Is it a bad thing to adopt the 'Essex accent'?

[poppytin]

I'm asking this question as a foreign mother living in the UK. So forgive me if my question seems naive; however, I really appreciate your advice.

My son is in the first year and we are living in Essex. The local school is good. However, I noticed that my son is speaking an 'Essex accent' like his teachers.

I have read a few articles about this issue. According to an article on the BBC, "experiments have shown that even the same speaker can be perceived differently depending on what accent they're using at that moment".

So does the accent hinder my child's future? If I'm not mistaken, there are many jokes about Essex people.

Thank you

Also, an author, Peter Trudgill, explains why it is so important to be aware of attitudes towards different accents:

"Children with working class accents and dialects may be evaluated by some teachers as having less educational potential than those with middle-class accents and dialects, unless they, too, are given an adequate chance to demonstrate the contrary." (Sociolinguistics: An Introduction to Language and Society, page 195: Trudgill, 2000)

I think you'll find a large number of children in London and the south east have the accent to which you are referring. Not just Essex.

I don't love the Essex accent.

I don't mind how the DC speak with their mates, but I do correct their accent/pronunciation at home.

An accent is fine, but bad grammar is not. Make sure his English grammar is really good, that matters more.

If you can change his accent, you'll be a miracle worker!

Despite my DP and me having northern accents, DD has an Essex accent picked up at nursery. There are a wide variety of Essex accents though so we just guide her away from the extremes.
I'd like a short 'a' sound and 't' pronounced where appropriate and I can live with most of the rest.
You'll probably find good education will be more of a help than the "right" accent.

I love that you've quoted your source material.
I'm from Essex but have lived in the Middle East for many years, my children due to incredibly expensive International schooling speak like extras from CSI New York. They seem to be doing well in all other aspects though.

Interesting about kids and accents. My DD was born and raised in Yorkshire, she attended local schools, but still speaks with my southern middle class accent. And gets teased for it (not bullied). I know a Canadian born mum whose daughter has lived here all her life and still sounds noticeably Canadian. OP there's not much you can do about it really!

Haha Massive, we are in the ME too, (I'm also from Essex) and know too well the 'international American' accent, usually to be heard pouring out of McDonalds after 1pm every day.

DD is nearly 4, and being born and raised here speaks the queens English with slight Phillipino/Yorkshire tendencies picked up at nursery.

I think Just has it - correct grammar, and the rest will be down to the influence of friends and teachers.

My mother likes to think she is 'posh Essex' and spend my entire childhood preaching 'there's no 'D' in garage' etc... It just got annoying and sounded snobby.

You can't do much about accent without sending your child to a private school I'm afraid. I'm foreign and used to live in Essex (with my husband from Essex). The accent could be hard work tbh, but I think it's more to do with the grammar and the huge amount of slang people used. You can correct your children's grammar and try and minimize the slang and I think that's enough to make the difference. I don't think the UK is as bad as it used to be about judging people on their accents.

*do make sure they can say "th" though. It's someTHing, not somefing!

I was brought up in Essex and my mum, who wasn't an Essex native, didn't worry too much about the accent itself but was very hot on correcting grammatical errors. Consequently I and my siblings all speak grammatically correctly, if nothing else

Accents tend to be modified according to the people you are living among. Having lived in the North East for a long time I've lost the strong 'Essex' but still have enough of a 'southern' accent for people to say "You're not from round here, are you?"

Definitely work on the 'th', though. It causes terrible problems when it comes to learning to spell!

Bowlersarm the Essex accent is actually quite different from London

Anyway, I have lived in Essex for 20 years but not from here originally. My kids obviously have a local accent (they sat "graaaarss" not grass ) and I don't thhink there's much I could do to stop that although I do try and iron out the worst of the glottal stops. They do, however speak grammatically (round here "we was..." is very common!) and I am happy with that as they call me mom not mum which makes me happy

Not to my ear Bit. I've lived in either London, Kent or Surrey all my life. I would never be able to differentiate between a Romford accent, Walthamstow, Croydon, or Bexley for example.

I wouldn't worry about it, as pp say ensure grammatically they are correct but I wouldn't worry.

I think you can tell which four corners of London someone's from (as long as they are true locals) I now live 30/40 miles from where I grew up and locals comment that I'm clearly not a local and that's still london.

I assure you it is different. A north Essex accent is very distinctive from "estuary" and near where I live a Canvey Island accent could not be mistaken for London...honest!

It's just me then.

You could just correct her grammar etc. I can tell the difference between a London and Essex accent but to be honest the accent isn't too bad if the grammar is ok. I most definitely have an essex accent but my kids at school never guess how local I am as I do try to speak correctly despite my accent. Weirdly, outside of Essex people have no problem guessing where I'm from.

I have a feeling that the accent you are writing about is actually Estuary... Real Essex accents vary a great deal from a broad, country accent in the North to RP in the South but like many other counties with a strong spattering of Estuary throughout.

We are essentially talking about a variant of the cockney accent as many families from Essex have historical roots in East London, in which case there has always been snobbery towards this accent