To hate sounding a bit posh?

[zukman]

I’m from Scotland and live in an area with a mix of strong and not so strong accents.
I was brought up here but subsequently lived in London for a year and studied at university in Southern England; one thought of as very grand...

I went to the local comprehensive school, my mum is a teacher, my dad an accountant. My mum is from Glasgow and her family lived in a tenement block.

My father is from Edinburgh and went to a —great waste of money—boarding school.

People always ask if I am English. People ask if I am posh. It clouds people’s judgement of me, even in Northern England where dp is from, people think I sound posh !

Some can tell I’m scottish, others claim to have no idea. I hate sounding a bit posh, but it’s too late to change my accent now isn’t it?

Are you saying your voice 'turned posh' after studying in London?

I'm from New York, so everyone from the UK sounds posh to me.

People in the US can have strong regional accents too, but we don't correlate them with social class, so this part of British culture is a bit of a mystery to me.

Accents change, a lot. If you stay in Scotland your voice will probably take on a more regional sound.

I usually mumble something about living outside of Scotland... and my dad being a bit posh

many people say my accent is posh, it's no big deal for me personally, i don't wonder why some people think it's so terrible

• i do wonder why

I am Scottish as well and have moved about a bit. It’s left me with what is best described as a generic Scottish accent and does lean towards the bit posh sounding. There were times in my life I hated it, when I was younger it was commented on a lot it gave people a perception of me being a bit prim and proper a mum at the sc’s old school nearly fainted when she heard me say fuck once. A few of my friends used to find the prim and proper reputation hilarious.

Nobody comments on it anymore and I actually see it as more of an asset than a hinderance.

If you dont like your accent just change it.
Simples.

If you don't like your accent just change it. Plenty of adults do this, it's not a big deal.

I'm from Scotland and have such a non-accent that on the phone at work people quite regularly comment "oh good, I thought I was going to get through to your Glasgow office again" (we only have one office). I quite like it to be honest. I'd certainly rather have a weak accent that can be understood by everyone than a strong accent that leaves people scratching their heads.

I was born and live in Scotland. My idiot, nationalist, Saltire waving brother-in-law asked me first time I met him "hoo come ye speak the wy ye dae when you were born in x"?

It says more about him than me.

Where I live it’s either farmer slang or town slang, people think that because I pronounce my T’s and R’s properly and have a double barrelled last name they assume I’m posh, same with my mum, she’s speaks very clearly and softly so is presumed posh

I love a scottish accent especially from Edinburgh. It sounds very refined.

It clouds people’s judgement of me
Their problem, not yours.

You judge people on how they behave, not how they look or sound. If necessary, remind them of that and use whatever tone and accent that comes naturally to you now.

My father is from Edinburgh and went to a —great waste of money—boarding school.

So he has an English accent?

Yes my father sounds English. As people have suggested here, he tries to tone it down by using a local accent put on, or local words. People can see right through it though, hence why I don’t want to do it.

I'm Welsh and always get asked where in England am I from, drives me crazy

And my family and friend saying I sound posh now because I say tooth rather than tuth like I used to in Wales as does everyone. But I'm a dental nurse and worked in private practice and no one understood what I meant 🤦🏼‍♀️🙈

If you don't like your accent just change it. Plenty of adults do this, it's not a big deal.

Do they?

People outside my general circle say I sound very posh. I generally just think I am 'well-spoken'. Regardless though, being posh is hardly a negative!? I would have thought sounding common is the negative...

I sound quite posh. Home Counties middle class upbringing so RP, naice school and the sort of job where I'm surrounded by public school educated types. I have become adept at adjusting my accent depending on who I am speaking to.

I'm from New York, so everyone from the UK sounds posh to me

What, even people from Yorkshire, Birmingham, Newcastle or Liverpool? I'm from one of those places and by my own admission, sound like a right rough thicko.

Why on earth do you mind? Who cares these days anyway?

I sound posh, apparently. Tough luck. Anyone who judges that negatively is probably someone I wouldn't care for anyway.

I get it OP. I have to change my accent/dumb it down for work otherwise no one would take me seriously. If you ask my husband he would tell you the way I speak with my family and old friends is almost unrecognisable to the way I speak to colleagues and ‘new’ friends.

It’s a shame accent is associated with class and then subsequently the assumptions that creates but it is.

One of my mates is from Shields. He reckons his family and friends up there tell him he sounds all posh now he's lived in London for 20 years.

I'd disagree, it's not posh or common, it's just that he's had 20 years to learn how to be able to talk to people who aren't used to hearing his native accent - he'd have starved to death in the first month otherwise, going by the way he speaks when he's had a couple of pints (cue nodding and smiling when he's baring his soul and you just can't bring yourself to say 'I didn't catch that, could you repeat it?')