To be irritated by people who bang on about where they’re from

[Notfromthevalleys]

Couple of women where I work will NOT stop talking about how they’re from The Valleys (south Wales)
“Haha it’s the valley girl in me”
“Haha you can tell I’m from the valleys”
“You can take the girl out of the valley but you can’t take the valley out of the girl”

There is nothing remotely different or valley-esque about them as far as I can see, other than the fact that they keep harping on about the valleys as though being from there is some sort of pedigree.

There’s also a bloke who will not shut up about being a “Swansea lad”.

Is it a south walian thing?

I am from mid Wales and we all work in mid Wales so not like they’re a million miles away from home.

It’s like the Oxbridge people who name drop their college all the time. That’s annoying too, but I at least it’s a genuine achievement to go to Oxbridge.

I understand that people’s community and identity is important to them, but there’s just no need to bring it into everything.

Anyone else come across this and AIBU to let it grate on me so much?!

@ShirleyPhallus

yeah I heard she lives near the coast

No one cares about how proud anyone is of being from Basingstoke or Dundee

How very dare you?

[quote Wingedharpy]@ViciousJackdaw : Liverpool by any chance?😉[/quote]
I thought it might be Glasgow. I am from Glasgow, I'm not just being randomly cheeky about the place!

Americans do this a lot about their state/area IME. "Well it's because I'm a mid Westerner ha ha". WTF you going on about mate

@LBXXX yes the Irish thing! My (much younger) sister wished her Irish family a happy St. Patrick’s day this year on Instagram
Er... who is that then little sister?? 🤣

What’s worse is English people with a “Scottish” surname who get married in Kilts and give their children Scottish names when the closest they are to being Scottish is their 5 x great grandfather once ate some haggis. 🙄

Could be worse, they could be vegans

@TheRebelle I used to live in the States, I'm from Yorkshire but lived in Scotland for 16 years. Can't tell you how many Americans said "Wow I'm Scottish too" have you ever been to Scotland? No. Do you have any idea of Scottish culture beyond kilts and whiskey? No. What makes you Scottish then? Well my great great great grandfather was a Scottish immigrant and my surname is McCall.

Ok then, random person from Buttfuck Alabama, with your NRA membership and MAGA hat, you're definitely Scottish.

@Biancadelrioisback

When I was travelling I would cling on to my Geordie-ness. I have no idea why I did or why it was so important to me, maybe because I thought it was the only thing that made me interesting? Perhaps these people are the same?

It is 100% this, and transparently so.

Interesting that somebody mentioned an acquaintance from Wigan who goes on and on about being from Wigan. Yes. Every Wiganer I’ve ever met goes on remorselessly about bloody pies and the pier and George Formby and aren’t I authentic and zzzzzzzzz.

I think that people also play the regional card (“I’m just a Swansea lad!”) to try to make themselves look special, particularly where they have managed to get a degree and a decent job. It’s all, ooh, aren’t I clever and determined, pulling myself up by my bootstraps against all the odds? Usually disparaging their city or town of origin whilst they do it. To make their imagined struggles look more noble, and to hell with all the people who still live in Bolton or Bury, who aren’t smart enough to leave the supposed hell hole from which the self-regarding twat emerged.

Ooh that felt better.

I'm from North West Wales. When I lived in south Wales I noticed that people from the Valleys, particularly women tend to do a cute, head-tilt thing where they say they're a Valleys Girl, or variation thereof. It's supposed to express some kind of cozy, wholesome, harmelss lack of sophistication or worldliness. A sort of 'I'm just a Valleys Girl at heart' 'Don't ask me - I'm just a Valleys Girl' kind of thing. Think Stacey in Gavin & Stacey (even though that's Barry it captures what I'm talking about). It reminds me of how some women from the south of the U.S might say 'I'm just a Southern Belle at heart' or similar.

I think they're quite attached and very proud to be from that area. Could be the strong mining communities that used to be there but it doesn't bother me to the extent it seems to bother you. I miss South Wales.

As a Yorkshire lass I reserve the right to endorse Jack Dee's views on Yorkshire people

Dunairbeanat Ah, but did you hear anyone asking "whose boots are those shoes?"

Sorry, meant to tag @Dunairbeanat there.

It’s very much a valleys/Neath/Swansea thing.

@BackforGood

Could be worse, they could be vegans

Or a crossfitter.

@LadyofMisrule or who’s hat is that cap 🙃

@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop I know someone from the Home Counties who turns up to every wedding in a kilt and proclaims his “Scottishness” because of his bog standard Scottish surname, and even his grandparents aren’t Scottish - my Dad is actually Scottish and at my wedding he couldn’t understand a word of my Dad’s speech 🤣

I think it's nice that people have a sense of self.

In this case I suspect it's because they come from close to the best place on earth (Cardiff) but not actually in it and so everyone from their home place have such a feeling of inadequacy that they need to big up their home place in order to feel at peace as a community.

(Ducks)

@LadyofMisrule that takes me back! My gran and her Valleys accent saying "there's nice boots, them shoes you're wearing"

It can get wearing, and it has nothing to do with where in the world you are. Here, people from Boston tend to go on and on and on about it. And the way that they do it in Boston is the ONLY right way. My friend is from there, and from the South Side, which is a world unto itself. She says something about being a "Southie" EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I see her. My favorite is, "I'm a Southie, we're not afraid of anything!" when she makes me stand outside and watch her walk home if it isn't broad daylight.

Yep it's a poor substitute for having a personality but so many people do it. Same with accents. I hate accent chat. People speak differently, get over it.

Good friends with an Asian colleague who talks with a strong Glaswegian accent. Her family were originally from Goa and spoke Portuguese. She’s also a Christian and an avid Celtic fan. If you asked her where she comes from she’d proudly say Maryhill Park.

@ballroompink

I once worked with quite a few people from Manchester, at a company based in East Anglia. They were massively Professionally Northern and Professionally Mancunian and really did go on about it a lot, often insinuating that as 'southerners' we must be some sort of rivals. I've never met a single person from East Anglia who is militantly southern

I'm an East Anglian, but my dad is a professional Scot. Despite the fact that he wasn't born there, has spent no more than three years of his life there, and can't even manage a decent stab at a Scottish accent.

And East Anglian is NOT southern. It's... east. I do cling to some pride about being from my corner of EA because I love it so much, but chirst if I ever say 'what can you expect from a Norfolker?' can you flick my earlobe really, really hard, and force a spoonful of mustard down my throat in order to shut me up?

@Pyewackect

Good friends with an Asian colleague who talks with a strong Glaswegian accent. Her family were originally from Goa and spoke Portuguese. She’s also a Christian and an avid Celtic fan. If you asked her where she comes from she’d proudly say Maryhill Park.

Love this!

I know someone who tediously enjoys shoving herself into any conversation about a place. If you’ve been somewhere, she likes to tell you about how she has a connection to Newcastle/Cardigan/Oxford etc etc. I swear her closest connection to these places is that her nanas dog once sent a letter there!

She tried to lecture my DH about how where he was from wasn’t really in Oxfordshire at all. He was born and brought up there and, at that point, had lived there for 30 years. Her qualifications for this? Her parents had lived 20 miles from there before she was born. She had never actually been there at all...