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?

Op, people didn't generally mock my accent in England but that's probably because a mild Northern Irish accent is not very easy to grasp.

As evidenced by Judi French in "Belfast", the actor playing the leader in the SAS history drama series, and even Sam Neill who's Dad is Northern Irish.

I did however get called a "colonial" on e on the basis of my accent, in Tesco.

😄 you think they'd appreciate my boring London accent? (Asking for a friend)

When I hear the variation of Irish accents (Liam Neeson's included) my mind turns to mush 🤭

Also love other regional accents tbh

Not always fun for the recipient.

I'm West Country, work in Wales.
Workmates occasionally make 'oo-arr' and comments, and mimic the way I say certain words.
I give back as good as I get.

My Welsh boss has an English/borders accent; he impersonates his Mum, who has a strong West-Wales accent: Duw, Duw, <name>bach, etc.

Thinking back, I used to mimic my Dad's fairly strong accent.

It's meant as a mild piss-take in our case. Was certainly meant affectionately when Dad and I talked.

It sounds to me like your old bloke was trying to be amusing and completely misjudged it.

Happened to me constantly when I lived in England. Very irritating.

A guy from here I knew LOVED English accents on women.

(He was quite good looking but was an utter twat, I have to say).

I think most people like a different accent from their own.

Maybe we're all wired to introduce variation to the gene pool 😀.

Buaswn i wedi dweud wrtho fy mod yn falch o'm acen ac ei fod yn estrongasaol a digywilydd.

When I hear the variation of Irish accents (Liam Neeson's included) my mind turns to mush 🤭

His accent isn't too bad, but as he got older and very established he seemed to refuse to do other accents for roles and just did his own....which we found weird and distracting.

For example, he was Zeus I think, in the Titans films and insisted on doing it in his own accent, which had us falling about laughing and cringing, instead of actually appreciating the film.

Anyway, I think you'd be popular.

English accents usually sound lovely to us.

There’s little doubt he was mocking you, and I’m sorry, @Whatonearth17. What a jerk. And I’m guessing he thought himself very clever.
I live in California amongst many Mexican people who speak Spanish - yet I struggle to speak the language. I only know a few short phrases and words and make it clear to the person I’m speaking to that that’s all I know - I would no more mock someone than I would bully them because mocking them IS bullying them.

My accent is strongly Lancashire, I've had nobbish northern monkey comments. But more often it's people trying to be funny, making "Ilkey moor b'awt hat" type comments - they can't even get the bloody county right 🙄
I kind of think mocking Welsh/Scottish/Irish accents is even more offensive.

I grew up in east London and live in Essex, I've had to soften/lose my accent over the years, otherwise people treat me as though I'm thick. I'm not. It's ridiculous and YANBU

Also love other regional accents tbh

Prepare for a YouTube binge.

https://youtube.com/shorts/wUZjQ8K9HfA?si=yqXnsZJCHg5oJrC-

Kids at DD’s WM school have teased her for not having a strong enough Welsh accent. 🤷🏻‍♀️

People are just twats.

I see this as a form of ‘othering’ where the person considers themselves the norm and anything different is a remarkable point of discussion - which is especially weird given you’re actually in Wales where it’s presumably quite normal to be Welsh!? If he had a posh BBC English accent and was older then he’s probably lived a whole life as the default privileged class, where it’s seen as standard to objectify women and anyone who doesn’t conform to his type. Hopefully his type is dying out.

The only time I’ve experienced this was in America where they love UK accents and copy it unprompted all the time. I guess in this instance it’s supposed to be flattering though it gets old quickly. People all over the world love the Welsh, Scottish, Northern UK accents so some of it will be in good faith because they just like trying it out. Still annoying though and I wouldn’t do that to someone with a different accent to me.

I’ve just realised I’m guilty of doing this to my in laws and I hadn’t realised and now am mortified I’ve been so rude. So, genuinely sorry this happened to you, but thank you for making me realise the error of my ways.

Similar to me, i definitely speak with a more central London accent

Flashback to a cashier at a supermarket making me say “water” over and over again in Nevada. 🙄

I'm already hooked 🤭

The first guy didn't say 'murder' which is everyones favourite i think

My slight scouse accent gets mimicked. It doesn’t bother me. Nor do the inevitable jokes about stealing hubcaps. There’s a Scottish chap who goes to my local pub and he’s constantly the subject of ribbing over his accent, by people in his friendship circle.

😄😄 that's so funny actually, I haven't seen his films anyway, other than love actually 🙈 but can imagine

I think denzel Washington did the same for his recent gladiators role, apparently 😭

This is fair

For me, I would never mock but would appreciate, but others aren't the same

I haven't seen it but I'm already cringing at the thought.

The worst was Colin Farrell and co playing ancient Greeks and Macedonians while sounding like a North Dublin street gang.

an bottle

YANBU. It’s very rude. I would have just put the item back and walked off. The man was being an asshole.

He has a lot of videos, it could be in there somewhere.

I may have to watch them all just to check. 😀