Well spoken areas - Accents

[arizonagirl]

Hi there,

We currently live in Surrey and I have to admit - the accent is really nice and the children speak so nicely. Always gets comments.

Ok, so we are looking at preps in another home county (probably Hertfordshire/Bucks/Berks). I am going to probably get really slated for this thread but hey...I am intrigued and really do wish to know people's thoughts. Which areas within an hour of London could we go to where people are very well spoken eg. 'yes' instead of 'yeah' etc. Not too impressed with Kent, Essex, Epsom tbh. Looking at Bishops Stortford - any thoughts.

Thanks!

I went to school in Sayth Ken and then Saaarf Lunnun
I can switch between them at will.

Elizabethan England or the new British settlements in America at the same time are your best bet for hearing 'proper English'. Failing that, some areas of ? brace yourself ? the north of England are good for hearing pure English vowels rather than mangled southern diphthongs.

But if I were you I might be tempted to put my efforts into finding an area that you all like and a school that instills values of belief in yourself and respect for others, rather than one where they speak like Brief Encounter.

expatinscotland, I just have to stand up for England a bit ? well, at least counter your statements about accent prejudice in England ? by saying that there is an element of that in Scotland too, just as I assume there is in most places. There's the posh Edinburgh accent for starters, and even posh Glasgow (Helensburgh etc). I lived in Glasgow for years and loved it deeply (still do), but I found that there was a bit of a kneejerk anti-English attitude that was saddening, sometimes infuriating, and even a rittle bit lacist.

How weird - I want to move back to Glasgow so that my kids don't have Surrey accents

Whatever floats yer boat

freerange.

You'll have to stay in Suurey--and I mean South West Surrey (possible exception is East Hants border areas) to find beautiful plummy RP English accents. Berkshire around Sunningdale and Ascot is about as far north as you could go for proper speech. Bucks is so filled with new money these days that it reeks of Essex lottery winners. A small pocket of West Kent around Sevenoaks is the last bastion of proper Englsih there before Mockney and then real Cockney takes over by the Medway.

Anywhere is fine for proper English in SW Surrey (Waverley). Haslemere is superb, as is Godalming, Farnham, Guildford, etc. It starts getting celebrity, new money again once you get to Esher/Weybridge/Virginia Water. Lot's of City boys and Russians. Dorking is alright for proper English, but it's disappearing fast.

PST 7777 I find your comments interesting - I think that Berkshire around Sunningdale has a lot of transient people (US and other expats?) Your comments regarding Bucks are very broadbrush and I think inaccurate it is a large place!

Royal Berkshire? Really? Regarding Bucks, I don't know, but most of that whole Gerrards' Cross /Amersham/Beaconsfield/ Chalfont St. Giles, scene always struck me as gaudy and over the top. Too many McMansions and City people involved in trade for my taste. Mind you a good part of Surrey is like that too, but it's mainly confined to inside the M25 ring road. Further afield it isn't at all tacky and materialistic like what you'd find in footballers' wives country in Oxshott, Esher and Weybridge. Just my opinion.

"involved in trade"????

I don't really know what to say to that.

PST's comments are well funny. Trade ? ha ha ha. I was driven through weybridge and cobham, with their 'mcmansions' and 'footballers wives', today. And I will be again tomorrow, on my way to work. And I will have a giggle to myself over this.
And before you start 'laffing', I am not being driven due to a chauffeur, bling thing. Its because I have lost my driving licence due to new diabetes guidelines, and now can't drive. Which is a f**ker in Surrey.
Which is why I am sat in bed sobbing at 2am.

but also rather saddened at PST's comments.

Unless they're a clever and elaborate piss-take, in which case: beautifully done.

Clarice, I think PST's comments are a bit too close to the truth to be funny. Actually I think they are quite spot on. And that is REALLY sad.
I was in Ascot the other day. At the Ascot Car Boot, I hassen to add. Scrubbers that we are.
Did you see the scenes from Royal Ascot this year? Fights and champagne bottles, Cheap nasty WAG look-a-likes with loads of tatoos. Is that what Royal Ascot has come to ? It seems so. It used to be very posh and the epitomy of a upper class day out. I was thinking of going. Have lived in Surrey for years and never been. Thinking dress, hat, few girl friends. But many of my friends now said they didn't want to go. Its lost its prestige.
Isn't that sad. And don't you think its typical ?

Oblomov, I don't know enough about Surrey/the Home Counties to know if the comments are accurate. I just find the snobbery of PST's comments rather depressing.

I live in the part of West Kent that PST777 actually approves of. I am happy to say we lower the tone because my husband is in trade.

I am starting to wonder if I have single hanedly caused a slump in property values in Sevenoaks.

oops handedly not hanedly

Probably!
Well, double-handedly ? you and your husband and his trade.

What do you TRADE in though ?
Coke ?
Russian Minks ?
Or bathromm tiles ?

Some lower the tone, more than others. If its some cheap nasty beige tile, man, you're out-of-'ere.

I am off to the shops to buy food. I feel rather grubby though as I am encouraging trade.

sticks nose in air at sue

I thought Hampshire would be all poshie-do-daa etc.

but my DC now say "Hoy" for "high" and "Noyne" for "Nine" etc. (Foyne for fine, you get the picture)

they sound endearingly countryside. Love it. Recommend it.

at thread.

My father (Londoner, posh accent) lives near Dorking. Whole mix of accents in his village.

OP, kids will adapt with peers to whatever accent is around - then drop it at home, IME. I used to speak French with a perfect Montreal accent (to my mother's horror) but it lasted only as long as our stay in Canada. I did the same with Australian accents, American accents, and London accents - but always reverted to boring Oxford (not Oxfordshire, which is much more interesting: floys rather than flies).

My own children, at school in SW London, drop their Ts when it suits them then pick them back up again at will.

Very odd thing to focus on, IMO, but it takes all sorts

i would pick somewhere you felt happy and contented to leave your children rather than worry about accents.

Surrey, DULL DULL DULL

Croydon and Sutton are in Surrey - there are alot of saaaf Lund'n accents there.