To find this incredibly irritating and rude?

[Whatonearth17]

Name change for this and I’m sure I’ll get flamed…but here we go…

I’m a Welsh speaker living in Wales and have an accent when I speak English. It’s a lovely thing and I love other people’s accents. I’ve just returned from shopping where an older English speaking ‘gentleman’ asked me to get something he couldn’t reach for him. I did him the favour and was polite to him at which point he repeated what I said in an over the top mocking Welsh accent. It is the THIRD time this week that a variation of this scenario has happened. Once at work (which I pushed back on) once when I was in the park with the kids and decided I couldn’t be arsed to say anything and today. Why do people think this is ok? The guy today in particular was patronising and belittling and quite frankly just rude. Would we do this to someone with a German/ Chinese accent? Or any other accent? Heritage? To their FACE? When it has happened at work and I can definitely identify their linguistic background, it tends to be people with one language? Multilingual people tend to do it far far less. I just find it so rude and ignorant.
YABU - it’s just banter
YANBU- let’s stop copying people’s accents shall we?

@ScanningQRCode i think it’s irritating as it takes you out of your day or the conversation? You’re interacting with someone or just getting on with things and then it’s bam- we’re doing this again are we? It’s like a little life glitch!

I don't live where I was born and get this all the time plus a shed load of jokes. I also have an ethnic UK name which happens to be from another country and people make jokes about me being from this other country and "do the accent". Even if I go back to where I was born the name gets the widdle taken out of it and because my accent has changed they make fun of that too.

I remember saying loudly in full local dialect that I was born just 3 roads away when the shop keeper decided to call me out on my "fake" accent. Someone else in the shop remembered my family and where we'd moved. People ask me why don't I go home, I tell them it's just up the road aways.

It gets very tiring especially after several decades.

My mother moved to London from Glasgow in the mid 1960s and was so irritated by people saying "Och aye the noo" every time she opened her mouth that she deliberately obliterated every vestige of it. Except she always pronounced "iron" with an [r] in the middle.😀

Ugh there's always one, isn't there (or three!)

It's such a shame when this is done maliciously because trying out accents (in certain contexts) is incredibly fun and weirdly satisfying when you wrap your mouth around the new sounds correctly.

I think most people have experience of both types and know the difference between pleasant, light-hearted imitation that is trying or new sounds and invites the same back vs nasty, mocking mimicry. I've had both (though not as much as some, I'm sure) and I speak with what I consider to be a very boring modern RP!

YANBU. He was rude. I have heard people doing others' accents and I cringe, because they're usually rubbish at it and nowhere near as funny as they think.

So these are English people living in Wales and mocking the Welsh accent? I find it incredible that a foreign minority would feel comfortable taking the piss out of the indigenous accent. Especially work colleagues. I mean, it wouldn't even enter my head but even if it did I'd feel pretty bloody nervous about doing it.

There are lots of different accents in Wales, all Welsh accents but different depending on which part you are from.

This

I am from the valleys in South Wales, it’s annoying when someone is clearly taking the piss but I think it’s fine if it’s not in a mocking way.

I'd have gone with the Mumsnet classic 'did you mean to be so rude'. What an absolutely horrible and ungrateful man.

@SpanThatWorld that’s actually really sad…

My mum is foreign with a strong accent, and it’s not just a recent thing. I remember her being very upset and telling me a bus driver was so rude to her and mocking her. This was years ago, I’m nearly 50, and I was in my early 20’s at the time

That's exactly it.

My very thought!

I would definitely have put the item back and told him off for it. I think it’s really ignorant when people do that. I would look them straight in the eyes and ask them if they meant to be so rude.

"Don't be so fxxking rude" in a loud voice is very very effective.

I’ve had British people hear my accent and say - why would you leave that great place to come to this godawful town?!?!??

I tend to like most accents, including Welsh - I am sure yours is lovely.

I have a West Midlands accent, and sympathise - throughout my life it has been mocked and impersonated to my face on regular occasions - my second husband (a southerner) used to be quite nasty about it. When I taught in a school down South the students often mocked the way I said things too - sometimes affectionately, sometimes less so.

I am not convinced everybody who does this means it to be offensive/unkind. Nontheless, it's one of those jokes you should only really make if you are certain you know the person well and feel 100% confident you won't offend them.

I have moved back to the West Miss, where most people have a stronger accent than me, so it rarely happens now thank God!

Just be proud of your accent and your heritage and your beautiful country, OP. When it comes down to it I think often these things are motivated by jealousy - that on some level people without much of a regional accent themselves on some level envy us the sense of belonging and solidarity it can bring.

Because wherever I am in the world, if I hear someone with an accent similar to my own, I owYs get that feeling that I am amongst friends......

It’s not racist but very irritating. I still remember a posh boy imitating my cockney accent to his girlfriend..snobby git. If I was you I’d practice a mocking eye roll as a response.

It's so rude. I'm from Liverpool. My accent gets repeated back to me any time I go out of Liverpool, when I'm on holiday. It's tedious.

As an English person who has lived in Wales and then England again I cant even begin to tell you the tales of the absolute hatred I experienced from the Welsh towards hating anyone ENGLISH, you're complaining about someone mocking your accent. I have a 100 stories of pure vileness experienced from the Welsh.... but I guess that's ok-it's actually never spoken about either.

No one should be commenting on other people's accents. It is completely rude and it shows they're not listening to what you're saying, only HOW you're saying it.

I am living overseas at the moment and I get "oh I just LOVE your accent" and my response? " Thanks, I love yours" which is often met with a puzzled look.

The rude ungrateful old git! Why on earth would he think it's acceptable to speak to somebody like that, especially somebody who's helping you?

I agree with pps, you should have taken the item out of his trolley and put it back on the shelf (or a higher shelf!)

I feel you. I just can't help myself but I totally immerse myself in the country/language/culture I'm in. I switch from American to British English depending on who I talk to (I'm neither British nor American so English isn't my mother tongue which might have something to do with it) and I even start waving hands when (making an attempt at) speaking Italian. My DH pointed it out and it was so embarrassing because I realised how ridiculous it must look 😳. But I'm honestly not aware at the moment.

It does seem rude to mock someone's accent. I know me and my good friends who have different accents sometimes jokingly speak in Scottish/cockney etc accents when talking to eachother. But only because we're very close.