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/

Also, why do you think some TV programmes feel that they have to put subtitles on when people with strong regional accents or people from overseas with strong accents are being interviewed?

Accent discrimination also a problem in Ireland:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=9jv3EvkqJlQ

@RampantIvy

It's the fact that you don't seem to be able to grasp that these statements are fundamentally different that makes your response rude and disrespectful.

I have just asked DH about strong accents. He speaks to people from Tamil Nadu every week on Zoom and says it is the most difficult accent he has come across to understand, so he has to keep asking them to repeat what they are saying.

I don't understand why you think he is being disrepectful, and therefore I think you are being rude by not trying to understand that some people really struggle with very strong accents, and they aren't being disrespectful at all.

Once again... no accent is a strong accent - everyone's accent is merely different. The accent itself is not difficult - the people in Tamil Nadu don't find it difficult to understand. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the accent.

It's your husband's unfamiliarity with the accent, not the accent itself, that is causing the problem. If he asks, politely, for them to repeat what they are saying when he didn't understand it, he is not being rude or disrespectful.

It is your insistence that the accent of some other person that you personally dont have the ability to understand is therefore a "strong accents" or a "difficult accent" which is disrespectful.

@RampantIvy

Also, why do you think some TV programmes feel that they have to put subtitles on when people with strong regional accents or people from overseas with strong accents are being interviewed?

Because some TV producers share the same patronising disrespect as people on this thread.

Because some TV producers share the same patronising disrespect as people on this thread.

I don't find that disrespectful. It just shows that not everyone finds broad local/overseas accents easy to understand.

It is your insistence that the accent of some other person that you personally dont have the ability to understand is therefore a "strong accents" or a "difficult accent" which is disrespectful.

DH is from Northumberland. I can assure you that some Northumbrian accent are much broader (stronger) than others. Although, I expect that you would disagree with me. I struggled to understand some of his family when I first met them, but don't at all now because I am used to it.

I live in Yorkshire, and some of the people I work with happily admit that they have broad (strong) Yorkshire accents and are proud of it (and rightly so). This is their own perception of their accents BTW. Then, some of the people I work with have less broad Yorkshire accents.

So, in my experience the two regional accents I am very familiar with (and can understand perfectly well), still come in different degrees of broadness or strength. I defy you to have this "argument" with some of my team mates who are very proud of speaking broad Yorkshire.

When the TV series Coast first hit our TV screens the BBC received loads of complaints about Neil Oliver's Scottish accent because so many viewers couldn't understand him. IMO he was easy to understand, but I don't think the viewers were being disrespectful for struggling to understand or "not trying hard enough".

Your definition of broad or strong or difficult is just a deviation from a perceived norm. The fact that people self-identify as deviating more or less from that norm is irrelevant.

My point is, there is no objective norm. Everyone has an accent. None is the central accent by which others can be judged to be strong or difficult.

@RampantIvy

Also, why do you think some TV programmes feel that they have to put subtitles on when people with strong regional accents or people from overseas with strong accents are being interviewed?

There's an episode of 'Castle' where a geordie is taking an English as a second language class.

I think the generic 'merican accent or bland UK accent is the baseline and anything deviating from them are 'accented from charming to unintelligible.

[quote powershowerforanhour]Accent discrimination also a problem in Ireland:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=9jv3EvkqJlQ[/quote]
this is very very funny.

@RampantIvy

where presumably everyone else was managing just fine to get on their planes...

The other passengers were all Indian. Just as Glaswegians understand other Glaswegians - see post upthread.

The common language in India is English, but accented English in India is understood by Indians, and less so by people not from India. Also, the sound quality in airport PA systems isn't great.

Why do you think call centres outsourced to India came back here?

So, perhaps you could think about what you are saying. I don't know why you are being so sneery about people who can't follow very heavily accented English.

Because if you can’t understand indian accented English in India…maybe don’t go to India.

@AProperStinging

It was nothing to do with her accent.

Her 'regional activities' are to do with Holocaust education. She was rejected because of antisemitism.

It's all on twitter.

Well you can’t say it’s nothing to do with her accent as the letter clearly states her accent is part of the problem, in fact listed first as the problem. So it definitely DOES have something to do with that and that’s appalling regardless of anything else about her.

I wondered if it was a prank by her? It will do wonders for how many followers she has. The lack of detail from her raises my suspicions.

I find any type of accent or people speaking quietly /too quickly v difficult .Am hard of hearing and was very embarrassed when the Delivery Driver spoke ,Couldnt understand and DH had to take over .

Accents are funny things, different people find different accents easier or harder to pick up, would be interested to hear from a linguist why that is. Is it just a case of getting 'tuned in' to an accent or does it go deeper than that?

DH has a West Indian branch of the family and when a couple of his cousins came to England for work, people would ask him what language they were speaking. Except for his best friend, who was from the Welsh valleys and had absolutely no problem at all understanding – apparently the cadences and tones in Bajan accents are similar to those in Welsh.

@AProperStinging

It was nothing to do with her accent.

Her 'regional activities' are to do with Holocaust education. She was rejected because of antisemitism.

It's all on twitter.

Then why was the first half of the letter about her accent?

@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.

wtf ? I'd struggle to place that as non-English, let alone Welsh. And I have grown up amongst a lot of accents (dialects too, but that's another story).

My current ambition is to nail a colleagues accent before I am reduced to asking. It's so tantalisingly familiar ... a tendency to use "y" where "h" should go ("beyaviour" for "behaviour"). I was pleased to spot another colleague as very slight South African. But I had a chemistry teacher that was from there.

Anyone catch Gerald on Clarksons Farm ?

There are a few things that don’t add up.

I wonder if the rejection ‘email’ is real.

a tendency to use "y" where "h" should go ("beyaviour" for "behaviour")

Awful, patronising nonsense. “Should go.” Get over yourself.

Different accents pronounce things differently. There is no “should.”

Whatever

@Tippexy

There are a few things that don’t add up.

I wonder if the rejection ‘email’ is real.

Yes, I'd be very surprised if it was.

As a Recruiter myself, I’m quite shocked that a company has given that kind of written feedback?! To actually write that down for a candidate to see, is potentially opening yourself up for trouble.

It’s why even when I write interview notes/comments on a candidate file I keep it factual and competency based. Because a candidate can ask to see their file at any time.

They could’ve just gone down the “you did a great interview, but we opted to go with a stronger candidate” route.

If you decide to give more specific feedback it should always be constructive and developmental, something a candidate can go away and work on. Can’t really do much about your accent!

As a Recruiter myself, I’m quite shocked that a company has given that kind of written feedback?!

We don't yet know if they actually have, browneyes, since there's increasing doubt around the message's reality

If it does turn out to be faked I wonder if there'll be anything said about her judgement, or will she still be regarded as some sort of victim?

@FrogFairy

I sincerely hope that this turns out to be a hoax.

I can’t believe that in this day and age a company would make such comments in writing and expect to get away with it.

If true then this does not bode well for my job hunting DC with his Welsh valleys accent.

I think it is more to do with her political activities.

morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/young-labour-chair-candidate-withdraws-over-comments-about-incredibly-good-looking

Doesn’t everyone on this thread have a regional accent that others in parts of the UK will struggle to understand?! Do some people not realise that they too have an accent?

@CherryPieface

Doesn’t everyone on this thread have a regional accent that others in parts of the UK will struggle to understand?! Do some people not realise that they too have an accent?

I've lived in Birmingham over 25 years, and sometimes need to put my yam-yam ears on to follow a conversation out in the black country.

@RisingMoon

What are her “regional activities?” That sounds dubious - what is she doing as an activity that could make her unwanted for the job?

And who actually ever is stupid enough to open themselves up to liability by stating the reasons for not hiring someone?

She's a Labour party member, maybe that's it.

But unless she's applying for a job with the Tory party, I can't see why it should be an issue.