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?

Meh, I’m Irish and people comment on my accent all the time, I don’t get worked up over it.

I have a midlands accent- it’s not even that strong but plenty of people mimic it in a really gormless way. You’re right, it’s bloody rude. I don’t know what response they think they’re going to get from me.

I’ve had the exact same thing op. One from an ex who not only used to mock my accent (I live in England now but it came out stronger after speaking to family for example), but in the complete wrong dialect. Imagine I’m from Bangor (for example) and he used to do this awful mock Cardiff song-song type accent. It’s like mocking a Manchester accent by doing a Somerset impression 🙄. I don’t think people realise how ridiculous they sound when they’re taking the mick.

yeah, this is horrible. I've had people mock my accent before and I absolutely hate it - it makes me feel really embarrassed and like they're laughing at me. I have a couple of friends who make fun of my accent because they've cleared it with me, and I make fun of them back - it's totally different if it's a stranger.

It's especially rude considering the 'accent hierarchy' going on in Britain - the idea that a southern accent is the 'best' one to have. Obviously complete bollocks, but some people are going to be horrible about it.

I'm almost certain it's a class thing, I'm Scottish and it happens to me too. Almost always from someone English. They seem to think they're superior with how they talk and that an accent is something to be looked down on and laughed at.
Even in Edinburgh I've noticed middle class kids will poke fun at the 'local' accents.

Were you not tempted to take the items off him and put it back on the shelf. And say a cheery "there you go guvnor!"

Yeah 😄, I think the same, he was loving the accent and forgot himself for a sec, it happens 🤭

Try being Scottish….

endless sweaty jock, auch aye the noo and bag pipe related “jokes”

people trying to mimic your accent and requests for a translator every time you speak. It’s grim.

I would have put the item back on the shelf 🤣
I had this conversation with my husband. It's bizarre that people only see this being offensive if it's a couple of languages/accents. Eg, if you did it to an Indian or African accent - racist. Do it it to a Welsh or Italian accent and it's funny?
I'm southern England and had people taken the Micky out of my accent and it doesn't bother me but I do find it weird there seems to be double standard

I’d be minded to ask him if he knew the Welsh for twat.

Fwiw - I’m autistic and mimicking others’ accents / speech patterns is something I do sometimes in ordinary speech (not deliberately). But I am sensitive to people with accents that are prone to being mocked or irritated and clamp my mouth shut if need be.

Totally ignorant 🙄

I live in the E. Midlands and have an RP accent which is consistently mocked. Annoys me but now I ignore it. Dweebs.

What a cunt. If the item was in a trolley or basket, it would have been fitting to replace it out of his reach.

He’s just a bully who never grew up. I can’t imagine mocking someone’s accent, it’s utterly disgraceful.

I suppose people think this is ok if they are bullies.

I'd have put the item back and walked away

Yeah this

I have a Northern accent.A friends DH has a strong Scottish accent yet invariably every time we meet up socially he seems to think its hilarious to take the mickey out of something I've said.It really annoys me.I try not to react but last time I did ask why he felt it necessary to keep repeating my way of saying a word and that I found the way he spoke just as unusual. I know my friend is realising the joke is wearing thin and she has told him to give up.

But I would’ve thought in the same town this would be the case !!

No, that's not how it works. We Welsh speakers often have an accent that is perceived as 'more' Welsh than the average for the area.
Some Welsh people also cannot even hear their own accent and think they are accent-less. Quite funny from anyone else's point of view...

No. Welsh speakers from ANY area of Wales can have an accent that identifies us as Welsh speakers.

I love the Welsh accent. I'd have probably told you how lovely your voice was. He's a nob.

Humans are good at noticing differences in other people, and some people have more need than others to signal that they have noticed a difference. Perhaps this is just one of those things that people are socialised into by their environment and which school and/or their parents never bothered to tell them was rude. We all learn at a fairly early age that it's rude to point out to someone that they are overweight, or have a different skin colour to us, but this sort of thing is "just banter", and for a certain percentage of people (mostly men), it's all banter, all the time, because actually talking about real things would be unbearable.

If it's any consolation, I have the most RP accent in the world, and when I was growing up I was mocked for it by other kids in my town, but I guess they thought they were punching up against the middle class.

An thanks for clarifying 🙌

I don't think it's a class thing in Wales. It's a tyranny of the majority type thing - anyone different can be made fun of.
Sometimes there is also some anti-Welshness to it, even from other Welsh people who are sometimes embarrassed by aspects of their own identity.

I hate it when people mock your accent in another language. A colleague did that to me when I was speaking French and spoke French back to me with a Scottish accent, I called him out on it and started speaking English with a French accent. But the patronising „you sound so cute“ along with it rubbed me up the wrong way.
But the Germans are wonderful, no one has ever mocked my accent and tried to impersonate it - they tend to ask me where I am originally from and tell me my German is good - I have meet some interesting people because of my Scottish accent and it’s a good icebreaker.

To be honest, I don't think it's clever to comment on a Welsh person's accent IN Wales, even if you're being positive. Why should it be marked as something strange?

I have no problem with people outside of Wales asking where I come fro,.