To find this incredibly irritating and rude?

I am a kiwi, but also autistic. My accent has always sounded like a mix of South African and someone from show The Crown. I sound nothing like my family, I have no idea how it happened lol. I assume it's to do with being ND.

Anyway, I get it ALL THE TIME when in the UK.
Delivery drivers, post office people, people in social settings etc.

They repeat what I say, trying to recreate how I sound.

I just stare at them blank faced now and it makes them feel awkward.

Some people are malicious, some people do it to try and sound like me for fun... But it's all rude. Just do it behind our backs when we've gone like a normal person lol.

Im from the West Midlands. I’ve lived in the south east of England for 30 years. Ironically in an area with its own strong accent. I get corrected or commented on at least twice a week. It’s tedious. It’s annoying. I get less not more tolerant if it. You are not alone op.

This!

I’ve had the same but in reverse. A so called friend mocks me with a cockney accent even though I’m originally from Bedfordshire! Otherwise people usually just say “you’re not from around here are you?”

I would be annoyed too. An Uber driver did this to my dad once and I reported him to Uber who took it very seriously.

Londoner here with a strong estuary accent. Have lived in the north for 3 decades and only twice have had the piss taken. Having said that, I might have a nasty look about me.

@Bfmamma

Pray tell: what is an African accent?

Do you mean Algerian, Kenyan, Comorian or Mozambican etc accent?

j

I’d love to learn Welsh. It’s a beautiful language and a lovely accent. 😀

YANBU @Whatonearth17 it’s rude even if he meant it to be “charming” or a “compliment”. I’m from Belfast originally and often experienced similar when living in England. Not mocking, exactly, but it can be tiresome. We’ve settled in West Wales now and not once in three years has anyone commented on the way I talk. Make of that what you will 😉
(NB I married a lovely English man and have many English friends so promise I’m not a racist. Not sad the kids are developing little Welsh accents though, even when speaking English)

I’d love to know what ‘the’ Welsh accent is. Is it the same as ‘the’ English or Scottish accent?

Yes, or the Welsh people DO have a Welsh accent, but not the same one as OP because she is a Welsh speaker.

Unlikely. People can tell when they're being mocked.

Not necessarily English. A lot of Welsh people don’t speak Welsh or have a recognisable Welsh accent, it depends on the region or town. The English tried to stamp out the Welsh language in times gone by, and were pretty successful.

To be honest, I don't think it's clever to comment on a Welsh person's accent IN Wales, even if you're being positive. Why should it be marked as something strange?

I have no problem with people outside of Wales asking where I come fro,.

I hate it when people mock your accent in another language. A colleague did that to me when I was speaking French and spoke French back to me with a Scottish accent, I called him out on it and started speaking English with a French accent. But the patronising „you sound so cute“ along with it rubbed me up the wrong way.
But the Germans are wonderful, no one has ever mocked my accent and tried to impersonate it - they tend to ask me where I am originally from and tell me my German is good - I have meet some interesting people because of my Scottish accent and it’s a good icebreaker.

I don't think it's a class thing in Wales. It's a tyranny of the majority type thing - anyone different can be made fun of.
Sometimes there is also some anti-Welshness to it, even from other Welsh people who are sometimes embarrassed by aspects of their own identity.

An thanks for clarifying 🙌

Humans are good at noticing differences in other people, and some people have more need than others to signal that they have noticed a difference. Perhaps this is just one of those things that people are socialised into by their environment and which school and/or their parents never bothered to tell them was rude. We all learn at a fairly early age that it's rude to point out to someone that they are overweight, or have a different skin colour to us, but this sort of thing is "just banter", and for a certain percentage of people (mostly men), it's all banter, all the time, because actually talking about real things would be unbearable.

If it's any consolation, I have the most RP accent in the world, and when I was growing up I was mocked for it by other kids in my town, but I guess they thought they were punching up against the middle class.

I love the Welsh accent. I'd have probably told you how lovely your voice was. He's a nob.

No. Welsh speakers from ANY area of Wales can have an accent that identifies us as Welsh speakers.

No, that's not how it works. We Welsh speakers often have an accent that is perceived as 'more' Welsh than the average for the area.
Some Welsh people also cannot even hear their own accent and think they are accent-less. Quite funny from anyone else's point of view...

But I would’ve thought in the same town this would be the case !!

I have a Northern accent.A friends DH has a strong Scottish accent yet invariably every time we meet up socially he seems to think its hilarious to take the mickey out of something I've said.It really annoys me.I try not to react but last time I did ask why he felt it necessary to keep repeating my way of saying a word and that I found the way he spoke just as unusual. I know my friend is realising the joke is wearing thin and she has told him to give up.

Yeah this

I'd have put the item back and walked away