Aibu to be annoyed to change how I speak

[Passedmybedtime]

I have a strong accent and like others in my area we talk faster than others, a new colleague has started work and English isn't that persons first language, I have already changed how I speak to help the person understand and I was barked at by management to speak slower, and that annoyed me, I was offended if I'm honest. I can't help how I speak and I thought I was speaking more clearer and slower for the other person to understand. I dont know what else I can do?? I feel I'm being unreasonable asking this and I tried my best to acdondate the new start esp since it was the person's first day and trying to show the ropes even with a language barrier. I can't go into much details of my work but I feel a annoyed and upset to get into trouble at work when I was trying my hardest to help the person

Am I wrong to feel annoyed?

Total immersion. I prefer people to speak normally to me, unless I'm having trouble understanding what they're saying at that specific time and ask them to repeat or slow down. It's how I've come to understand the accents in the areas of the UK in which I've lived.

I ken the Glesga accent is hard tae understand at first but efter a wee while ye fair get used tae it and aren't so scunnered by the colloquialisms. 😁 I'm also very sorry if that is completely wrong, I haven't lived in Glasgow for many years!

people also need to make an effort to adapt to understanding your accent

I have A level French and have taken evening classes to improve my French. When on holiday in a very rural and untouristy part of the South of France several years ago I simply could not understand the local accent because they spoke so quickly. I asked them politely to speak more slowly, but they wouldn't, so I totally understand why the new colleague is finding a Glaswegian accent so difficult.

It has nothing to do with not trying or being lazy @StoneofDestiny and @Brawsome. With time the colleague will get used to the local accent, but it will take time, and the onus is on the OP to speak more slowly.

I sympathise but I did vote YABU. I've worked in an international office and had to adapt the way I spoke. Not even an American colleague could understand me.

It is very possible. You have to be mindful of what is 'proper' correct English and grammar and what is a regional colloquialism, dialect or slang and avoid using those. Slowing down too is important. It is tricky at first but you can learn to do it.

As someone else said before language is a tool we use to communicate and understand one another, and you do often have to adapt the way you speak tp be understood or even accepted in various circles in life. It's a useful skill to master.

I had a friend at uni who was from near Ayr with a very broad accent. They stayed with me in Dorset for the summer once. The owners of the stables (with a broad west country accent) couldn't understand her, and she couldn't understand them. I had to translate for them! Strong accents from anywhere can be really hard. Slow down much more OP!

Not from Glasgow and have absolutely no issue understanding it. Its a lovely accent. Unlike some English accents which are impossible to make out. Eacj country has their own accents that are hard to understand, it doesnt mean they are wrong. I'd maybe try and speak slower but would I hell change the way I speak.

Well unfortunately due to the nature of the work involved, involving health issues the person really needs to pick up the dialect and quickly I have no problem speaking slowly to help person, though I find others will have a problem.

@Loics Now I'm curious about your first language!

Not wrong. I speak foreign languages in work an I assume its my responsibility to be able to understand native speakers. Otherwise I shouldn't be in the job.

When I lived in the States I used to be an interpreter for a couple of colleagues, one with a strong Geordie accent and one a Glaswegian. By interpreter I mean, i repeated exactly what they said but in my fairly mild generic Northern accent.

I'd far rather a decent weenie accent than what I've developed, that generic Scottish accent from nowhere. I've lived significant parts of my life in Perth, Edinburgh, Glasgow, the outer Hebrides and back to Glasgow. I sound like I'm from nowhere.

My dc spent their formative years in the outer Hebrides and now live in Glasgow. They have beautiful Hebridean accents when they speak Gaelic, and sound like they're straight out of a pub in Govan when they speak to their friends!

It’s as much about enunciation and pace as it is about accent.

It’s polite and professional to pay attention to these when with colleagues or clients who may struggle.

@weegiemum do you have the infamous glasgow yooni accent now 😁

asking me to try an change something impossible about myself is what annoys me
Of course it's not impossible.
You can adapt your speech a little. You're not being asked to change your accent to RP, you're being asked to slow down and speak clearly. A little bit of effort to support a colleague is not that much to ask. Over time, they are very likely to be able to tune into it more so this is probably only a short-term requirement.

Good try @Loics but that's a bit too east coast! I'm from Glasgow but even read that in an east accent because it started with 'ken' 😂

A friend married an American and she definitely found some of us easier to understand than others but consistently said we all spoke too fast for her. Given she was even a native English speaker, it might be that the speed you think is patronising OP might actually be fine for your colleague.

Demanding you totally change your accent would be unreasonable. As is barking at you. Asking you to slow down is totally and utterly reasonable.

To the other person I'm not being oversensitive though, asking me to try an change something impossible about myself is what annoys me.

Surely speaking in a slightly different way for a short time and in certain situations is not really 'changing something impossible about yourself'. When your non-native-English-speaking colleague speaks English to you all, are they changing something impossible about themselves?

I can't help feeling that this is a rather insular attitude that might not occur in a country where more people were used to speaking, or at least hearing, multiple languages. It's totally normal to adapt your speech in terms of vocab or complexity when talking to someone who might not understand (a young child, a foreigner etc). Slowing down and slightly moderating accent doesn't seem that big an ask.

I hope not cos I didn't go to Glasgow and have never lived in the west end - lived 6 years in Edinburgh!

I still sound East Coast when I say Perth (the e is a real eh sound), poem (poyem), world (wu-ru-ld). I sound weegie when I talk to taxi drivers!

I think both YABU and YANBU, in healthcare patients clients will not change how they talk but you have to explain that locals will say I'm getting a covid jag, your new colleague will not know that jag means injection or vaccine, so a handy guide to local words as when you learn English no-one tells you the slang terms for say going to the toilet or where are the bathrooms. So they definitely need you to help with the language but YANBU to be expected to talk in a different accent, I live in Argyll so i understand the glasgow accent but when i first moved here I had no idea what "ma wean" was you could have said it a dozen times slowly and I won't have known but then I learned what it meant