To think rejecting someone for job on the basis of their “strong Welsh accent” is disgusting and discriminatory?

[CounsellorTroi]

I hope she gets bsomewhere with a discrimination case.

nation.cymru/news/cardiff-woman-who-posted-rejection-letter-blaming-her-strong-welsh-accent-offered-legal-help/

The amount of people voting ‘YABU’ is shocking (and each one of them a racist- or xenophobe if you prefer).

Having a difficult to understand accent doesn't seem to stop companies outsourcing their call centres to off shore teams

Once upon a time I did a training course in behalf of the Welsh Government, and we had sourced a Welsh trainer to share the load and to conduct the Welsh language sessions.

We had to pilot the feedback in front of a stakeholder group of forty, and it was fed back to us that they much preferred me to conduct as much of the English presentations as possible. The trainer herself said that she hated spending too much of the day swapping between the two because it strained her voice to swap more than to stick to one language.

Depends
I was interviewing for telesales people recently and there were a couple of people I struggled to understand due to very strong regional accents
I wasn’t stupid enough to give that ad a reason for not employing them though

If that video on Twitter is of her, I can’t see how you could say she had an accent that was hard to understand. She’s very clear.

That being said, I find it interesting that some people find different accents so difficult to understand. It’s not something I usually struggle with. And I wonder is there a reason why some people find accents that are different to theirs so challenging.

People's perceptions of accent can be a bit bonkers.

Yes they can. A well-spoken Londoner once told me I had to do something about my Welsh accent, even though I'm from the English side of the border and people there think I talk like the Queen.

Disclaimer: I'm Scottish.
I watched that video and I couldn't really tell she was welsh

@weebarra

Disclaimer: I'm Scottish. I watched that video and I couldn't really tell she was welsh

Same and same

That's not a strong Welsh accent but you can definitely hear the Cardiff twang.

Does anybody have any difficulty, whatsoever, in understanding her?

None whatsoever, so in this particular case it's harder to see why it was mentioned, especially if they had a "backup objection" in the regional activities thing (whatever that means )

It makes sense that some jobs aren’t suitable for people with strong accents, so I don’t think that in itself should be an issue, assuming it’s true. If the woman sounded the same in her interview as she did in that video then I can’t see where there’s a problem.

It’s more likely that they didn’t want a labour activist to work for them.

Another video, this time without the sound of wind and a saxophone…

She is a clear speaker, with a slight Welsh twang.

Rejecting her on the basis of her accent is appalling.

I hope the prospective employer are named and shamed.

She's a regional ambassador for Holocaust UK which aims to educate students in schools about the history of the holocaust. I'm assuming they're the regional activities they're worried about. Someone on twitter pointed out within tribunal history accents are seen as indicators of class (not a protected characteristic) rather than race, so I'm not sure if that complicates things legally.

There were a few words I couldn't understand especially when I covered the subtitles with my hand! Anyway, that's a practiced, rehearsed speech she's giving (and very well, too!) so it's not necessarily representative of how she sounds in conversation.

But if the accent is so strong she can't be understood how can that possibly work in an office or with customers .

@Morfil

Here’s a video of her speaking.

twitter.com/elunedanderson/status/1293230620689281024?s=21

Does anybody have any difficulty, whatsoever, in understanding her? I certainly don’t.

i couldn't quite catch when she said the word activist, i wasn't sure what word she was saying, every activist... i wondered if she was saying every accent, but i looked at the subtitle. the employer probably someone who talks about trade unionism etc might be a troublesome employee. so that might come under regional activities, local labour party, trade union etc.

I can't even hear an accent. She sounds pretty neutral to me 🤔

A simple 'Thanks but no thanks' letter would have been a better idea, wouldn't it? And I suspect that the accent might be a red herring, and the real reason they didn't want her was because of her robust political views and opinions.

It's not even a particularly strong Cardiff accent, which in itself, is not a strong Welsh accent. She is easy to understand.

Having listened to the vid now I had to listen intensely but no way is she bad enough to refuse a job too.

@Justkeeppedaling

Having a difficult to understand accent doesn't seem to stop companies outsourcing their call centres to off shore teams

the ones i've heard recently sound irish or south african. both perfectly clear and more polite than many uk ones.

i couldn't quite catch when she said the word activist, i wasn't sure what word she was saying, every activist...
i wondered if she was saying every accent, but i looked at the subtitle.
I’ve since found and posted another video, which is easier to understand because it doesn’t have the backing music and wind.

I’m hard of hearing and, consequently, do sometimes struggle with strong accents. She is extremely easy to understand, even for me.

@hattie43

But if the accent is so strong she can't be understood how can that possibly work in an office or with customers.
I don’t believe any English-speaker could have genuine difficulty understanding her.

@Morfil

Here’s a video of her speaking.

twitter.com/elunedanderson/status/1293230620689281024?s=21

Does anybody have any difficulty, whatsoever, in understanding her? I certainly don’t.

She is perfectly clear

Someone on twitter pointed out within tribunal history accents are seen as indicators of class (not a protected characteristic) rather than race, so I'm not sure if that complicates things legally.
That’s interesting, but I wonder how applicable it is here. Her slight accent is unlikely to be a significant class-marker, within Wales. This seems like more of a case of rejecting her based on her nationality.