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Original poster

To change may accent so my kids speak 'properly'

130 replies

madchocolatemum48 · 22/12/2013 12:44

My childhood accent isn't awful, just very colloquial really.
I have lived away from 'home' off and on for years so my accent has mellowed.
I have deliberately started 'speaking properly' so my children will have a nicer speaking voice.
If we move back 'home' how will my kids be perceived ??

OP posts:
PacificDingbat · 22/12/2013 15:03

Good luck with your fight against bland-TV-accent, but I don't think you'll succeed.
Some people have an ear for accents, others don't.

My dad (not British) taught American Studies all this life, lived int he States and Canada for several years, speaks v good (American) English. He really struggles in the UK - and Africa was impossible for him. My mum's English is not as good, v heavily accented with her native language, she makes lots of grammar etc mistakes, but she fares far better with any accent.
I think there is a connection to musicality, is there?

Stop the sarky grammar-policing. Please. See I asked nicely Xmas Wink

squoosh · 22/12/2013 15:05

No.

BrianTheMole · 22/12/2013 15:12

'Michael - its Michael not Micheal.'

How embarrassing, surely you mean 'it's'?

This is a classic case of muphry's law [sic] I expect there's an error in my post too that I haven't noticed Grin

Here

BackOnlyBriefly · 22/12/2013 15:14

Why would anyone seek to hide their accent? It's not something to be ashamed of.

And what exactly is wrong with the word 'kids'.

squoosh · 22/12/2013 15:15

I feel sad for people who go to great lengths to change their accent. Embrace your accent, it isn't 1934.

ComposHat · 22/12/2013 15:18

Your children will have the accent of where they grow up and the people they socialise with, regardless of whether you speak like Chas n' Dave or the Queen.

Speak in an affected posh voice if you like (but prepare for the inevitable and well deserved piss taking) but don't expect it to make an iota of difference,

Heartbrokenmum73 · 22/12/2013 15:28

DD got told off at primary school (by a member of staff) for referring to the younger children as kids.

But on the Michael thing, I'd like to point out that whether Micheal is a derivative of Michael or not, if your name is Michael (as my younger brother's is) it gets fucking annoying when people spell it wrong. He has a name badge at work - it's wrong!

And for the record I've yet to meet anyone who spells their name as Micheal. I don't think there's anything wrong with correcting someone on how to spell your name.

squoosh · 22/12/2013 15:32

Micheál is the Irish for Michael, different pronunciation though, mee-hall.

Heartbrokenmum73 · 22/12/2013 15:39

And surely that's the difference, Squoosh - the pronunciation AND there's an accent over the 'a'.

Honestly, I think it's quite lazy. People spell my name wrong all the time too - and I correct them every time. I don't care how that comes across - it's my name. How would they like it?

squoosh · 22/12/2013 15:41

Oh I'm all for correcting people who misspell names. My surname gets lots of weird and wonderful variations on a daily basis.

BrianTheMole · 22/12/2013 15:47

A friend of mines spells his name as Micheal.
My name is regularly misspelt as it is spelt in an unusual way. But really I don't give a shiny shit and rarely bother to correct people unless its necessary. Theres more to worry about in life imo.

quirrelquarrel · 22/12/2013 15:52

I don't like accent snobbery but it's really easy to get sucked into it!

I'm considering a switch to the Yorkshire accent I grew up with around me. Gradually. To see if new people react differently to me.
I'm not stupid, and anyone who'd think I am because of my accent.....well....

I'd say, be proud of whatever your accent is and don't change it.

BackOnlyBriefly · 22/12/2013 15:53

DD got told off at primary school (by a member of staff) for referring to the younger children as kids.

On what grounds? it's a perfectly respectable word. This isn't that thing where people think it means goats is it? There was a big thread about it once where people researched it and it meant children first.

Heartbrokenmum73 · 22/12/2013 16:00

It was because 'they're not kids, they're children', as the staff member put it.

DD was Confused

ButThereAgain · 22/12/2013 16:05

I get the impression that people who don't speak with the "standard" RP middle-England accent are much much harsher in their perceptions of their own regional variant than are the speakers of standard RP middle-England that they feel judged by.

I have a boring middle-class RP generic-southern accent and I live in the north east. I get a bit fed up with people who speak in any of the beautiful local accents who imagine themselves to be judged by speakers like me as being .. I don't know exactly ... common? ... ill-educated?

I feel they kind of enlist me into their own dislike of their accents by imagining me to feel snooty about them. In effect what they are doing is judging me for my accent -- imagining me to be accent-snobby just because of the way I happen to speak. I want to tell them to stop being so daft and old-fashioned. What I do instead is round off the edges of my own RP accent to try and sound a little bit more like them.

Lj8893 · 22/12/2013 16:11

My mum has always had a well spoken voice, but It obviously didn't rub of on me as I am distinctly dorset. So it probably won't make a massive difference how you talk.

pippop1 · 22/12/2013 16:12

You could send them to elocution lessons if you are worried.

PoppettyPing · 22/12/2013 16:15

As a Canadian I am fascinated by all the different regional accents in the UK and Ireland...especially considering how tiny the islands are!

I find accents that people generally "look down on" to be quite lovely. I agree that we should embrace how we speak. It's true anyway that children pick up their accents from their peers, not their parents.

We live in Cornwall with our 3 month old DD and I cannot WAIT to hear what she'll sound like when she starts talking!

raisah · 22/12/2013 16:19

My accent has mellowed since I moved away from the town where I grew up but it is still there, it comes out when I am angry! My children have SE accents with a strong hint of peppa pig. I put an emphasis on clear pronounciation and not dropping any letters in words rather than acquiring a 'posh' accent.

In my work place I deal with teenagers who actively sound 'street' regardless of their background and they can be difficult to understand. I tell my dc to slow down when speaking & to pronpunce all the letters regardless of their natural accent. You want to sound clear but natural and true to your origins whatever they are. It irritates me when I hear people dropping the letters in the middle of a word so that 'button' becomes 'bu'un'. Clear pronounciation is more important than a posh accent.

Slatecross · 22/12/2013 18:03

It's utter bollocks of the highest order to assume that one accent is any better than another. And the notion of correctness is plain ignorance - language is forever changing, and the idea of superiority of any accent over another only really came about within the last 150 years or so.
I'm also interested in how you can have a "colloquial" accent, when colloquial is a description of language, not language sounds.
I'm very proud of my regional accent, and also my highly idiomatic dialect. Why wouldn't i, or anyone else, be?

LRDtheFeministDragon · 22/12/2013 18:10

Btw, it's worth considering - if your children happened to end up doing English lang or lit at any advanced level, they'd have to un-learn everything they'd imbibed about 'proper' speech or 'proper' enunciation, since these are worse than meaningless.

Slatecross · 22/12/2013 18:41

Exactly, LRD.

MrsOakenshield · 22/12/2013 19:11

DH and I speak bland RP. The local accent round here (SE London) is probably my least favourite ever, that awful faux gangsta drawl that makes everyone who uses it sound like they've had a lobotomy and comes across as ludicrously fake, like no-one ever naturally talks like that, it's an affectation (I may have over-thought this). I shall cry if DD ends speaking with that as her accent!

Lots of accents are gorgeous, I have often wished I had a lovely regional accent, rather than my own - not sure how I acquired it, mum glaswegian, dad london (but not cockney).

(oh, and while picking up on spelling is silly, it's equally silly to say that Micheal is a valid spelling - but that's not how Michael Portillo spells it, so it's not terribly relevant!)

JingleHumps · 22/12/2013 19:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LynetteScavo · 22/12/2013 19:28

I disagree, JingleHumps. My parents were very well spoken - I went to a rough school and for a few teenage years dropped my aitches etc to fit in but wouldn't dream of doing so now.

DS2's best freind has an Irish mother, and although he's never lived in Ireland and only spends two weeks a year there, I think he's got a pretty strong Irish accent.

Ditto a friend from Kent, and her DC.

I have no idea how people will perceive your DC back home OP, but I bet if they went to school there, they would be able to speak in the local accent after a few days if they wanted to blend in.