People 'doing' your accent

[Topofthemornintoya]

If you live outside Ireland, do people do your accent after you speak?

I live abroad and work with expats from many English speaking countries. From time to time, I will be speaking and the other, non Irish, person will repeat what I said in my accent. Maybe I'll say 'do you know if there's paper in the photocopier?' And someone will imitate me and put on my accent saying 'paper in the photocopier!' like it's hilarious.

I never know how to respond because my first thought is 'oh, you've noticed I speak differently to you and you think its comical. Right' but I never really know how to articulate this. I always feel like our conversation is pretty much over when this happens. I can't explain why.

It never feels like a compliment and I normally respond with blank silence as I don't know how I'm supposed to say. The other person will then note the lead balloon and say 'ooh I just love your accent!'.

I spoke to another expat (but not Irish) friend about this. She hasn't done it to me but said that everyone has an accent and a bit of teasing about accents is ok and nobody means any harm.

I couldn't put my finger on why it annoyed me so much. It used to happen a lot when I lived in Emlngland and it always felt very 'othering' so maybe I am overreacting and it's my issue.

Does it happen to you and do you mind? Am I being very over sensitive? It always makes me feel self conscious. As I said, I've worked with a lot of people from other countries. Scottish, Welsh, English, Kiwis, Australians, Americans, Canadians, Indian people and people from African countries. I would never dream of parroting something back to them in their accent because I found it funny. It's rude, isn't it? What do you think?

Also Cate Blanchet in Veronica Guerin

It is very immature and ignorant. I hate it when people draw attention to my accent, as if I haven't noticed that I sound different from everyone else round here. I would echo a pp's response of "Yes, that was funny the first 15000 times I heard it" and then change the subject.

Isn't Daniel Day-Lewis Irish though or at least partly brought up in Ireland? Or have I made that up?😆 I'd have to go back to the 90s to recall the last time I saw him in a film to be honest and I haven't seen those other movies either, OP, so can't comment. I do rate Cate Blanchett as an actor, however.

Born and raised in London (just checked wiki!)
His dad was Irish but left Ireland when he was 2 though.

When i moved to london people outwardly mocked my accent so much i switched to speaking generic southern. I never mimic anyone's accents!

I'm from London and worked abroad with Americans before, they often either repeated something I said in their version of my accent, or they'd have big emotional reactions to a word or sound that they've never heard pronounced that way before (for example the reading the letter 'z' as 'zed').

I thought it was really annoying! Impossible to have a conversation with people like that. Then if I made a point about it then they would think it's funny that I'm annoyed, because they've 'never seen an English person be angry' 🙄 omg...

One line that worked for me after hearing them badly do my accent was '(pause)... I think you need to go home and practice that."

One line that worked for me after hearing them badly do my accent was '(pause)... I think you need to go home and practice that."

Thats brilliant, @MayMi 🤣🤣

Another line that worked well was "You sound different to me too, but I don't mock your accent."

Like I said, for some people it's definitely a misguided "joke".

But for others there is a really unpleasant aspect of asserting superiority/putting the "lesser" in their places which often goes beyond just mimicking accents. If I had a pound for every tedious convict "joke" I've had from an English person, I'd have paid off my mortgage.

It is the height of rudeness to mimic someone else’s accent and is usually done by someone to mock the ‘inferior’ accent. My sister and her daughters (SE English) mimic my family’s Edinburgh accent and we are coming close to having a fallout - every time I challenge it it’s met with peals of laughter. So ignorant.

Jassy I always do a very earnest, “Oh, no, unfortunately not [descended from convicts] but my uncle Fred can trace his family back to [boring convict descent story].” Not only are they sorry they asked but the attempted slight doesn’t land so they miss out on that little buzz of superiority. As you can imagine I’m a blast at parties 😂

I'm going to nick this I think!

The bit about my uncle Fred (name and precise relationship changed :P ) is completely true by the way! It’s quite the status symbol these days but sadly he’s not a blood relative of mine.

"Oh look at you with your funny little accent and potatoes!"

Yes!

Daniel Day Lewis spent at least part of his childhood in Ireland?

There’s no single Irish accent, Niall Tobin was brilliant at the different accents. I haven’t seen anyone else as good.

I think it's more of a distinct and strong accent thing, not specific to Irish? Though you probably do get your fair share of the same quotes i can.imagine. Whenever I hear a strong accent my instinct is to 'try it out' just because I love the sound of it but I don't as don't want anyone thinking I'm being derisory.

My grandparents were Irish, I am not but I have a very, very Irish name and was brought up in a typical Irish family environment. I obviously don’t sound Irish (I have a strong regional English accent) but People shout ‘potatoes’ at me all the time.

I met a guy from Antrim on holiday and we were talking about accents. I asked if there was a Northern Ireland version of the dread Dublin 4 accent and he gave a demonstration of a North Down rugger bugger accent. Hard enough to copy!

I know it!

I am from NI and it gives me the rage too! I usually do the stare, pause and then continue like nothing has been said. I find that generally gets the point across. If people have made unpleasant Irish «jokes» I do much the same - no response, change subject. A colleague of mine who used to try jokes on me came over after a while and apologized and said he had never really thought about how offensive they actually were until he had seen my response.

As far as I know, no-one has shouted «potato» at me! If they did I would probably assume they were doing their shopping list in a noisy fashion.

I think this is a place where people would do well to remember the history between Ireland and the UK. Irish people are very aware of the historical context and are used to being sneered at. Because how are you going to discriminate against people without demeaning them?

I used to get it from Irish cousins back when I lived in England and we came on family holidays. At this stage I've lived in Ireland for more than 75% of my life, and Irish people think I sound English and English people think I sound Irish, but it doesn't happen as often.

It's quite useful, because it is an utterly infallible sign that the person who does it is a shit who should never be trusted in anything that involves personal interactions of any kind.

Ironies abound @DeanElderberry . On a visit home from England I was having a few jars with some old mates. Someone handed me a pint and I said 'Ta' . Cue lots of mimicking. Fast forward 20 years and they're all saying 'Cheers ' when they leave you. And mammy is mum lol.

But I got dog's abuse in England so I had to modify my accent a bit. Now I sound Irish again to my London friends x family. They'd need an interpreter for some of my neighbours mind you.

When we first returned my sons would get some slagging to which they devised a great retort : -
Inis dom do scéal as Gaeilge. That would see off the little sods!