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AIBU?

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Original poster

To regret having lost my accent?

15 replies

pembroketable · 02/05/2023 11:47

I grew up in Wales for the first 18 years of my life. Both parents and all family are Welsh. Grew up speaking Welsh, and was generally 'very Welsh'. I moved away for Uni and then to follow a career in the City. I completely 'lost' my accent. Sometimes people don't even believe I'm Welsh, or they think I'm a posh Welsh woman. I'm from the Rhondda!

OP posts:
UndercoverCop · 02/05/2023 11:52

I grew up in the East end of London, accent to match, went to a very public school type uni and dropped my accent, East London and estuary accents are associated (wrongly) with not being very bright. I don't wholly regret it, and take great pleasure into slipping back particularly when it might make someone reconsider their own biases. It definitely affects how people perceive me

mjf981 · 02/05/2023 11:53

I lost mine too after moving away in my teens. All my family has a very strong Yorkshire coast accent, but mine is much more mellow and a real hybrid, as I've moved around a lot and lived in different countries. People find it hard to place where I"m from, but most people seem to like/comment that they like my accent.
To be honest, I think it has helped me in my career. I've found people often look down on those with a very strong regional accent.

dudsville · 02/05/2023 11:56

I moved too and lost my accent. I wouldn't do it now, but when i was young and still moving around jobs and uni etc., i just readopted my own accent! I also have a colleague who's done the same!

Original poster
pembroketable · 02/05/2023 12:23

I definitely also agree that it has 'helped' me in professional situations.

OP posts:
LimeCheesecake · 02/05/2023 13:19

I’m another who’s lost/softened their accent, and I was conscious of it happening- I’d moved to London the year before and kept my Manchester accent, but then I changed jobs to one where people with English as a first language were in a minority. I spent a lot of time trying to be clearer to colleagues and clients who couldn’t understand me, and was aware I was trying to speak more like the “Queen’s English” they’d heard when learning English. Within a year it stopped being something I had to think about doing and within a couple of years, just how I now spoke all the time.

I’ve been out of that industry for a long time, still living in SE and recently someone said they could tell I was from the north but would struggle to say which side of the Pennines or whereabouts in the North.

ninemonthstime · 02/05/2023 13:27

UndercoverCop · 02/05/2023 11:52

I grew up in the East end of London, accent to match, went to a very public school type uni and dropped my accent, East London and estuary accents are associated (wrongly) with not being very bright. I don't wholly regret it, and take great pleasure into slipping back particularly when it might make someone reconsider their own biases. It definitely affects how people perceive me

I'd totally disagree.

I think an East London accent is associated with being a wheeler dealer.

A Birmingham accent tends to be associated with not being very bright.

Sorry!

TheOriginalEmu · 02/05/2023 13:30

I have retained my welsh accent, despite living a variety of places. I can’t imagine ever losing it!

SwedishEdith · 02/05/2023 13:32

I don't think there's anything wrong with your accent mellowing as you move around and meet other people. It'd be a bit odd to defiantly hang on to an accent if others found it difficult to follow what you were saying easily. I bet you do still have a Welsh accent though, OP. Some people are just really rubbish at hearing and placing accents.

Inthesamesinkingboat · 02/05/2023 13:32

You might have lost your welsh accent but how about doing Duolingo and trying to learn or sharpen up (if you already speak some) Welsh? Can be a great way to feel connected to a place or your roots and the world needs more Welsh speakers

UndercoverCop · 02/05/2023 13:32

@ninemonthstime it's my experience of how I was treated when I retained my original accent and after I dropped it. I was considered to have street smarts and little else! Which is pretty fast from the truth tbh. I won't tell you what happens when I tell people I live in Essex.....

ninemonthstime · 02/05/2023 13:36

UndercoverCop · 02/05/2023 13:32

@ninemonthstime it's my experience of how I was treated when I retained my original accent and after I dropped it. I was considered to have street smarts and little else! Which is pretty fast from the truth tbh. I won't tell you what happens when I tell people I live in Essex.....

I have an East London/Essex accent too
and have always found that people think we are very street wise and they can't get one over on us (as opposed to not very bright).

FrenchGeordie · 02/05/2023 14:03

NC because outing.

DH is French Native, French father. Mother is English Geordie. When he moved to the UK at 20 he moved to NCL. So when I met him he had a full on Geordie accent in English, not a touch of French accent. But his accent when speaking French is very strong Southern.

Sadly after 8 years down South with me, he's really lost of a lot of his accent. I barely ever have to say 'what?' now. 😂

Original poster
pembroketable · 02/05/2023 16:43

I speak Welsh as good as my English :P

OP posts:
Original poster
pembroketable · 02/05/2023 16:43

Ok that was poor English…

OP posts:
Shintyhappypeople · 02/05/2023 16:45

My mum moved from Ireland when she was a teenager and still talks about how her accent was pretty much bullied out of her Angry

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