Does anyone else get bored of hearing "You don't sound like you're from X place."

[Sishirunak]

I get it constantly.
"That's not a Manc accent."
"You don't sound like you're from here."
"You definitely aren't from here, where are you really from?"
I get it from so many people I meet and it gets so boring and small minded. Not everybody who is from Manchester or whichever region has a broad accent. I sound like I'm from the North rather than the South.
It's likely just people making conversation but surely it can't be really difficult to work out you don't automatically have a broad accent just because you're from that place?

My first name is also popular in another country but I have no ties to that country. I constantly get asked if I'm of that origin. No, I'm not, my parents just liked the name!

Yes all the time. I am from Dublin and get quizzed on it all the time because apparently I do not sound like I am from Dublin at all. I do, I just do not have the accent that most Dub tv shows seem to advertise.

Im from a rough area and people always say "you don't sound like your from X area".. "you're too posh to be from X area"..

It's very insulting because they assume everyone from my area is rough, common and uneducated. Some people are like that, yes but not all of us.

No. Not really - I don’t 🤷‍♀️

I get told this a lot (other northern city). And, yes, I don't have strong version of the accent but I definitely do pronounce some words that are that city-specific. I just think lots of people really have no ear for accents.

I’m from Essex but don’t sound like an extra from TOWIE, consequently I get the I don’t believe you’re from there comments…

I was born in and have always been resident in Leeds. But I've had a fair few people over the years thinking I was from Manchester because of my accent. Admittedly this hasn't happened in ages but it's never bothered me in the slightest.

I get it all the time. You don’t sound Welsh, well no it was only 5 miles over the North Wales / Cheshire border. Doesn’t really bother me

Next time say “yes, well I suppose it’s because I’m upper middle class and we don’t really do regional accents.”

That’ll shut them up 😂

Yes!

I was born and raised in N Scotland, family all still there with their strong accents and I'm full on southern England sounding now (and have been since about 6 months after I moved here)

It’s just something to talk about with someone you don’t know. I say it all the time. No need to be offended.

I'm from the Northwest, I have a generic northern accent ,but it's not very broad and certainly not as strong a lot of people who lived in the same town /towns i don't loose sleep over though!

Do people local to you think you are from southern England?
I'm asking because My Dad is Irish but he left Ireland when he was 11 and he's 80 now ,I don't think he has a particular Irish accent but people always comment on his accent and ask if he's Irish.

I get it too, from the north east but have a very mild accent, but an obvious accent if I'm talking to someone out of the area. It doesn't actually bother me now although I was bullied at school for being posh!

@x2boys

Yes they do. Everyone thinks I'm from here and is surprised when they find out I'm not. My best mate down here is originally from Glasgow and she still has her Glaswegian accent after 30 years down here. It's really odd.

I get it all the time, too. I grew up in an ex-mining town in Derbyshire and spoke with a very ‘ay up mi duck’ accent until I went to university. I didn’t deliberately change my accent, but it naturally evolved & softened over the years as I moved to different parts of the country, working and socialising with predominantly middle class people. Add to that the influence of DP, who is from the South-East and speaks with an RP accent and I now sound like I come from anywhere & nowhere. Now, when I go back to my home town, nobody believes I’m from there.

I always get this if I say where I am from. I just say "Well, I moved away a long time ago" rather than go over the whole "I never had the typical accent and neither do my parents" gubbins.

I get this a lot, but that’s understandable because I’m not sure I’m really from anywhere. My accent definitely doesn’t sound like I’m local to where I live now, but it doesn’t really sound like the accent in any single one of the places I’ve lived either. It probably sounds a bit of a weird mix to most people - bits from several distinctive regions of England and Wales all jumbled up together.

You can fuck off with equating accent and dialect with education level/intelligence tbh

Same! Also when I was at uni and told someone I was from Essex they looked me up and down in disbelief and insisted I was lying! Just because I don't have the boobs or the lips etc I suppose. Even worse, when I got my first teaching job, the whole staff room burst out laughing when I said I came from Essex, as if it was some kind of joke. So embarrassing. I've now taken to (lying) saying I'm from Hertfordshire, just to save myself the grief.

How long have you lived in England to pick the accent up so much you lost your Scottish accent?

Yeah I get this all the time. I'm Scottish and loved here all my life but I just don't have a strong accent.

It's weird how it's treated as me being in some way less Scottish than someone with a stronger accent.

@SummerBummers Snap! My accent is also definitely an Essex accent, just not the exaggerated TOWIE kind. People just have no idea what normal Essex accents sound like. I’m from a similar sort of area to Michelle Dockery, who has a very similar accent to me, I think it is distinctly Essex but most people don’t recognise it as such now.

Ah, accents! I get it both in London (where i was born) and Bristol (where I have lived for 50 years). I have quite an RP/BBC accent so I suppose it might be understandable. My partner who comes from Wigan but has lived in Bristol 35 years get the 'both ends' treatment as well. We both think that people are ignorant to suppose that people in any place 'should' have any particular accent. I once knew a woman, who said she was a 'socialist', who paid for kids to go to a private school. When I asked why, she said 'it's so they don't grow up with a dreadful local (Bristol accent'. This from someone who had a very strong Southampton accent.

You likely still have a Welsh accent though, just a North East Wales one, which a lot of people possibly wouldn't recognise as a Welsh accent.