To have sat open mouthed at this comment?

[isit]

Met a woman on a course this week. She was complaining that she has to work full-time, because she has to send her DS to private school, because all the state schools in her area are rubbish because of the immigrants. This was an (otherwise perfectly pleasant) Asian woman, with good, but heavily accented English.

not necessarily!my friends Indian mum born here has very pronounced Indian accent

Fair enough Scottishmummy, and that's good to know. It's always driven me mad in our CDs of Miranda Richardson reading Horrid Henry, that she always gives Gorgeous Gurinder a really strong Indian accent.

The Asian kids at DS's school speak with local accents. When they're speaking English, that is. I'm sure they use their parents' accents when speaking in their home language. Wouldn't that be weird, speaking Urdu or whatever with an Welsh accent?

I had a dutch SIL with a broad Teesside accent, nobody believed that she was dutch, moved over here when she was about 20!

my friends mum UK born children uk scottish urdu speaking.scottish accents and all.smashing

we are all jock tamson bairns

Really Scottish mummy? I know squillions of people of Indian origin and not one who was born in the UK who has an Indian accent. Of those friends who were born elsewhere - Kenya or India, only a few have accents.

I'm just curious really as I find it pretty hard ot believe an adult born here would have an Indian accent.

It's not just white people who are capable of racism, you must know that.
A comment like this wouldn't surprise me at all.
There is a lot of tension between various ethnic minorities.
Some of us buy into it, some don't.
It wouldn't leave me open mouthed with shock- the only difference is that people who feel this way who are non white feel less inhibited talking about it.

I was thinking that too chip munk.
I also know squilions of people with Indian origin who were born in UK, yet not one has an Indian accent.

In Birmingham ethnic minorities tend to stick to the same areas so you don't get many Asians with Brummie accents (although there is a distinct Asian-Brummie accent) and you do get a lot of British born Asians with an Asian accent.

I was brought up in one such area and was sent to the next nearest school the nearest school has a bad reputation with white children and ethnic minority children who speak English. The children who go there not speaking English tend to do really well as they're the ones the teachers concentrate on. I know plenty of people whether white, black or Asian who wouldn't send their children there because of that.

Also, racism doesn't surprise me in anyone, at secondary school (a girl's school) I noticed some of the worst racism was from black and Asian girls towards each other and the white girls. I was shocked that my Asian friends were quite proud of their racism towards other Asians.

A bit off topic, but I love the comment made by saadia's acquaintance that you get "all sorts" in state schools.

I always assumed that that was rather the point of state schools ...

I work with a lot of British born asian teenagers in Luton and they have their own way of speaking. It's ceratinly not the local accent and it's not a full on asian accent either.
But as to the OP, I'm not remotely suprised. The racisim within our local asian community is shocking.