in a few different places since though.

1 Like
#217

:wave: :wave:

1 Like
#218

Re the conversation we were having yesterday, here’s an example from right just now on a Teams meeting I’ve just been in.

The meeting chair did a round table for final questions and ended up at a colleague of mine with a frankly fairly straightforward Greek name. She had a couple of goes but didn’t get past the first syllable, my collegue unmuted and said her name, and the chair said… “Well done”…

#219

Ooft that’s a dick move to say that.
I would have either attempted it at that point or said apologies.

#220

I’m sure it was embarrassment/nerves, but still a bit of an eye-opener.

I mean this is the name. Really not that hard imo.

1 Like
#221

The chair: ‘Eric!’ :joy:

But yes surely learning your colleagues names alone is common courtesy if not an actual necessity in the work environment.

#222

In fairness, my colleague, and only distantly the chair’s. Offered up less as a critique of her, more as an illustration of how flustered and inappropriate people can get about pronunciations, much like I guess harru was alluding to yesterday. I’d lay odds the chair is still wondering why she said that.

#223

And for what it’s worth my colleague’s accent is totally awesome. The Greek spin she puts on some consonants is like a work of art.

#224

Aye real awkward moment by the sound of it.
At least she knows what it is now though and can hopefully use her name in future.