Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Mumsnet classics

Relive the funniest, most unforgettable threads. For a daily dose of Mumsnet’s best bits, sign up for Mumsnet's daily newsletter.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

What's the most wanky thing you have ever done?!

380 replies

lardylegs123 · 27/06/2021 09:23

I cringe when I think of this. First year of university, and I was studying Languages. I'm from a working class, Scottish family and was the first ever to go to university. Mother's Day comes and I thought it would be a nice idea to write out the card entirely in the languages I've been studying Blush I thought mum would be so impressed, but she just looked at me and said 'but Lardylegs, I cannae understand a word'.
I think I was too busy being a pretentious dick, that I'd forgotten about this mere detail Grin

OP posts:
MissMissTorrance · 27/06/2021 09:33

Whilst at University I decided I needed to stop talking with my regional accent.
Instead I put on this weird posh voice.
When I went home to visit my parents I kept up this facade. Pretty sure they thought I'd lost the plot.
Not sure how long I kept this up but I didn't make any friends at Uni so nobody commented when I started talking normally again.
In hindsight I think my peculiar fake voice was the reason I had no pals.Grin

Justletmebuyahouse · 27/06/2021 09:34

Hahahaha I love both of those

DrSbaitso · 27/06/2021 09:34

Oh, too many to list. I can't think of any right now but that's only because there are too many to remember.

ssd · 27/06/2021 09:34

Joined mn

Agadorsparticus · 27/06/2021 09:39

@MissMissTorrance

Whilst at University I decided I needed to stop talking with my regional accent. Instead I put on this weird posh voice. When I went home to visit my parents I kept up this facade. Pretty sure they thought I'd lost the plot. Not sure how long I kept this up but I didn't make any friends at Uni so nobody commented when I started talking normally again. In hindsight I think my peculiar fake voice was the reason I had no pals.Grin
I know someone who did this. Her accent is ridiculous, she's from Wigan but has moved away and come up with most ridiculous fake posh voice.
troobleflooble · 27/06/2021 09:42

I had an interview for a university course and I have no idea where it came from but the phrase 'affect change' came out of my mouth. God I sounded like an absolute wanker.

I got the place but I still cringe when I think about it 😂

JollyRanchess · 27/06/2021 09:42

@MissMissTorrance

Whilst at University I decided I needed to stop talking with my regional accent. Instead I put on this weird posh voice. When I went home to visit my parents I kept up this facade. Pretty sure they thought I'd lost the plot. Not sure how long I kept this up but I didn't make any friends at Uni so nobody commented when I started talking normally again. In hindsight I think my peculiar fake voice was the reason I had no pals.Grin
One of my school pals did this. Had a very normal Scottish regional accent. We went to the same uni and by the end of freshers he was speaking like he had been born and bred in the deepest Home Counties with a butler and a nanny. He had always been a bit of a twat Grin
IToldYouIWasCummins · 27/06/2021 09:44

Every day is a series of wanky events 🤭

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 27/06/2021 09:47

I was once asked what my then five year old had done at school that day. The honest answer was her lessons had been Greek, Swimming and Tennis.

ChocolateCakeYum · 27/06/2021 09:47

@MissMissTorrance

Whilst at University I decided I needed to stop talking with my regional accent. Instead I put on this weird posh voice. When I went home to visit my parents I kept up this facade. Pretty sure they thought I'd lost the plot. Not sure how long I kept this up but I didn't make any friends at Uni so nobody commented when I started talking normally again. In hindsight I think my peculiar fake voice was the reason I had no pals.Grin
Nearly everyone in the third year of my uni did this. It was utterly ridiculous! Like what are you all doing, you sound absurd. It’s not like it’s going to get you recognition and a better job. Hell if that were the case then me and my (real) Penelope Keith sounding voice would be Prime Minister! 😆
ChocolateCakeYum · 27/06/2021 09:51

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

I was once asked what my then five year old had done at school that day. The honest answer was her lessons had been Greek, Swimming and Tennis.
Been there!

Friend: What did your kid do at school today?
Me: Latin, classics and swimming

It’s the height of wankyness, and no he doesn’t go to a private school.

ufucoffee · 27/06/2021 09:51

Someone I went to school with married an army officer and moved down south. A couple of years later we bumped into her in the local pub and her accent had completely changed from a very broad northern working class one to a very posh accent. It was hilarious. I'd say that was the wankiest thing she'd ever done. Hopefully

Youdiditanyway · 27/06/2021 09:55

@MissMissTorrance

Whilst at University I decided I needed to stop talking with my regional accent. Instead I put on this weird posh voice. When I went home to visit my parents I kept up this facade. Pretty sure they thought I'd lost the plot. Not sure how long I kept this up but I didn't make any friends at Uni so nobody commented when I started talking normally again. In hindsight I think my peculiar fake voice was the reason I had no pals.Grin
My Dad did this shortly after moving to London. He came back up to visit me most weekends and I witnessed his accent totally evolve. I think I most noticed with the pronunciations of ‘O’ in words so when ordering a Coke, in Yorkshire we tend to extend the O in the middle of words but he dropped that and sounded posher if that makes sense. He pretends to be from London now to his poncy friends and never visits here anymore, I haven’t spoken to him for years. Dick.
CoRhona · 27/06/2021 10:01

I have a friend who at various times had lived in Ireland, London and Scotland. He spoke with a very strong accent from wherever it was he was living at the time (shame as his original accent, Irish, was lovely!).

DuckyMcDuck · 27/06/2021 10:03

School friend did the accent thing but the other way around - came from a naice Home Counties area, went to Newcastle Uni and she came home after the first term sounding like an extra from When the Boat Comes In, "way hay man"! Bonny Lass!

NeverNotChasingDreams · 27/06/2021 10:03

Not me, but my aunt moved to a very stereotypically "posh" area of the country from CommonTown where we all lived at the time.
We went to visit her at Christmas.
Aunt had changed her Northern Accent to a ridiculously awful RP, was forcing my cousins to say "Lavatory" instead of toilet etc etc.
She gave it up after a couple of years, but it was definitely wanky- as well as quite insulting and very annoying!

cheeseismydownfall · 27/06/2021 10:03

When I was at uni - I think the third year - a guy on our course came back after the summer break speaking with a bad Scottish accent (he was not Scottish - I think he was from Portsmouth). He insisted that it had just 'happened' and he couldn't do anything about it. He kept it up for the rest of the year and was still going when we graduated.

He was a nice enough boy but quite immature anyway, and unsurprisingly, everyone else found it extremely irritating and distanced themselves from him.

It wasn't until years later I heard about Foreign Accent Syndrome and wonder to this day if in fact he was being completely sincere, poor chap.

NeverNotChasingDreams · 27/06/2021 10:03

@DuckyMcDuck

School friend did the accent thing but the other way around - came from a naice Home Counties area, went to Newcastle Uni and she came home after the first term sounding like an extra from When the Boat Comes In, "way hay man"! Bonny Lass!
Remind she of the Kevn and Perry sketch where Perry goes to Manchester!
Menora · 27/06/2021 10:06

My dad started speaking geordie x Yorkshire accent after he moved from south to north. It’s so cringe

I once was sitting in a meeting and a medical condition no one had ever heard of was discussed. I was only taking minutes but immediately said I KNOW WHAT IT IS and everyone stopped still and looked at me. I didn’t know what it was though so I just stared at my piece of paper

Minfilia · 27/06/2021 10:07

@ufucoffee

Someone I went to school with married an army officer and moved down south. A couple of years later we bumped into her in the local pub and her accent had completely changed from a very broad northern working class one to a very posh accent. It was hilarious. I'd say that was the wankiest thing she'd ever done. Hopefully
Some people really are accent sponges though!

I used to be fairly posh, moved up north and ended up gradually losing that and have definitely inherited some northern twangs. DH thinks I’ve gone mad when I’ve been on the phone to family and instantly revert back to my previous accent Grin

My friend went to work in the US for a year, I visited six months in and she had an American accent Grin she lost it within six months of being back home though.

And DH has a different accent for almost everyone that he talks to…

DuckyMcDuck · 27/06/2021 10:07

Exactly like that @NeverNotChasingDreams Grin

forfucksakenett · 27/06/2021 10:10

@ssd

Joined mn
🤣🤣🤣🤣 this made me laugh @ssd
Brefugee · 27/06/2021 10:17

Someone I went to school with married an army officer and moved down south. A couple of years later we bumped into her in the local pub and her accent had completely changed from a very broad northern working class one to a very posh accent. It was hilarious. I'd say that was the wankiest thing she'd ever done.

meh - this is expected of officers and their wives. I occasionally went to wives' club (as a serving NCO) if they were doing something i was interested in and i was always asked which of the officers my husband was (Army brat and any accent i may have had was subsumed and replaced by the accents around me, mostly RP - also I'm one of those accent sponges which can get really weird if I'm not paying attention)

fruitsaladyummyummy · 27/06/2021 10:19

I completely lost my accent at uni... and I went to the local uni 😳! I have no idea how it happened, I remember meeting some school friends and Christmas and someone asked me wtf had happened to my voice and I honestly had no idea what they were talking about. It's never gone back to "normal", my DH isn't from near me and when I first met his friends they all commented "you don't sound like you're from X".

ShinySquirrel · 27/06/2021 10:23

I named my dwarf hamster Aristotle.

Swipe left for the next trending thread