to find it hilarious that my daughter is ranked lowest in class for her accent by her language tutor?

[WestieMamma]

She is outraged. I can't stop laughing. She's just started training to be an English teacher here in Sweden. Her tutor says she has the worst, least authentic accent in the class, despite being one of the only native English speakers .

The top ranked is the other native speaker. He's a geordie. Apparently the fact that none of the Swedes can understand a word he says doesn't matter, it's the fact that he's consistent .

[WilsonFrickett]

Her teacher obviously hasn't cottoned on to the fact estuary English is considered a more or less standard South-Eastern English accent then. It's incredibly common (as in there's lots of it about...)

[PaperSeagull]

Too funny. It reminds me of Nabokov's Pnin, who is not allowed to teach French at his university because he actually speaks French. The head of the department explains it wouldn't be fair to the other teachers of French, who are only required to be one lesson ahead of their students.

I teach Russian. Though I'm not a native speaker, I have a good nearly native accent. It does not follow that all of my students also have good pronunciation. In fact, most of them do not. That is simply the reality of teaching adults. Young children are a different story, of course.

[BikeRunSki]

My Anglo-French nephew, raised in France, speaks English at home. Consistently bottom of the class for English; spoken as well as written. When school asked English speaking parents to come and do conversation sessions with the children, DSis was told she didn't sound English enough. She was a bit as we come from London.

[LongTailedTit]

Brilliant!
Estuary will wipe out all other southern accents eventually, and then your DD will be the head of the language dept!

I remember being a bit huh? years ago on a kibbutz in Israel when I heard all the Scandi volunteers speaking with American accents, it seemed so odd to me.

[CatThiefKeith]

I spent a few years of my childhood in Spain, and when I came back to England spoke Spanish with a thick Valencian accent (and still do on the odd occassion I speak it)

My Spanish teacher consistently marked me down for my accent, despite the visiting exchange students mistaking me for Spanish! :(

[Beastofburden]

lol at beckham cloning...

[eurochick]

V amusing OP.

I lived in France for a while and then Belgium. My French now has a Belgian tinge to it. When I open my mouth when I am in Paris for work, the waiters look like they want to spit on the floor in disgust at my accent.

I work on a team with Americans dealing with mostly foreign clients. They almost all find American English easier to understand than my (close to RP, clearly articulated) British English. I worked with an Eastern European client last year who used to pull this amusing scrunched up face every time I said something but had no problem with the Americans. I think it's due to TV.

[FoundAChopinLizt]

I speak French like a Swiss person, I learnt it in Geneva, but I take it as a compliment if they don't think I'm English

[MmeLindor]

My cousin decided that my DC had a 'international elite expat accent' when we were living in Geneva. Mum was v impressed.

I can often recognise people who have been brought up in an international environment, eg in various international schools across the world, because parents diplomats/expats. The accent that my cousin described is a strange mix of English/American/Australian English.

There is nothing wrong with having an accent, and it would not bother me in the slightest if my DC were taught a language by someone with a regional or inconsistent accent.

[Whathaveiforgottentoday]

it may be Inverness? I just remember it being somewhere north of Edinburgh.
Can you tell I'm a southern girl?

I know my accent (essex) is particularly difficult for non-english speakers due to the complete lack of consonants.

[mummytime]

There are two accents at least used in the Aberdeen area. The central Scottish accent is "supposed" to be the clearest.

BUT the real Aberdonian accent is far more impenetrable than Glaswegian or Geordie (and only beaten by its very close cousin from the small town of Peterhead).

[OldLadyKnowsNothing]

Search youtube for "doric" and click on the first result, "doric call centre". That's fairly mild... I come from a Doric-speaking family but mainly speak English with a mild East Coast Scotland accent.

[BlingBang]

Some of the Scandinavians I worked and lived along side did have wonderful clear English, that neutral BBC kind of accent - certainly better spoken and clearer than many native English so is possible I guess.

[sashh]

but the teacher says a Geordie accent is better Probably easier to understand. Isn't Geordie partly descended from Norse?

[ModreB]

My SIL lives in Spain with her family. Her DD, born in the UK and fully bilingual, was sent home with a Spanish/English translation for homework, and was marked down when she translated "She bought the apples at the market", the teacher said she should have written "She brought the apples at the market"

When SIL queried this, she was told that she, a native speaking English graduate was wrong , not the teacher!

[FoundAChopinLizt]

Ooh, it's a while since we had a good Doric thread...

[AnnaBegins]

at the "outraged" comment - the two best native-French speakers of English I know have wildly mixed up accents because of where they have learnt English, but what is important is that they had a good enough ear to pick up the accent (along with everything else!) and so they are much more understandable than those who speak with the standard "French person learning Eeeenglish" accent who have never listened hard enough to hear the difference! I would be much happier for the 2 of them to be teachers than the latter lot.

Apparently my accent is still too rubbish to be regional [sob]

[HugoDarling]

I apparently speak Mexican Spanish. I have a Madrileña friend who pisses herself whenever I try to speak Spanish to her

[NotYoMomma]

I'm a Geordie and apparently we have the same tone and rhythm to our speech.... key word is apparently

Most geordies have a much more muted accent now rather than the guy in a dress on benidorm lol

[MmeLindor]

There's no way the Aberdonian accent would be seen as easy to understand. I live just an hour down the road and I am totally lost there.

Inverness/Highland accent is lovely.

[GoldiChops]

I'm a nanny, I worked in Paris for a year and a big part of my job was being the English part of the child's education as he was at a French school- French mum, English dad. The other nanny was French but spoke fairly good English. She'd learnt from various nannies as a child, and from TV etc. Her accent was pure American to me, but she honestly didn't know that til I told her. We were out once and met an American mum- she complimented the nanny on having such good English with no accent, all I could think was how broad her accent was!

It was very odd being the one teaching and supporting English for this little lad- he was only just 2 when I started, already bilingual. He spoke with a cute but not very thick French accent, it was so odd when he came out with words he could only have gotten from me, like nippy for cold, mardy, cob! I did my best to stick to a consistent RP accent but my midlands/Cornwall upbringing came through!

I can tell American accents apart, usually. South, New York, Boston, etc. And Canadian accents I can tell apart. But not Glasgow/Edinburgh, and most Northern accents stump me!

[prettybird]

Not Aberdeen - Doric is an impenetrable patois a dialect in its own right

I'd heard that it was Inverness or even Wick - so much further North.

Alternatively, Edinburgh (especially Morningside) or any of the "posh" Scottish accents like mine which is adulterated Bearsden/Milngavie are supposed to be lovely and clear.

My French accent used to be identifiably Southern French as I spent my year as an assistante near Avignon - but now I'm just grateful to be able to speak any French at all!

Must brush up as I am off to a wedding in St Malo in October where I will be expected to translate for the groom's family

[AberdeenAngusina]

My Scottish-and-sounds-it son was once cast as Edward I of England in a school play, because the teacher thought that clearly-Scottish sounded "posher" and more "English-king-like" than any of the English kids.

As a proud Scot, he was horrified to be cast as Edward I!

[RenterNomad]

If Geordie has such strong Scandinavian roots, presumably Sunderland's Mackem does, too, but it's so different?!