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?

Many things are socially unacceptable in groups of children and teenagers, it doesn't mean that it is right.

Whenever there is a thread about immigration the overwhelming consensus is that the person doing the moving should learn the language and generally you know, make an effort to fit into the new culture. Why aren't you all telling the op that she ought to try and fit in?

Ha! Is there a difference when it's within your mother country so to speak?

I don't know. I'm expecting people to come on and say there's a difference but I would like to hear why they think this.

Yanbu.
my mil mocks my accent, I hate it (the mocking not my accent). And i would be severely worried about that teacher being nasty when they can't even produce a sentence correctly.

Yeah, I'd give that school a miss. They sound totally ignorant in there.

Me adoring a brummie accent in my 20s would have been funny.

My parents grew up with broad northern accents and went out of their way to lose them. Now sound posher than posh. Naturally

I am not sure my accent has held me back, but I think people find it difficult to place. I grew up in an area with a strong accent. My DM has a very slight accent and DF a very strong accent. My parents were keen that I spoke "correctly" in grammatical terms or at least knew how to. I also listened to Radio 4 a lot. I don't speak RP, however, and can't get rid of some characteristic features of the accent where I grew up. A lot of people ask me where I was brought up. I think because I speak clearly and understandably it shouldn't be a problem, but I always wonder whether perhaps it might be.

Bella, it isn't ridiculous unfortunately - I say it with a heavy heart, but there is absolutely no way this accent (not a mild, slight version but really you have to hear it to believe it!) would be taken seriously in a law court, or in city banking, or politics.

What a ridiculous statement. Firstly how do you know your DC are even going to go into these professions and secondly I know people in these professions with VERY strong regional accents just like the one you are describing.

an area that is pretty much synonymous with deprivation and poverty

Ignore the accents, I'd be more concerned about the deprivation!

I lived in Scotland I met so many Southerners whose children were born and bred in Scotland but never spoke with a Scottish accent. I hated that attitude.

S'me It wasn't a choice though, it's because I have a tin ear for accents - I got my mum's London one as a small child and never got rid of it. My siblings have Scottish accents, but I only partially do.

Don't assume they've made a choice not to sound Scottish, they might just not be able to!

That school sounds awful irrespective of the locality. Could you live a bit further away and DH commute a bit?

My nieces moved to West Yorkshire a few years ago and their accents have changed from general southern to slight Yorkshire I guess, although I expect when they're at school they drop right into the local accent. They've said themselves they learnt to speak 'local' ASAP when they moved there because the other children were teasing them about being posh.

God almighty. This thread is awful.

You do realise, OP, that in 'the regions', some of us natives do actually have good jobs. They don't ship in RP southerners to man our courts, stock exchanges, universities and surgeries.

What's this mumsnet fixation for 'The' law or politics! Chances are most of our kids will end up working in meeeja, marketing, sales or whatever. And, you know, that's OK!!!

I can throw my own personal experience at this. As a ten year old, living on a council estate in Manchester (a once very neat and tidy one.). I got a scholarship to go to a school in London (same one as Darcey Bussell). I was there for the rest of my school/college life coming home for holidays only. Sadly (I now think) I learning within ten days that my "northness" had to go. However, within 10 miles of Manchester Picadilly station, travelling home, I'd slip back I to my Manchester accent. I still do it, to this day. With family I'm well spoken Northern but with others I'm different, especially with those who know me to "be" a Southerner. It's left me not really knowing which is the real me, at times! I can live with that. I don't do it in to purposely be "affected" in any way, it's just that I know two different sets of people, as it were.

Now of course, regional accents are acceptable. Geordies especially!

Eee by gum! Too many typos in that post!

There are nice areas in the area (I live in one). Why don't you move to one of those? Why do you need to move to a deprived area?

Is anyone going to explain exactly what disadvantages the op's children will be facing should they be unfortunate enough to pick up this accent? You need to spell it out I'm afraid, especially as several posters have pointed out that law courts, hospitals, politics and even the BBC all exist in the north west.

I agree Loxley. We're in a lovely part of Wigan. It's a very big town but all entirely commute-able and the crummy parts are easily avoidable.

"Is it Black Country, OP? Awful accent and I understand your concern."

And this exemplifies why OP is worried about her children getting a strong local accent (albeit a Wigan rather than BC one)! There is still prejudice about accents.

I think it's quite possible to grow up in an area and not pick up the accent, particularly if the children are a little older. I didn't pick up the local accent of where I lived, probably because my parents were not from there (I was at home with my mum in the early years) and I don't have an ear for accents - I can hear them no problem, but can't imitate. This wasn't a conscious effort; it's just how I sound. (Incidentally my mum once had a book on Asperger's Syndrome which said that retaining your parents' accent in a different accent area is one of the features of AS - I am a little sceptical about that).

I have a friend who, despite having grown up in Newcastle, only has a neutral-sounding slightly northern accent. (Her parents were from elsewhere). I also have a friend who grew up in the town in which she lives, but doesn't have a trace of the local accent and sounds like she is from the SE (which her parents are).

I also remember in about Year 9 some of the boys really teasing one of our teachers who had a southern accent, which was horrible (the teasing, not the accent).

I grew up in an area with a fairly uninspiring accent (not strong, just a bit flat and nasal) and never picked it up, mainly because my parents were from completely different places and had their own regional accents. I ended up virtually accentless (it's been mentioned to me over my life many times) so maybe you're worrying unnecessarily.
I do like most regional accents, though.

...I think poor use of grammar is far more damaging in life than an accent.

Floisme The Wigan accent is...well, honestly, it's a brilliant, old and long-standing Lancashire dialect which has stood the test of time unlike most others, and I think its retention by the locals is a matter of pride. But it is pretty full-on, very distinctive and, for the more judgemental, is up there with strong Brummie and Scouse for making people leap to intellectual assumptions about people.

I know the Wigan accent very well, Elphaba. My question still stands (although it's not directed at you.).

Here you go!

Wigan Warriors captain Sean O'Loughlin (born Wiganer and usually completely incomprehensible in post-match interviews) testing former winger Pat Richards (Australian) on his Wiganese.