To feel angry when judged purely on my accent?

[manchita]

I just find it really depressing the way a lot of people make a habit of judging others on accent/class/appearance/children's names but what gets to me the most is the assumption you are thick and unworthy if you have any kind of regional accent

i know what you mean. when i lived down south my south-west wurzels accent was constantly picked on. however, since moving to the north west, people consistently think im posh!

are you a brummie?

What's made you feel that way, manchita?

Specifics, please

Manchester? (going on your user name)

My accent has largely disappeared over the years but I do find myself laying it on rather thick if I think people are looking down their noses at me because I don't have an RP accent

I also find the way I look affects how people react to me - I look smart for work but a total slattern at the weekends, and people in shops etc respond to me much better when I am suited and booted

Do people really think you are thick and unworthy if you have a regional accent? Am amazed. I am always rather envious because I think I sound boring. Would never judge anyone based upon their accent.
Actually, now you mention it though... I remember hearing that the head of Radio 4 got hate mail (not much, but enough) when James Naughtie was employed as the presenter on the Today programme. People couldn't bear the fact that a man with a Scottish accent was being heard as the morning voice of the BBC.
However... that was at least 20 years ago, and I do think it's much more common to hear different accents on television and radio. Quite right too.

Try being a cockney! people tend to treat you like a particularly slow and impoverished street urchin.

I read an article in the Metro (that esteemed rag ) a while ago about regional accents. Apparently everyone loves an Irish, Welsh, Scottish or Scouse accent, but people can't stand Brummies or Cockneys. I say they're just jealous because we are the two centres of industry an, well, life

Folk with posh accents get picked on too

I love the brummie and the cockney accent.

I couldn't possibly comment on some of those dialects people apparently like

No, I am from London. I live in quite a segregated area of London, with social housing shadowed by private gated community high rises.
The two communities hardly ever mix and the social housers are looked down upon.
I actually think this is more a class issue than purely accent...
but when you go to some mother/toddler gruops the other parents do not want to mix with you at all(inc. ignoring your children) if they decide you sound common.
I am a well educated person from working class socialist stock, of which I am v proud and this kind of stuff makes me very angry.....

Oh yes - posh accents can be lethal as well.

See, loveangelgabriel I am a trying cockney

i was always told to speak properly whilst growing up. it showed off how well brought up you were, and that you were worth something. exactly like being well dressed/groomed clean etc.
however i never really paid much attention to it. it was just something that parents said, but there didnt seem to be too much emphasis on it. as long as i didnt use swearwords they werent to bothered
however, i have since been told that i am 'posh' because i pronounce my p's and q's and t's. and occasionally use a slightly longer word.

i get really really anoyed when dc say 'gunna' instead of going to.

I have a completely mongrel accent that wanders all over the place, and I can see people getting frustrated because they can't easily pigeonhole me and they have to work harder to figure out whether they like me or not.

I think on the whole it's been an advantage in life as people have to take me as they find me.

Do people really get victimised for regional accents though? I thought it was the opposite, ie that it's people with posh accents who have a hard time.

Gawd me owd, youse wanna try tokin lark ay does. Thayd be proper narked cos folk think arm proper dim. Dunner werrit.

In what circumstances would people with a 'posh' accent have a hard time?

And just what, pray, is wrong with a Mancunian accent?

Now Scousers.....ooooooh!

I had a midwife decide purely on my housing and my accent that I couldn't read, so yes, people do judge me on my accent.

(She told me, in a loud "DO YOU NEED THE TOILET DEAR?" voice "You must get someone to read these with you, they are all about weaning, which means when you start to give the baby some food that isn't milk. Ok?")

It isn't nice to be judged on an accent, but it is real life, and I don't mind snap judgments.

However, if someone is avoiding speaking to me because of my accent, they are probably Not My Type.

Manchita - when others do not have a posh accent, that is the circumstance.

Why do you think so many people with posh accents speak mockney?

hey, i'm scouse! (well, very soft, almost disappearing and turning to a leicester accent now)

People with posh accents get the piss ripped out of them all the time.

The trouble with a posh accent is that it's affected. There is no region in the UK where people talk like that. It's false, put on.

I don't have an accent at all, despite having lived in the West country for most of my life. I just didn't pick one up. So yes, I suppose I'm a bit RE. But if you listen to how broadcasters (for instance) spoke in the 50s, it's so evidently affected that people are bound to pick up on it these days.

Oh Manchita, in a state high school, and 'posh' accent would mean you have a hard time, for sure.

Oh i think people definitely do judge you based on your accent - to some extent, anyway. I'm from a working class background and educated (not unlike you, manchit ), and I tend to sound quite 'well spoken' most of the time. Now and then I revert back to my 'proper Londoner' accent and people definitely react differently to me. I'm treated like a 'lady' (said in Little Briatin-esque way) when i speak 'prperly', and like Moll bloody Flanders when i don't.

scooz typos. Am multi-tasking tonight (ie. wolfing down cheese toastie and glass of vino while typing with two fingers).

I think that whether you are "posh" or not and the effect your accent has on people you speak to depends on who it is you are talking to.

I have occasionally spoken on the phone at work to people who have assumed that because I sound northern that I am not as clever as I could be... similarly when I go back to the North West people think I am posh because my accent has largely morphed into a vaguely northern one.