Wiv, free and three, have and of

[idontlikealdi]

Please help me cope. Dds are picking up language skills as expected from their peers. I can't cope with it. I'm ND if that makes the impact bigger. Not sure.

When they mispronounce I get so wound up, I do correct them which drives them and me mad.

For me it's basic understanding, do you have three things or free things, are you talking about our roof or Ruth, what is wiv?

Am I wrong to try and enforce it?

These threads always bringing out raging snobbery and faux-wide eyed 'but I can't understand them!'.

I speak a bit how the OP describes, it's regional, I'm from east London / Essex. It has held me back a bit with opportunities at work, yes. I've found that it is generally non-English speakers that hire and then promote me, as they only notice the content of what I say, not how I say it.

Working for English people has been the worst, they make huge assumptions about my intelligence and background. I have very little respect for the intelligence of people who make those assumptions.

It feels a shame to see the op and another poster say they are ND but also say they make assumptions about people based on how they talk. I imagine if you are ND you get people making assumptions and judgements about you a lot - and most of the them wrong. Perhaps treat people how you would like - and deserve - to be treated?

I can't pronounce th. Regional. It has not held me back at all. In my male dominated sector (white, middle aged, private school) being female, under foot 5 and apparently sounding dumb, the odds should be stacked against me. Thankfully, it isn't and now I hire I ensure I cast my search wide to attract all talent. My aim to increase female representation and social mobility. Any hint at the attitude on this thread would be killed instantly.

When mine were teens, I was just always happy they were talking to me and telling me things!

For those old enough to remember Catherine 's Lauren, Am a'bovvered face, bovvered, etc, it was the bane of teacher's lives. Eventually I cured it by turning it on them, they soon stopped!

Love this reply.

Is this a recent thing? Is this an attempt at speaking like a ‘road man’?

You can have a regional accent and still speak English well.

Actually I disagree with this a little bit. It's a good social skill to be able to adapt how you speak (just slightly - not impersonating them!) to match who you're speaking to.

They talk like this because their friends do, and they want to fit in. Also bear in mind there may be some (good natured, but powerful) teasing if they're deemed too 'posh' around their friends. It's a learning curve for them to get the balance right.

I work with teens and I speak slightly differently to them than to their parents. It's completely natural and subtle, but it's relatable. How To Win Friends and Influence People talks about matching, and if you do it right, you can fit in with a diverse group of people.

My sister, although not brought up 'posh', alienated herself by exaggerating her SE accent to one much more cut-glass - when she moved to Birmingham She was young and naive, but it was a strange passive aggressive stance of trying to show the brummies 'how to speak properly'. It didn't make her any friends!

The majority of people I know who say "we was" are teachers .Grin So beneath you , right?

Really? I've been a teacher for nearly 30 years and have never heard a teacher say 'we was'.

It's the area. Regional dialect, so most of the staff that are born and bred here (including teachers and some SLT) talk that way.

Some of my childhood was spent in Essex. I had elocution lessons as my Mum could not bear the accent I was picking up at school. Her low point was when a group of boys were playing marbles in the street and one said excitedly: "I' i' i'!"
.. Essex girls will get this!! 😂

People round here say "we was" because it is local dialect (South Yorkshire) As long as the children know not to write that when sitting a GCSE English language exam.

I can't pronounce th. Regional.

Is it the "th" at the end of a word @LuciferRising? Can you say "this", That" and "then"?

Can you put your tongue between your teeth?

This is not a criticism. I was wondering if it was a physical thing.

If you taught around East London/Essex you would.

I work somewhere that has schools come to visit almost daily, and there are lots of teachers and TAs who speak like this.

It must be a luxury to have the time and energy to get het up about such ridiculousness. They communicate, you understand what they mean, why do you care?

Doesn't help that so many teachers in my children's school are the same!!

We've been through this phase. I would say to my kids "know your audience" - use like as every other word when you're speaking with your friends, but not with me please.

For me, it's not about accents but about grammar. Although I do have a bee in my bonnet about high rise terminals :/

Keep correcting their mispronounations and grammar. One day they will thank you

For me it's basic understanding, do you have three things or free things, are you talking about our roof or Ruth, what is wiv?

Of course you know whether they're talking about the roof, or Ruth.

However, if you actually know someone called Ruth, I would consider this rude. Pronouncing people's names correctly is polite. I wouldn't just shrug and say I couldn't pronounce a foreign name correctly, I would make a concerted effort to try. And I don't think it's acceptable to just mispronounce English names either. (Assuming the Ruth in question pronounces her name Ruth, rather the roof).

I know someone with a Ruth who calls her Roof.

Why would you want your children using their formal rather than informal language with you? I don't speak to anyone I live with in the way I speak at work.

Is it the "th" at the end of a word @LuciferRising? Can you say "this", That" and "then"?

The 'th' in those words is quite different to when it's in 'three' or 'Thor', which I think is the one people are likely to have difficulty pronouncing. That's probably the one at the end of words but you can hear and feel the difference more clearly if you compare words with th at the start

However, if you actually know someone called Ruth, I would consider this rude. Pronouncing people's names correctly is polite.

I don't know. One of my daughters' names ends in -ing. Where we live many people pronounce -ing the same way they pronounce -een. I don't love that pronunciation of the name but I don't correct it because they would pronounce been and being the same. Not mispronunciation, accent.

Likewise, if I met an English Clara, I'd call her Clara not clah-wah.

Likewise, if I met an English Clara, I'd call her Clara not clah-wah.

I would say Clah-ra.

But you would pronounce the R, even if she didn't?