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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

mortified - someone at work said i

141 replies

EnlightenedOwl · 02/04/2015 19:34

talk "rough"
i have a strong accent - think Lancashire x Yorkshire and confess the odd "t" has been dropped but do have an immaculate phone voice
No one else has mentioned my accent but this person who I've worked with a while often makes reference to it saying they can't understand me etc
However to say I talk rough is an all time low.
Anyone else ever felt mortified by their accent?

OP posts:

Bunbaker · 02/04/2015 22:51

I love the different accents found around the UK. I like some more than others. A soft Welsh lilt, a gentle Northumbrian accent and Scottish accents are a pleasure to listen to. No-one should be ashamed of their accent.

The only time it is important is when it is a very strong accent that can't be understood over the telephone. I admit that I do struggle with a strong Glaswegian accent on the phone.

I used to work in Leeds and our switchboard operator had a very strong local accent. She used to answer the phone with a posh "Good Morning, company name, how may I help you", then suddenly switch to local South Leeds "He in't in. He won't be back while three" It used to make me smile.

I have a South London accent, and all my work colleagues in Sheffield think I'm posh. No I'm not, I just don't have a Yorkshire accent.

One of DD's friends has a strong local accent. When she speaks her grammar is incorrect as well. DD often corrects her when her friend says that someone is learning her to do something. They will be doing GCSEs next year so I do think it is important to know when something is grammatically incorrect, even if the pronunciation differs.

Original poster

EnlightenedOwl · 02/04/2015 22:53

The funny thing is I've just got a smartphone and when I "speak" to Google it can't understand my accent!! Google has the last word it seems!

OP posts:

Latara · 02/04/2015 22:54

I used to get called 'the Caramel Bunny' when I worked in a factory, because of my (slight) Dorset accent. The ironic thing is that the factory IS in Dorset, the workers just happened to not be locals.

I bet your accent is fine, it's your colleagues who need sorting out!

funchum8am · 02/04/2015 22:54

Someone I know was asked at interview for an English PGCE course whether she felt her strong Barnsley accent would cause pupils to take her less seriously as an English teacher.

The interview was at Leeds University.

BoneyBackJefferson · 02/04/2015 22:55

I was told buy a pupil that I was teaching that I had a heavy accent, so I started doing the lesson in the broadest, thickest accent that I could. It lasted about 5 minutes.

Vitamints · 02/04/2015 23:02

Have you heard a Barnsley accent?

NoseyParka · 02/04/2015 23:02

I called out someone at work who kept commenting on the fact I don't say my ts. It mortified him in front of a whole room of people. He deserved every bit of it.

Bunbaker · 02/04/2015 23:04

Accents are relative because your ear gets used to them. OH is from Northumberland, and I could barely understand his stepfather when I first met him, but I got used to it pretty quickly. OH lost his accent years ago when he started university because no-one could understand him and he now has a general northern accent.

I remember reading complaints on the Points of View forum from people who couldn't understand Neil Oliver, and I thought he was easy to understand. Some people clearly aren't used to hearing loads of different accents.

Alisvolatpropiis · 02/04/2015 23:04

That is unbelievably rude!

A colleague of mine was told by another colleague that she sounded "common". No, she doesn't. She has a West Walian accent and is well spoken. So basically she sounded too "regional" for the other colleagues liking.

Bunbaker · 02/04/2015 23:04

"Have you heard a Barnsley accent?"

I hear them every day

CookPassBabtrigde · 02/04/2015 23:05

Everyone should be proud of their accents, be it northern, southern, 'posh', mix of a few or whatever else. Accents are wonderful. It makes you you, and says a little something about who you are, but it doesn't define you as a person.
I'm from yorkshire and had that said to me too OP, and google doesn't understand me either, but I will never change :)
It is possible to speak well and have an accent!

ResurrectAndEatShitChoc · 02/04/2015 23:07

Siri hates me, I can't use voice activated things!

Vitamints · 02/04/2015 23:08

Bun - I grew up ten miles from Barnsley Love'em really.

ouryve · 02/04/2015 23:10

I know the exact accent. It comes a long way down my "rough" league table relative to the colleague's attitude and manners.

Fucking snob.

GiveOverLuv · 02/04/2015 23:12

Oh bollocks to them .

EBearhug · 02/04/2015 23:12

I got picked on by a boy at school for my accent. His accent was at least as strong as mine.

A couple of weeks back, I was on a conf. call at work with an American. I dialled in and said hi, and we chatted about the weather - then she said, "Which one are you?" She can't distinguish between my Dorset accent and our other colleague's Dublin accent, though to us, they're entirely different.

LoisWilkersonsLastNerve · 02/04/2015 23:13

Try being Scottish, we can be an aquired taste What rude eejit. They sound rough. I love the Yorkshire/Lancashire twang.

WorraLiberty · 02/04/2015 23:18

Lois one of the secretaries at my DC's school is Scottish. Whenever I have to ring in sick for them, I think 'Oh I hope I get her' because she sounds so comforting

Ok granted, she's more Mrs Doubtfire than Rab C Nesbitt though...

Altinkum · 02/04/2015 23:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

LoisWilkersonsLastNerve · 02/04/2015 23:21

worra Does she say "aww that's a wee shame hen"?

ouryve · 02/04/2015 23:26

As for accents in Yorkshire, they're a funny thing. I often need to visit Northallerton and there is a terrifying class divide there - not just imagined, I've seen it played out in a rather verbal and intolerant street jostle. One side of the divide is very RP, bordering on plummy and the other side does have what would be nationally recognisable as a "rough" Yorkshire" accent.

Despite E Yorskhire roots, I've live on Tyneside for 15 years and in Co Durham for nearly 12. I stick out like a sore thumb compared with all of them, for the sake of less than an hour's drive! It's all in the rhythm.

Altinkum · 02/04/2015 23:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 02/04/2015 23:35

The Black Country accent is a rare treat. I was on a course recently taught by a trainer from Dudley, and I had to interpret bits for the East Europeans. "Yowm" gave them particular trouble.

dwinnol · 02/04/2015 23:50

I am welsh with a fairly strong local accent. My company has recently merged with a company further east than us. I notice that it is now currency to now take the piss about my west Walian accent. I think they are dickless sheep trying to emulate the boss's Southern English accent. Carry on twats, check out where you are.

LadyMaryofDownton · 02/04/2015 23:50

Oh this is hateful! I am from the country so when I go into the city to work a few people remark on my accent.... Mostly rude comments such as " oh your from the country, thick as pig shit then".

Yes assholes actually say this, quite funny really as I usually have better qualifications than them. :)

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