To be frustrated with my friend who’s become a “guru” after a trip to India?

[Silentfriend]

My friend recently went to India and has returned with a completely new attitude. She now acts like she’s a life guru, constantly telling people to quit their jobs, disregard their managers, and dismisses “first-world problems” with a “you just don’t understand” attitude. She even created a separate Instagram page to give out life advice, though it seems more like she’s having a mid-life crisis rather than offering genuine wisdom.

I’m getting really tired of her constant preachiness and the way she’s acting superior. AIBU to feel frustrated with her attitude and the way she’s using her trip as a platform to push her new “enlightened” persona?

She sounds like Edina on AbFab

These stories are very funny. They remind me of a British footballer a few years ago (sorry can't remember his name) who happened to get 'bought' (is that the term?) by a French team. He'd only been there a few weeks and when he was being interviewed on the BBC, he was talking in a French accent a la Eric Cantona. It was hilarious.

Oh I knew someone like this too as a student. He had dreadlocks and spoke as though he was both Jamaican and impoverished when in reality he was a spoilt middle class white boy whose Mum did his washing.

Joey Barton

Tip of the iceberg in the legion of wanky things he’s done. Bloke should be locked up for his own protection.

Maybe he discovered he is a trans viking 😮

Picking up accents can apparently be an ADHD thing. I lived in wales for a year and came back with a Welsh accent. I did lose it fairly quickly though once back in England. I blame ADHD 😁

Is that true? I have adhd and am terrible for picking up on the accents of those around me but it has never occurred to me to link the two!

Yes, it’s an extension of masking and copying others trying to fit in

www.goldstarrehab.com/parent-resources/what-is-an-autism-accent www.goldstarrehab.com/parent-resources/what-is-an-autism-accent]]]]

This makes a lot of sense and explains why, whenever I go on holiday, everyone thinks I am taking the piss (I'm really not, it's just that some accents are catching).

However, my exDPs nephew went to university in Liverpool and came back at the end of every term with a thicker and thicker accent. By the end of his three years he would be mistaken for an out and out Scouser. The accent has stuck with him, apparently, for nearly ten years now.

How interesting, I have never made the connection before. It's embarrassing because my DH has a non British accent and I find myself inadvertently switching when I speak to him or others from his country. I know it sounds ridiculous but it happens quite unconsciously and I have to try really hard not to do it. I am actually rather relieved to learn that it might just be another weird adhd thing!

glad to be of help. I can still veer into a Welsh accent if I go for a weekend, or even speak to a Welsh person! Have to force myself not to!

It's annoying OP. It's like people who stop straightening their hair, stop wearing make-up, stop drinking etc and start preaching for others to follow suit.

With all these sort of things, it's quite narcissistic to expect others to do the same at the same time.

Let people have their own journeys and get to that point on their own, like she did.

Just say you can't wait to go so you can have your own awakening.

Maybe it really changed her life?

Aaahahahah! You've just reminded me of a faux Greek woman I used to work for 😂 She spoke in an exaggerated Greek accent and talked to customers about how things are done in "my country" (Greece). Her husband was a displaced Greek Cypriot, whom she'd met in Brentford - her home town.
She didn't even speak Greek 😄

That's hilarious @Garlictest !

The ADHD theory is fascinating, DS1 has ADHD and autism and he is incredible for accents. I'm not from the UK and he can mimic me to perfection. He also does a bang on impersonation of David Attenborough. He loves French and his French teacher is always commenting on how spo on his accent is.

The way you are getting wound up about this, maybe she has a point

When I was in sixth form, I had a friend who went to holiday for 2 weeks in America and came back with an American accent and started saying 'sidewalk' and 'trashcan' and calling our crappy sixth form college 'high school'. She kept it up for YEARS. We always wondered if we should call her out on it but had a theory that it might be like waking up a sleepwalker and Very Bad Things would happen if we did! Also, it was funny.

This thread is hilarious, and utterly mad. What on earth are these people thinking? The guru thing I can sort of see happening, but actually pretending to be from another country is next level insane! (Not just unintentionally taking on an accent.)

How do these people go through life? How do they respond if someone innocently enquires "Oh, you grew up in France then?", or if they meet an actual French person, for example.

Have to say I travelled around India for months in my 20s, and always found the reverse of this situation ghoulishly amusing. That is, Western travellers with preconceived ideas of how spiritual it would be, who were jolted back to reality and loathed the place when they actually got there.

One of my exes came back from a week in America with a broad southern US accent a few years ago. People he bumped into afterwards used to ask me if we were still in touch and if I knew how long he'd lived there for. Still see him occasionally, striding around Asda in his cowboy boots and stetson.

And was it a nice package holiday?

My French teacher was always very complimentary about my French accent too! Apparently I was the only person in a class of 30 who could pronounce fauteuil properly. ADHD for the win!

Yes, it was a package holiday! I think that makes it even more amusing. It’s interesting how a short trip can lead to such a feigned dramatic transformation. It’s hard to take her “advice” seriously when it feels like a vacation mentality rather than genuine insight.

It is amusing and I am loving some of the stories here!

But it sounds to me like that saying (from AA actually) she has a 'hole in her soul'. So there was something missing in her and she was not fulfilled by her daily reality. This is a way to plug the hole and find meaning for her. I guess it is no different from trying to find meaning in the church, or good deeds or being intense about a hobby.

But telling people they need to quit their jobs to become enlightened is a bit bonkers.

He is now no longer obsessed with baths and takes showers instead

This is hilarious!! Let me guess, two weeks all inclusive in Goa??
FFS, I spent months travelling around countries like this and I had a wonderful time etc but certainly didn’t feel ‘enlightened’ when I got back!