To worry about DCs picking up very strong regional accent?

[honourinoneeye]

DH has been looking for a job near his elderly father for a while, and secured one last month. The in-laws live in an area that is pretty much synonymous with deprivation and poverty - their home and immediate area (street, estate) is lovely but the area as a whole is pretty dire.

I have been concerned about the effects living somewhere like this may have on children but one thing in particular I'm a bit worried about is the accent. It's very, very thick - even "well spoken" people have what I and most others would consider to be a broad accent.

At any rate, this week we have been in a premier inn to buy a house and find schools and get things sorted for September. My twins will be going into year 2 and their teacher 'mocked' my dd's accent - not nastily, but nonetheless it was there. I also noticed the TA spoke with a strong accent with numerous grammatical errors - "you was staying in a hotel?" complete with dropped 'h's'

I was a teacher pre DC and have worked in some very deprived schools but such an accent would undoubtedly hold people back, I really can't explain how strong it is! I don't mean I'm judging people for it (I do for the bad grammar) but just the same, I can't pretend I'd be happy about my children picking up such a thick accent and I do feel it would be detrimental to their future.

So - any ways around this?

NO NOT THE FUCKING ELOCUTION LESSONS

Seriously, this is not the 18th century where a dropped h meant social death. Elocution lessons are a huge error for many reasons.

I live about 10 miles from Wigan but accent completely different. Either educate them privately or get a good voice coach. YAB a bit unreasonable. Have a pie and watch some rugby league and you'll soon feel at home.

Could you not place a spud in their mouth?
Op you are being rather silly. I love an accent.

Just wondering if OP has ever been in a hospital. When my son was in for a week earlier this year he was cared for by one doctor who sounded like Colin Murray and one who sounded like Sarah Millican. As far as I know a doctor is still regarded as a professional?

I was born and grew up in an northern area with a strong regional accent and didn't pick it up - for some reason I stuck with my parents' RP - and was constantly bullied for being "posh". I still wish I did have the regional accent to reflect where I actually come from. I have just a very slight hint of it. I still mind that I sound "posh" and southern when actually I'm not.

Admittedly in my career it is completely irrelevant and would never stand in my way. But I think anyone with a regional accent can go far if they are confident in who they are.

Remember if you stay there your DC will grow up with an identity from there and will want to fit in.

It isn't silly. I wish it was, really, but quite honestly the number of times I have been quizzed (pretty aggressively!) about where I am from today has alarmed me a bit.

I can deal with that but I am worried about the DCs. The teacher really was quite strange with them. They were treated like slightly eccentric ageing aunts! Nicely,but with an amused and not entirely pleasant undertone.

It doesn't take long to change an accent when you move even as an adult. I grew up in rural Scotland with a local accent. When I went to University (in the central belt) my aunt said she could tell the difference in my accent in a week - I wasn't aware I had changed it at all. I've now lived in England (some posh areas, some not so posh) and have a fairly neutral Scottish accent, as does my brother (he's lived in London for >10 years). If your DH has an 'acceptable' accent then your children will if they move to another area. And if they stay in Lancs then no-one will care about their 'strong' accent.

So sounding less regional will help them how, OP?

Just thinking about this a bit more...in certain professions, a regional accent can really set people at ease - especially if they were expecting a very intimidating atmosphere - I'm thinking where children need to be interviewed (lawyer), definitely medicine, and my own profession where a certain amount of "cutting through the bullshit" in my northern accent is seen as refreshing.

Shockingly, because people have repeatedly referred to them as 'posh'. They aren't, any more than I am, but they do sound different, and that's not being treated with particular kindness.

I suppose it's more anxiety about the move and anxiety about all sorts of things but there isn't much I can do about any of that, I suppose! Things will have to work themselves out.

OP, you sound like a terrible snob. Have you ever considered that northerners might find a southern regional accent offensive? Unless you speak with a perfect RP accent yourself, you'll also have a regional accent!

That aside, your DC will pick up the local accent. If you're really so uncomfortable with it, I think you will all struggle. It's as though you believe that anyone who speaks with a Wigan accent is automatically 'below' you in terms of social standing. I'm sure you'll find Wigan and the surrounding area has its fair share of well qualified folk, despite your judgemental views.

You sound like a snob to me. And I say that as a southerner living extremely close to Wigan, who has a Scouse husband and 2 woolyback children.

as a middle-class Essex girl who has spent the last 18 years in and around Ipswich, my accent varies from neutral to broad Suffolk in an alarmingly short space of time. my daughter has a Suffolk accent and it's fab. my current OH has a BROAD suffolk accent and it's quite sexy.

to sum up: accents are alright, really.

honour you aren't being silly, and I am surprised people cannot see that there is discrimination against certain accents - why do they think financial advertising specifically uses certain accents (like Scottish) but would never use Brummie? I work in a job where you cannot have a strong regional accent, and it would be detrimental to your career if you did. But you will be surprised how well your children will learn the local accent. We have moved a few times, and my 2dc were able to speak in local accents at school, but used RP at home. Fortunately, the bad grammar doesn't seem to rub off on them. However, if the teacher is taking the mickey, then you do need to get that sorted out asap.

Wibbly, you've hit the nail on the head - not my snobbishness, as I am not, at all, but insofar as our accent (which isn't southern, incidentally) is being responded to with mocking, mistrust, snideness.

It isn't something I'd given a moments thought to. But suddenly there is this issue that my darling children have something about them that causes negative reactions in others, and it isn't something about them I want to change. They have lovely speaking voices.

I certainly recognise Wigan has qualified people. DH is one, his father another. But it does seem fil's immediate area dislike us on sound if not sight, and that's pretty tough.

I am not a snob. I come from near Wigan but don't live there now.
To people in Lancashire I sound "posh".
To people elsewhere my accent is a joke. it is difficult to be taken seriously when giving an academic lecture etc. and some people feel free to take the piss.
It really shouldn't matter but it still does, unfortunately, but in Wigan you'll be the one who is talking funny.

My high powered corporate ladder climbing friend is from Wigan :)

I grew up in Wales then moved to England. Apart from some giveaways I sound fairly neutral. People modulate their accents to fit in all over the place.

I live not too far away from Wigan, and i really hate the accent. I find it nasally and people constantly drop the H in words.

I'm from the NE, but i don't have a strong accent at all. My dh is from Wigan way and doesn't have a strong accent either, his grandma was from Kent and had a lovely accent.

I don't want my kids having that kinda accent. Where i live there's a very lazy way of pronunciation, Holly because Ol-leh. Which i don't like.

Still, at the moment ds1 doesn't have any kind of accent, I'll be making sure that he doesn't slip into the Bolton accent.

It isn't everyone, but a lot of people around here speak like that. I don't want that for my sons

Sir Ken Morrison.well he's Yorkshire not Lancashire but he has a stong accent, makes no attempt at being posh or dressing smartly, and he has done pretty well hasn't he

AMillion thank you :) I know what you mean re "holly"

This isn't about saying people from Wigan, or with notable regional accents, cannot be intelligent, successful and well qualified.

Nonetheless, this is a strong accent. I remember at university meeting a girl from Newcastle and we thought she had a strong Geordie accent: when I did go to Newcastle years later I concluded she didn't! There's strong, and strong. Many of you would probably say DH has a strong northern accent and he is certainly in an esteemed career.

But, this is strong, not strong as in "I recognise where you come from" but strong as in "I don't recognise where you come from as it's difficult to decipher what you are saying."

Just to reiterate, everyone has an accent! It's not something peculiar to northerners, Lancastrians or Mancunians...

Just reread the thread and OP, you're complaining about people commenting on your children's accents, but then you're guilty of exactly the same. Taking the piss out of the teacher saying bucket, for example, is the same as someone taking the piss out of your children for saying something in their accent. Bucket pronounced 'book-it' isn't incorrect - just a pronunciation difference.

I'm not from Wigan, nowhere near, but this thread is really irritating me.

OP you are wrong. Things are very different these days. My family is from Lancs, about 10 miles north of Wigan.

We all have very broad accents and grew up poor, in rough areas and were Ne er encouraged to speak with anything except our normal accents. Among my first cousins and siblings are a director in a city bank, a well-known computer programmer, a private school HOD, a barrister and a surgeon. Our accents might have softened slightly as we've moved around the world but we're all very obviously still from Lancs.

Accents are important, as are grammar and syntax. Provide a good example at home, and correct lapses at every turn. A good teacher works to give her students a good general accent, no matter which set she teaches.

I sense that Wibbly but you are misinterpreting it/me.

I have not once commented on anybody's accent today, mine however and my two six year olds, have been fair game for screwed up faces, silly high pitched voices mimicking what we say, 'where YOU from' boomed in my two year olds face and general unpleasantness.

I'm not the one with the issue here. I don't want my children sounding like this, true (by the way, the local accent here is nothing like Sir Ken's!) but it seems that they will have to, to fit in, but I'm not going to make myself understood very well here, I'd best get back to what I should be doing :)

I come from somewhere in Scotland with an incomprehensible accent Fife. I spoke with a very thick accent through school then went to a uni with a large proportion of English student. Within months i had modified my accent to the point that i am now told i sound posh Scottish!

I suspect that even if your children pick put he local accent they will be able to modify it at home and beyond if you continue to speak the way you want them to speak.

I have a friend who is a doctor and he lives in Wigan. His children have very thick local accents. They are intelligent and making their way in the world. I wouldn't worry about it too much.