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?

I do think the Irish accent is particulalry strong and unusual, and people do think it is funny, interesting and entertaining. It a very unusual accent.

Saying that, I don't like it either. I grew up in Ireland and have a Midlands Irish accent .

One time I was working abroad and I said something to a room full of people , and they all stopped and turned to me. One man said "wow her accent is like something out of a film". Not in a very nice way. More in a "he didn't believe accents like that actually existed in real life". It definitely embarrassed me

It's interesting that you mention the Jamaican accent apparently 1/4 of Jamaicans claim Irish heritage.

I wouldn't however say it is an easy to mimic, it's all diddly ey diddly ey and no one in Ireland speaks like that

Oh I didn't say it was easy to do a good Irish accent!

I said stereotypical, but I suppose I meant recognisable. I think most people can do a facsimile of an Irish accent, even if it sounds dreadful, it's still recognisable as an Irish accent (David Boreanez in Buffy, I'm looking at you!)

It also helps if there's a nice easy stereotypical phrase to copy, so "Why Aye, mum" for Geordie, "Beeerminghum" for Brummie, and of course "Top of the mornin' to ya"

I’m Welsh living in England. People slip into a bit of an accent after a few sentences from me! I don’t think most do it deliberately but some definitely do!

Another Geordie here living in SE England. My accent gets mimicked from time to time to my face. Sometimes I don't mind but usually I don't like it as people are being condescending.

When I first came to London as a child, Jamaicans and other Caribbeans were the only ppl I could understand - apart from my mother and uncle.

It’s very ignorant and rude. I have someone I work with who has mimicked my accent from time to time for 20 years. I don’t say anything to them. It just makes them look a tit to be honest.

Joe.ie etc have done Top10 Worst Irish Accents. I don't know if anyone has done a Top 10 best though.

My no 1 would be Daisy Edgar Jones . Fair play

It is the height of rudeness and ignorance to mimic anyone’s accent. You could try the Mumsnet classic “Did you mean to be so rude?”. I’m Irish living in England and it happens less now than it used to.

It’s rude. I’m from Yorkshire, and people from southern England saying “eee bah gum” are definitely attempting to mock my accent (I actually have a fairly soft accent from living in the south for many years, most people don’t even realise I’m from the north, and then when I tell them I’m from Doncaster they launch into “down Tee pit”). It is usually patients doing it (I’m a consultant), and I shudder to think what they are saying to my Indian colleagues.

I also had this living in North America - people would hear I was English, and do some bizarro half-Queen, half-Daphne from Frasier monstrosity, which again is nothing like my actual accent. Like me putting on a Goodfellas accent to mimic somebody from California.

I have to say, I don’t bother pretending it’s funny any more. I just stare at the person until they’ve finished, and then go back to what I was saying.

@Saschka I feel your pain being Cumbrian, but lived much further south since 1988. So a very mild northern/Cumbrian accent. I think I might just do the hard stare you suggest! It's so wearing....and everyone who does it thinks they're a comedian and and sooo original.

If anybody on thread does this, I can assure it's neither funny nor original. Many people came before you, and yes, it makes you look like a slightly thick drunken uncle/auntie/nonbinaryequivalent at a wedding, who everyone tries to avoid.

It also says very clearly 'what you are saying is of no interest of importance'.

It's dehumanising.

True dat @DeanElderberry . The point of a racist joke is not to degrade someone ; it is to remind him that he has already been degraded - Jung I think.

Well @SpongeBobJudgeyPants when I'd been living in London for years my Irish accent was often mistaken for West of England. One day I was having a pint and the barman said ' Yan ' to my bewilderedment. After repeating it he said ' sorry I thought you were Cumbrian.'

You're supposed to reply Tan iirc? The old Cumbrian counting system which is basically Old Welsh. But I've been home for years now and sound like a pure Culchie!

All the time when I lived in London.
Never happened in Paris, though…

I read the thread title and came on the thread to say that people do this to me all the time but I'm from Ireland so it is inoffensive but I see you are also. I don't think anybody means any harm from it like they don't mean any harm when they do a Glaswegian or Liverpudlian accent. It's just them seeing if they can do because it is a bit different. I never get vibes of racism or nastiness from it. I like Ireland and being Irish so it doesn't bother me that people acknowledge I am.

I've had people repeat things after I've said it in an exaggerated accent and it's not pleasant, feels like they are taking the P.

Yes, it's rude. Maybe it's making a joke out of Irish people, or maybe it's just dumb fun that people have not really thought about. Either way - it's not on. You could report it to HR, that might prevent it a bit.

I'm a Brit living in Ireland and people often mimic my accent (bath/grass) etc putting on a pretend posh voice (I'm not posh). I consider pretty harmless tbh

Who the eff thinks a genocide is something to joke about?!

We Irish are pretty hopeless at accents tbh. As a child I thought Belfast ppl were Scottish.
Anyway here's one from Dublin.
How can you tell a Northside girl is having an orgasm : she drops her chips.
How can you tell a girl from the Southside is having an orgasm : she drops her Hs .

I'll just get me coat then....

I love accents, and identifying what it is that distinguishes one accent from another - and also the real puzzle: why??

The generic 'Irish accent' shows left-over traces of the Irish language which we all used to speak - e.g. saying 'fill-um' for 'film', or 'fow-ind' for 'found' is because spoken Irish doesn't like two consonants one after the other like that, and puts in a vowel in between, it's called 'the helping vowel'
But why there's a difference between accents just a few kilometres apart - I wish I knew!

Although I love accents, I'd never 'do' someone's accent, it just seems rude. Accentuating that 'you're not one of us' or something like that, I can't put it in words but it doesn't feel right.
Mind you, I'll mentally dissect the phonetics later to understand what sounds actually constitutes their accent, but not while I'm talking to them!

ps Abhannmor - Northsoide chips must be, loike, ledge

Yes it's happened to me, but not often. It's usually by ignorant people who are rubbish at doing accents anyway! You should do theirs in retaliation- badly on purpose!
Another annoying thing is when people like my cousin and her husband have to do the accent when they're talking about someone who has a distinctive accent. They are terrible at doing accents but obviously think they're brilliant. It's so cringeworthy. The worst time was when I was on holiday in Scotland with her and she answered her phone and had a long conversation in a very strong, fake Scottish accent. I was so embarrassed I walked away till she'd finished.

I think it happens everywhere and it's horrible. But the historical context is important. It is of course much more offensive to an Irish person if an English person does it rather than an Australian for example.

I work in Ireland with children and my colleague used to talk about an Indian child in a faux Indian accent. She then started to talk directly to the child in this accent all the time, someone reported her and she got in trouble with management. And rightly so. I admit I find the accent funny especially from a young child but it is so disrespectful and made me very uncomfortable. She is an immigrant herself and has an accent but I would never dream of teasing her nor have i ever heard anyone else do it. I can imagine she would take it badly as some sort of racist slur but she didnt get the irony.

Yes the minimum vowel sound usually between R or L and another consonant. My English friend is learning Irish and struggles with words like ' gorm/ blue' . Which I say as 'gurrim'. But these sounds don't happen in English?

I have a very strong east end accent and have had people say “cor blimey guvnor” to me in pubs.

my son in particular is my biggest critic and often asks me if I think I am Danny dyer or something.