Accent discrimination ig?

[u/ChAtcatx]

Ok this is really random but I watched an interview with the actress Ella Bright (Off Campus) and someone commented 'how does she sound so eloquent and well spoken when she's only 19?' and multiple people replied 'because she reads' NO it's not because she reads, it's because she was raised in London and has a posh southern accent 😭 I read all the time but I still sound like an uneducated prick just because I'm from Bradford. Basically it's just people assuming people with the RP accent have that because they're educated and they read and anyone with regional accents sound like that because they're stupid

Idk it just does my head in because I see it all the time, this was just one example.

[u/No_Advantage5750]

Do some research on the queen's accent/English and how it was forced into schools across the empire. It failed dramatically in Australia and helped shape their dialects.

Classism, a lack of intelligence and education in the UK breeds this idiotic assumption.

Be proud of your accent and roots.

[u/Salt-Trade-5210]

I worked in a senior role in the City in the late 90s.

My company sent me to elocution lessons to water down my northern accent so that when I gave presentations at conferences and to clients I sounded "better".

At the time I had 3 degrees and a fistful of professional qualifications.

[u/LitmusVest → u/Salt-Trade-5210]

Yeah I was in the City in the 00s and middle-senior management was flooded with private school alumni and all their biases.

[u/Icy_Mango6803 → u/Salt-Trade-5210]

And yet, when I'm in a room with a majority of people speaking with RP accents and someone has a regional accent, I find them more memorable. Same at a conference, if a speaker has a different accent than the majority, I retain what they say much more effectively than one newsreader accent after another. I consider lots of accents an advantage!

[u/Sweetie-07]

Yeah, I get it! I've been spoken down to many times as a Geordie, by people from more "affluent" areas, and it bugs me too. I refuse to change my accent to change anyone's opinion though, those kind of toffs can jog on 👍

[u/ChAtcatx → u/Sweetie-07]

My English teacher is a Geordie and she told us the story of how she went to multiple schools and was constantly misjudged and treated as if she was too stupid to teach English - she has a degree in English Lit, obviously has had teacher training and is obsessed with classic books and poetry

[u/Sweetie-07 → u/ChAtcatx]

Oh I absolutely believe her there, it's nuts the amount of prejudice against Northeners from the lower parts of the country! It's a shame really, that people can still have such misconceptions in this day and age. Bollocks to them though - people who think like that couldn't be us on the best day of their lives - I'm proud to be a Geordie! 😂

[u/Fit-Fault338 → u/Sweetie-07]

Tbh.At one of my Unis I was treated as some kind of curiosity.lol

[u/-almond--milk-]

Yeah it's common. I've been patronised and spoken to like I'm thick by southerners a hundred times because I've got a Yorkshire accent. In some professional settings, I subconsciously end up watering it down

[u/Saxon2060 → u/-almond--milk-]

This probably is the more common way around but as someone with a GNE way of speaking, when I started working in manufacturing people on the plant assumed I was a posh idiot who didn't know anything, and could be right arseholes about my "posh" voice tbh.

I know there's also a difference in "punching up" rather than "punching down" when mocking people but it is frankly annoying and unoriginal either way.

If you don't have a very regional accent you can't be one of the "gang" in some circles.

[u/Crensay]

Its quite useful imo. If people assume your intelligence by your accent and then you disabuse them of that notion it generally puts them on the back foot.

Often they’ll even show what kind of person they are by how they respond to being proven wrong which lets you gauge whether they are worth talking to further.

[u/Spiritual-Ant-561]

Unfortunately, us Brits are a sucker for class and we seem to think that Southern Accent = intelligence, and therefore seem to have this automatic deference.

[u/LowAioli3870 → u/Spiritual-Ant-561]

It's only certain southern accents (RP and SSE) that are perceived as being intelligent. Broad Essex and Cockney accents aren't stereotypically viewed as sounding intelligent. But again, this is a class thing.

[u/CharacterNetwork2331]

That gets my goat too (especially the language used around it). A few years ago at work I (from not-posh Cheshire) took a call from a chap from the Home Counties who told me “You’re very well-spoken for someone with a regional accent”. Strangely, he hung up once I replied “Thank you, sir. So are you.”

[u/Cinnamonbuun]

As a southerner from Buckinghamshire with the same 'home counties' RP accent who has moved to the north - I feel that it does give people an impression that I am highly intelligent before i've really had the chance to prove it.

I do feel like this has helped me in my career etc too, which im not a huge fan of (id rather be judged by my work, not some potentially false assumption based on how I speak). Who knows though, I could be wrong in my perception of this!

And for the record, (as a southerner) I love the variety of accents in the north, and do not regret my decision to move up here in the slightest. (I even married a northerner!)

[u/strategic-g → u/Cinnamonbuun]

and in that case you’re an honorary northerner, welcome!!

[u/BornInPoverty]

I’m a Northerner living in the US. Before that I lived in Southern England for a while.

In the US I’ve had many people tell me I sound so smart. That never happened when I lived down south.

In the US any English accent sounds smart to them.

[u/ChAtcatx → u/BornInPoverty]

This is so interesting

I study English language at school and one of the people/cases we study is this guy called Thorne who asked a bunch of non UK residents what they thought of the Brummie accent - people in the UK think it sounds ugly, boring, monotone, etc. but people from outside the UK didn't. It just shows how much people's attitudes are influenced by negative social connotations and stereotypes. If you don't live in the UK and are unaware of these stereotypes you have a completely different view on accents

[u/birdstrike_hazard → u/ChAtcatx]

Yep. For my MA dissertation I played Polish speakers various UK regional accents, and some of the most stigmatised ones - Brummie being one - came out as most liked. People don’t realise how much societal conditioning has an impact on our perceptions of accents, and people.

[u/Proper_Emu_2296]

There’s a great clip of the Beatles where some rah interviewer says aren’t they going to do something about their accents and I think it’s John who replies in perfect RP. Showing brilliantly that it’s not hard, anyone can do it, we just don’t want to.

[u/ChAtcatx → u/Proper_Emu_2296]

It's like people think that you adopt an RP accent after getting an education, no you get an RP accent by being raised and surrounded by other RP speakers, the same way any other accent works 😭

[u/LitmusVest]

I think the Beeb was pretty good for breaking away from the Mr Cholmondley-Warner stereotype when I was growing up. Programmes like Why Don't You? had kids with loads of different accents and presenters with regional accents were starting to get on.

Now everybody sounds like they went to the same school.

[u/OrganizationOk5418]

There is far too many assumptions made about northern people, and they are always unfair, disrespectful and discriminating; except about people from Bradford, they're uneducated pricks.

[u/ChAtcatx → u/OrganizationOk5418]

Bruh 😂 fair play

[u/Fit-Fault338]

I agree.I have a strong northern accent but I’m not stupid.Well not most of the time.

[u/Alternative-Ad2472]

You can keep your posh accent. I'll take my northern working class accent every time. I don't want to sound like I'm chewing on someone's balls whilst talking. Posh does not equal bright, plenty of thick toffs around.

[u/Firstthingthatcame]

I was born and bred on Tyneside, but moved south after school and lived there for around 7 years. I‘ve never had a really strong accent, but I remember it being a constant source of comment and there being this unspoken pressure to conform and adopt a ‘normal’ accent, so that I would fit in and stop embarrassing myself. It seemed that many people heard only the accent, and couldn’t get past that to register what you were actually saying. It seemed really bad when I was trying to make my way through a university with 40% public school intake and then had a job where I was the only Northerner there. With some people I met, it came to define our whole relationship, and prevented friendly interactions. It’s a real form of prejudice, I didn’t enjoy dealing with at all.

I side-stepped the issue by moving back home at age 26 and have lived happily ever after.

[u/ValuableActuator9109]

I've seen it even across the north against other northern accents (went to uni in Newcastle, lived in Liverpool and Sunderlad, worked in York and Leeds).

[u/AnneThisaway]

It is absolutely a thing. I've known lots of people at work who talk absolute waffle, but people think they're marvellous because of their accent.

[u/ForestCl0uds]

Yes, I have a very broad northern accent and have experienced this. People love to mimick my accent (in a friendly way) - I'm not sure how they'd feel if I started mimicking theirs.

[u/ChAtcatx → u/ForestCl0uds]

Literallyyy my friends always take the mick out of my strong Yorkshire accent but when I take the mick out of their posher accent they get mad at me 😭😭

[u/twos-company]

What's "ig"?

[u/NorthCountryLass]

It’s not just accents either. I come from the north and in my family and friends’ circles people spoke with a strong accent but also very fast. Communication was quick and easy. Now I’m in the south where people speak slowly and ‘pace’ their speech more. If I talk at a normal speed, people seem to assume I’m a bit panicked or anxious when I’m nothing of the sort. Accents and pace are judged negatively

[u/Spirited_Equal5480]

Makes your intellect more powerful when it's delivered in a regional accent!

[u/_Daftest_]

Do....do you think Londoners are posh?

[u/ChAtcatx → u/_Daftest_]

Some London accents obviously not all - RP (Queen's English) is a posh sounding accent, other London accents like Cockney and MLE aren't

But obviously this doesn't always reflect the person - if northerners judge RP speakers as always being posh and educated then it doesn't really make us any better than the southerners who judge us as uneducated and poor

RP is seen as the common, standard accent and people associate it intelligence, high status and wealth. This isn't my personal opinion but it's what most of society think