When people expect you to have an accent?

[gemeyemar]

Is anyone else in a similar situation?

My name gives away my origins immediately. I have a very welsh first name and surname. This means that when people meet me, they expect me to have a very Welsh accent.

I was born and raised in Swansea, and speak Welsh. Both my parents were teachers but only my mum really had what you would call a welsh accent. My dad was educated in England, but even his (welsh) parents don’t have a welsh accent.

I moved to southern England for university and got a job here. People assume I’m from London. Just the other night, someone asked “what part of London are you from?” (!) I’ve never lived in London in my life.

People almost seem disappointed that I don’t sound welsh. Some treat me with suspicion. Some even try and get me to admit that I’ve altered my accent!

I don't think I have much of an accent. Kent then Devon. Now Surrey. Most of my close friends don't have much of an accent.

@Susannahmoody

I'm from Lancashire and live abroad. My kids speak the local language together, and English with me. So it's quite a shock to people if they hear the kids first, then hear me bellow to them in coarse Lancashire 'sit yerself down!'

People are like

I live in Germany and speak Glaswegian dialect with my kids. I regularly get asked what language I'm speaking The kids' school thought I was Irish!

My parents were Russian but I was born in the UK. I don’t look English and don’t have an English name but my accent sounds Northern ( flat A, sometimes miss the g off words ending in ing etc)- When I am introduced to people when they hear my name I do wonder if they might not expect me to sound like I do. No one has said anything though so I could be totally wrong.

My OH gets this a fair bit. He was born in the UK, has arguably a more cut glass accent than me (both being SE born), but his parents are from India, so judging by looks alone, people expect him to have an 'Indian' accent.

He also has a typically British first and surname (as do the rest of his family), and when people read it on his name tag, is often told, in an act of mistaken kindness I'm sure, that he should have pride his 'real' name and shouldn't feel he needs to change it to fit in!

I'm also from somewhere with a strong regional accent but have always had the "well you don't sound xyz" spiel. I've uploaded a voice recording of me reading a paragraph about flags (apt subject I thought!). Any guesses? streamable.com/z8kc1d

I get this all the time. I'm Scottish but have been told I sound English or American many many times. Sometimes people's judgements can be weird, like one man I worked with who kept insisting that I must be privately educated and I'm not. Some people just don't seem to see beyond stereotypes...lol

I'm from Yorkshire when I tell people that they're surprised I don't have a Yorkshire accent.
But there are many places in Yorkshire that don't really tend to have that accent!

[quote Pepsipepsi]I'm also from somewhere with a strong regional accent but have always had the "well you don't sound xyz" spiel. I've uploaded a voice recording of me reading a paragraph about flags (apt subject I thought!). Any guesses? streamable.com/z8kc1d[/quote]
Essex

Asian, British born and raised and have been complemented on my accent and language skills, mainly by older folk. Oddly I live in the middle east and other non-western expats have mistaken me for Arab (covid mask, am clearly south asian without it) and have been really impressed with my English skills and accent 😂.

I was told on the phone once (talking with some service provider or other) that I can't be because my English was so good . This was when they needed me to spell my name out.

I'm not white and people are often surprised (and pay me compliments?!?!) that my English is "so good". Questioning my accent often leads to the good old "no, where are you really from?" London (born & bred) is never a good enough answer. Nosy gits are only interested in my ethnic heritage and then patronising me about "how well I've integrated done".

@Pepsipepsi you sound vaguely Scottish to me.

I'm from somewhere where the local accent is seen as a joke in the UK and I do have a soft twang, but no one can really pick it up for what it is and they are surprised to learn that that's where it's from.

DH is Italian but learned english in school, so he sounds a bit American when he speaks english, as they use American resources over there. No one really knows this, so they are surprised when he opens his mouth, they're expecting something a bit like the guy from Allo Allo !

DC have the local accent of where we live - which isn't very strong but it's at least expected!

Pepsi pepsi :
Southern England.
Not London estuary. Bit more rural.

However I'm from northern UK so am in uncharted territory really.😄

I have the opposite problem OP

I've lived in several parts of the UK and my accent can go through three counties in one sentence.

I started life in Yorkshire but moved to Lancashire as a child where I picked up, "can you not.. Have you not..." instead of "Can't you ...Haven't you" I've not lived in Lancashire for 30 years but that phrasing has stuck with me.

I got into a taxi in Buenos Aires once and asked for my destination in my best Spanish and the driver replied in fluent English with a north American accent.

I've been told I can't be from my home city. I insisted that I was, to be then told in that case I must be from the posh part then. (I'm not.) Also told that I must have gone to private school to speak as I did AND have made it onto their training scheme. (I hadn't.)
I don't know why such people assume they know more about my background than me.🤷

My late FIL was from mid Wales and spoke Welsh before he spoke English and, living in the NW of England, everyone said "you don't have an accent" but he did - the same accent in English as everyone else in Mid Wales whose first language was Welsh - which is entirely different to the stereotypical "Valleys" accent they were expecting.

[quote Pepsipepsi]I'm also from somewhere with a strong regional accent but have always had the "well you don't sound xyz" spiel. I've uploaded a voice recording of me reading a paragraph about flags (apt subject I thought!). Any guesses? streamable.com/z8kc1d[/quote]
I feel there’s a South Welsh lilt in there on some words but on others I’d say South East England?

[quote Pepsipepsi]I'm also from somewhere with a strong regional accent but have always had the "well you don't sound xyz" spiel. I've uploaded a voice recording of me reading a paragraph about flags (apt subject I thought!). Any guesses? streamable.com/z8kc1d[/quote]
East Anglia.

I was either West country or East Anglia! I really want to know now.

Pepsipepsi

Yorkshire?

I get
From southerners "you're very northern"
From northerners "you're not northern are you"
Make your mind up would be interested to see where people think I'm from

Here you go. I've lived in a few different places but born in one, lived in another between 5-11 and another from age 11 onwards. See if anyone picks them up!
https://streamable.com/e49whw

[quote Pepsipepsi]I'm also from somewhere with a strong regional accent but have always had the "well you don't sound xyz" spiel. I've uploaded a voice recording of me reading a paragraph about flags (apt subject I thought!). Any guesses? streamable.com/z8kc1d[/quote]
Leicestershire

Slightly different, but my daughter got asked if we'd come over here from NZ for her to 'learn to speak English'. Um, no, dear. That's one of the three major languages of NZ - it having been colonised by the Brits and all that. . .

NotMyCat somewhere between Blackburn and Leeds?!