Inspired by another thread. Is accent mocking ever OK ?

[toddymummy]

This one has always bothered me. Being from mixed European heritage, but not having an accent myself- I have found myself the subject of accent/ gesture mocking many times.

It doesn't happen as much anymore as it used to,say 10-15 years ago, but it does occasionally happen.

Is it ever OK ? People mock all kinds of accents- Irish, Scottish, Welsh, French, Italian, German.

It really bugs me, especially if it's done repeatedly and especially if it's done at work.

AIBU ?

@DinaofCloud9

Try being scouse and endless people tell you to calm down calm down. It gets tedious pretty quickly.

It's so annoying

I think one of the things that underlies a lot of this is that many people juat really like to try speaking in different accents, even when they know they are terrible at it. Listening to how different people say things is something even small kids pick up on, and when you get down to it other people saying something in a way that is very odd, or you can't get your own lips around, can be very amusing.

I suppose it's because we are hardwired to tune into language and notice difference.

It can become very fraught because it also ties into elements of class and regional clashes, and things like that. But the basic interest and enjoyment is I think just a very human response to language.

It depends. I find it hilarious when foreigners try to do an English accent and my kids used to sometimes imitate their Italian nan (my mum) when narrating stories about her. Equally we take the piss out of our Irish and Scottish accents and they out English ones. I would never take the piss out of someone’s accent if I didn’t know them though.

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

I would say it’s only OK to mock your own accent, the RP accent (which is my accent) or the super posh Royal Family type accent.

Or the equivalent for your own country if that’s applies.

Why is it OK to mock RP or a posh accent? Just - why? What makes it OK exactly?

Are posh people sub-human in your eyes? Are they 'fair game', do you think? Don't they count as 'people like you?

Why do you imagine that your bigotry is different from any other bigotry? That is what all bigots think after all - that their bigotry is obviously justified.

Is this inspired by the woman who can't understand her Irish boyfriend on the phone?
That isn't mocking his accent.

And no, I don't take the piss out of people's accents.

@RampantIvy

Is this inspired by the woman who can't understand her Irish boyfriend on the phone? That isn't mocking his accent.

And no, I don't take the piss out of people's accents.

No I think it’s inspired by the one who finally yelled at her MIL for making fun of her accent to her child.

@madisonbridges

I have quite a strong northern accent, use the word tea for my evening meal and say 'do you not' instead of 'dont you'. My southern friends sometimes mock me by imitating me. It makes me laugh because it's accurate and I'm not offended. I very proud of my county so being identified with it would never, could never offend me. It's never happened to me but I guess, though, if I worked with someone and they did it all the time, it might become tiresome and boring. But I still don't think I'd be offended. It'd be like being offended by someone saying I have blue eyes.

Do you not and don't you are both correct and mean the same thing. I worked with a guy from Mansfield and he always said, instead of doesn't it or won't it "not it". As in "It'll work like that, not it?" But that's dialect not accent.

Also there is a Scottish dialect that I just can't understand no matter what. I think it's from somewhere up north.

It really is not okay unless there is some context. For example late DH and I had totally different accents and our daughter has another. At times this caused some gentle ribbing and DD occasionally makes a joke about something I say and vice versa but it is all very good natured and always is within context. I adore that DD has grown up in her city and has always had that accent. It is very much part of her and where she comes from.

I think it is very telling that there is lots of talk on this thread of northern accents, Scottish accents, southern accents etc. We are in Yorkshire and the neighbouring city has a different accent, even within cities different cultural groups have their own distinctive twang. Yorkshire has several different accents, as does Scotland, the Midlands etc. Lots of sweeping assumptions are made in regards to accents. I have a friend from northern island who constantly has to explain the 'Island of Ireland' thing and is asked to say mirror and owl constantly I think it is my favourite out of all the amazing accents in the UK- but it is not okay. Whilst the UK is very multicultural and tolerant lots of ways, many communities are also very insular- including very wealthy ones. There is very little understanding of either of a transient population or immigration.

I’d only mock the accent of supervillains such as Klaus Schwab. I’m from Europe too but people have accused me of sounding Canadian or American when in reality I first spoke English in South Africa so perhaps used to have a tinge of their accent? I was more offended at work as coworkers would refuse to pronounce my name the English way, even after I repeatedly asked them nicely, I got sworn at instead. This was in a care home, btw.

@GabriellaMontez

Mocking isn't nice for any reason. It's laughing at someone.

But it can be funny to have a laugh at someone's accent. If everyone is laughing...

If it’s not ok to laugh at someone how is it ok to laugh at someone as long as everyone else is also laughing?

Can you do it about other stuff? Like a fat colleague? I mean they have more control over their weight than I do over the accent I got from the place I was born, and as long as we’re all having a laugh at the fat person then surely it’s ok?

Or maybe we can all laugh at the person with glasses? It’s just a laugh.

I think it's not until you're a minority in some way that you really realise what a fucking PITA it is being different, and how relentless it can be being reminded that you're different.

I have an English accent and live in the US. The first time it was Ok that someone pointed out my accent. The second was still OK. The third it started to get boring. It went on and on.

Mostly it's people saying "I love your accent." Because gosh, yes, I really want to have this conversation with a total stranger for the fifth time this week, instead of actually being shown where the yoghurts or batteries are (and oh yes, it's so hilarious that British people don't say YO-gurt or BAD-ries).

Eventually one day a YMCA member of staff imitated something I'd just said, in a vaguely mocking manner. I'm sure she thought it was funny. I just stared at her in disgust.

It's just. So. Fucking. Relentlessly. Boring.

I know it happens in reverse too - my American kids experience it every time they visit the UK.

I was born and brought up in Anfield, that’s Liverpool for anybody who doesn’t know but I have lived in London for 14 years.
I have a “scouse” accent, it’s not as strong as it used to be but that’s because my friends are all from Essex (Chigwell) .The funny thing is they love doing a scouse accent and I love doing a Essex accent, they love it when I say “what’s appening babes”.

We are good friends and nobody is mocking anybody in fact it’s the opposite we love each other’s accents.

@ZZTopGuitarSolo I actually say yo-hurt and I'm Scottish.

When I moved from Yorkshire to Lincolnshire as a teen I really struggled with the sudden mocking of how I spoke.
I’ve had to completely change how I speak even though you can still tell sometimes where I’m from.

I dread to think how it feels to have an accent from another country and go through it. You can’t win though can you? If you didn’t speak English people would be moaning about that as well.

[quote GrandTheftWalrus]@ZZTopGuitarSolo I actually say yo-hurt and I'm Scottish.[/quote]
Interesting, my granny and grandad said it the way I do - they were Dundonians. Well, they pronounced the R more strongly than I do. But I have a feeling my niece and nephew, who are Glaswegian, pronounce it YO-gurt.

'Mocking' is never ok.

In context impersonating an accent for humour at nobody's expense isn't unacceptable eg acting.

No it's rude. I'm from the midlands but have lived down south for many years so have a mixed accent, my grasses and baths are short vowel sounds rather than grar-ss barth which can be jarring when I speak and still fully grown adults will mimic me mid sentence and ask why I say it like that.

So for me of course, nothing to do with race and in the grand scheme of things accent related not a huge issue but it is rude.

If however, I hear a very strong accent, for example S Wales or W Yorkshire, my inner voice takes on the accent and I love to try to replicate it (never in front of others though!) so I see why people do mimic but to do so at peoples expense is horrible.

For example late DH and I had totally different accents and our daughter has another. At times this caused some gentle ribbing and DD occasionally makes a joke about something I say and vice versa but it is all very good natured and always is within context

Oops. That wasn't meant to happen

It's the same in our house. I'm from London, DH is a Geordie and DD was born in Barnsley. When she went to secondary school everyone told her she had a posh accent. She has a generic "northern" accent as does DH, because she grew up not hearing a strong local accent at home.

DH had to soften his strong accent when he first went to university because no-one could understand him. He went to university long before there were so many local accents on TV.

@headintheproverbial

OP - in what way don't you 'have an accent yourself'. Do you think that somehow YOUR accent is ground zero, the standard by which the rest of us are judged?!

This is exactly what people think. I’m interested in this thread because on Saturday in a queue at the airport, DH and I were making small talk with two women also queuing, as you do. Out of nowhere one of them commented on my accent. I don’t live in my region of origin, but have lived where I live now for decades. When she mentioned my accent she said “you’re from x aren’t you, I can tell by your accent”. So random, so rude - we were talking about masks and vax ffs.

I find it extremely tiring. After living for over 10 years overseas now I'm over people making comments on my accent. I find it rude but if I voice my objections I'm labelled as sensitive and that I can't take a joke.

“you’re from x aren’t you, I can tell by your accent”. So random, so rude

In what way is that rude?

If I was talking to a random stranger at, say, Leeds Bradford airport, and the person I was chatting to asked what part of London I was from I wouldn't find that in the least bit rude. Honestly, asking where someone is from isn't the least bit rude. I'm baffled.

Everyone I work with thinks I have a posh accent BTW. I don't. I have a south London Accent instead of a South Yorkshire accent.

This is exactly what people think. I’m interested in this thread because on Saturday in a queue at the airport, DH and I were making small talk with two women also queuing, as you do. Out of nowhere one of them commented on my accent. I don’t live in my region of origin, but have lived where I live now for decades. When she mentioned my accent she said “you’re from x aren’t you, I can tell by your accent”. So random, so rude - we were talking about masks and vax ffs

See that wouldn't bother me at all - that's not mocking an accent, to me that's just saying that you recognise another accent. She might have lived there, she might have family from there, she might have been on holiday there - it's just one of those things that's said in passing. Unless she then went on to mimic you, or say something derogatory about your region - in which case that's not OK.