Colleague's speech patterns annoying me

[cardboardPeony]

I think I probably ABU but I have a colleague who uses phrases like "X is going toilet". This really grates on me but I don't know how to say that it does or if I'm just being unreasonable and it's a regional thing.

Also we work with children and therefore should be using the language we want them to use, especially as lots of them are just learning English, but I think I am going to sound like a major pedant bringing it up.

Honestly. What worries me most is that people seem to think it's ok to speak like that. A bit like how one is a snob if one objects to the incorrect usage of apostrophes.

Yes, it is bad manners to pick up an adult on the way they speak or write (unless you are their teacher or boss). It would be nice, however, to see people at least try to keep up standards.

it is OK to speak like that chicken.
These days, nobody tells eg a Geordie or a Scot that their accent is 'wrong' do they?
But the London dialect is fair game it seems ....:)

I'd like to add that I would never write it. I use all sorts of slang but I know the correct way to say things.
I'm the grammar queen but I still talk in that way.

Same here stressedmum, I know exactly where apostrophes and so on should go. I just speak with a London accent....

Chicken yes I feel like that however there's a difference between regional accents and speech patterns.

Regional accents don't grate on me at all but I think I find it annoying is because we have the same accent but the word "to" gets lost in their speech.

Who is one to judge what's ok? I'm very aware of not seeming like I'm "better" because I'm not. If that's just a regional thing, that's fine but I would like to know as I'd want to make sure the children are learning the right thing. Also I've never come across this in another school setting so it's never been a problem before.

I'm Scottish, Brat! I have a slight Scottish accent but my sentences are still grammatically correct!

It's ok to have an Irish lilt or a Cockney twang or whatever but please, for the love of God, try to sound as if you finished primary education!

It's only a glottal stop (as others pointed out).

Not being aware that that is how some people say 'the' makes you look ignorant.

I do think this level of ignorance is increasing. Even ten or twenty years ago, I think more people were aware of dialects and aware of changes to English. Now there seems to be a widespread assumption that any variation must be 'wrong'.

It bothers me, because I teach English at university, and my students often really struggle, because they have been taught dialects are 'wrong' and that language must never vary.

I agree with happypoobum I wouldn't employ someone who couldn't speak in complete sentences. So saying "Going Shops" would be unacceptable.

I do a lot of interviewing and often nerves get the better of people and no matter how they are trying their hardest to speak "properly" they revert to their "normal" and the game is up.

Regional accents are no problem. I have employed people with strong Mancunian, South African, Cornish, Irish and Danish accents. It's the incorrect grammar that makes interviewees scupper their chances.

" please, for the love of God, try to sound as if you finished primary education! "

I have a Masters degree thanks...:)
I also have a London accent and use London dialect.
Stop being so regionalist...

sandra, what do you do about people who can't punctuate?

Grammar can be regional, just like accents.

Again, ignorance of this sort of issue that really makes me depressed.

I do a lot of interviewing and often nerves get the better of people and no matter how they are trying their hardest to speak "properly" they revert to their "normal" and the game is up.

I would dispense with your services if I found out someone recruiting on my behalf was such an ignorant snob and was using a professional setting to penalise people based on that ignorant snobbery.

Imagine all the talent you have let walk to a competitor due to your incompetence. Tragic.

Brat, the ones I slag most are the Glaswegians, actually!

I'm sure you ARE educated. MN is disproportionately well-educated, I do believe. I actually think it might be a bit of an inverted snobbery thing when educated people insist on speaking as if they don't know any better.

The glottal stop thing isn't just London. I'm from N Ireland and I find it very difficult to say the 't' sound if it's in the middle of a word, it's ' buh'er' rather than 'butter'. And I'd be a bit of a laughing stock if I did because it sounds so false with my accent.

When hiring for a professional job, you have to bear in mind what clients will expect.

No-one expects a solicitor, for example, to speak as if they are barely literate.

We had this a while back with the "doctor with the blue hair" thread.

No, actually, not 'buh'her' because there's no 'h' sound. I really can't write it in the way I say it. But all I know is that I only know one person locally who pronounces it 'but-ter' and they have to say the word really slowly in order to do it and it's all a bit Hyacinth Bucket.

Can you imagine a surgeon saying "I'm just going theatre"

No, I think it sounds uneducated, and honestly? Thick.

Nothing so lovely as the Antrim glottal stop, treacle*. It's charming.

(*Other glottal stops are available.)

Do you pronounce bald as bold too?

One of my ex-colleagues used to scream "Oh JEEEESUSSS!!!!!" several times a day. Did my head in. Rude and offensive. Think yourself lucky, OP!

also speak in patois but, like most of us, is perfectly able to speak appropriately according to situation

So does everyone who works for me, it's a job requirement and a skill that is highly sought after in my area.

oh Chicken I once moved into a house with Scottish guys, and it took me a month to work out waht the Glaswegian guy was saying!!

Anyway you are right it might be an inverted snobbery thing as I was brough' up in a London overspill town where your name was mud if you didnt have an exaggerated East End accent...:)

Doin

You have to be really quite thick to imagine that you can tell how clever someone is based on whether and how they use definite articles.

You can tell how rich their parents were.

For some people that's what really matters.