General Accents

Pete Burrett

Pete Burrett

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Joined
6 Dec 2017
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729
We all have accents / ways of speaking. There has recently been a survey on the subject. Some of the findings;

The research was carried out by Professor Devyani Sharma from Queen Mary University London and funded by Sutton Trust.
It revealed 46% of workers had faced jibes about their accents, while those with northern English or Midlands accents were more likely to worry about the way they spoke.
An entrenched "hierarchy of accent" caused social anxiety throughout some people's lives, the report concluded.

Out of interest, has your own accent held you back, or helped you advance, or made no difference to your life at all?

Maybe an accent influences how others see you, as does your race, a particular way of dressing or whether you have tattoos?
 
I got told my accent would hold me back by a voice/public speaking coach hired by my work to help us with our presentation of a final year project for a professional qualification. I genuinely laughed when he said it and told him it wouldn't. It didn't stop me getting promotions and jobs I went for. Tbf, his help was invaluable for the presentation though where he did a really good job.
 
Pete Burrett said:
We all have accents / ways of speaking. There has recently been a survey on the subject. Some of the findings;

The research was carried out by Professor Devyani Sharma from Queen Mary University London and funded by Sutton Trust.
It revealed 46% of workers had faced jibes about their accents, while those with northern English or Midlands accents were more likely to worry about the way they spoke.
An entrenched "hierarchy of accent" caused social anxiety throughout some people's lives, the report concluded.

Out of interest, has your own accent held you back, or helped you advance, or made no difference to your life at all?

Maybe an accent influences how others see you, as does your race, a particular way of dressing or whether you have tattoos?
Click to expand...
I once pulled a German girl who wasn't much of a looker but Jesus Christ her accent made the whole thing worthwhile.
 
Pete Burrett said:
We all have accents / ways of speaking. There has recently been a survey on the subject. Some of the findings;

The research was carried out by Professor Devyani Sharma from Queen Mary University London and funded by Sutton Trust.
It revealed 46% of workers had faced jibes about their accents, while those with northern English or Midlands accents were more likely to worry about the way they spoke.
An entrenched "hierarchy of accent" caused social anxiety throughout some people's lives, the report concluded.

Out of interest, has your own accent held you back, or helped you advance, or made no difference to your life at all?

Maybe an accent influences how others see you, as does your race, a particular way of dressing or whether you have tattoos?
Click to expand...
If you don't get on in a company because of your accent then they are not a company I'd want to work for anyway. Good leaders/managers will see through ascents pretty quickly. Working for a crap manager is more likely to hold you back and cause grief.
 
I’ve got a rural West Oxfordshir/Gloucestershire accent and proud of it!

It’s definitely softened as I got older and mixed/worked with people from a more middle class/professional background. But noticeably gets stronger again when I met up with people I grew up with and old school friends.

I don’t think it‘s held me back or helped me for that matter either. However I think there are few people out there who underestimate those of us who have a Cotswold rural accent, we’re not all carrot crunchers!😉
 
I grew up in east London but had Scottish parents so never picked up the ‘awwight?’ accent and sound quite ‘BBC’. It’s probably helped me, if anything.
 
Born in London, grew up in Surrey, another one that sounds quite BBC, having said that one of my best mates is
from east London and it only takes about 10 minutes before our conversations become all cor blimey geezer.
East London influences aside my accent has defo been a plus.
 
Oxford - Essex - Midlands.
In Essex they thought I sounded "West Country", in Leicester they think I`m "Southern".

All about perception "mi duck" :ROFLMAO:
 
Having been bought up in Surrey my accent was Home Counties and certainly not posh, but some fellow students when I started university heard it as 'common'. Can't say my accent's affected my life significantly, although the occasional 'received pronunciation' speaker has certainly looked down their nose at me.
 
Pete Burrett said:
Having been bought up in Surrey my accent was Home Counties and certainly not posh, but some fellow students when I started university heard it as 'common'. Can't say my accent's affected my life significantly, although the occasional 'received pronunciation' speaker has certainly looked down their nose at me.
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I just want to know if anyone talks like I does?
 
My mate is a season ticket holder in the East stand. He has quite a pronounced Yorkshire accent. Whenever we sing ‘you dirty northern bastard’ he says “steady on!”😂
 
I was about 16 when I first heard myself speak the way others heard me (that is, not the way I sounded in my own head). I went home, and with some amazement in my voice (because of the difference between the way I hear myself in my head and how I sounded to others) and told my dad that I'd just heard myself on tape, and how surprising it was. "Yes," he replied, "You sound like a real country bumpkin"! I was actually so stunned that I remember it to this day.

Solved that problem. I moved to the US where just about any variant of "real" English makes the speaker sound smart to Americans.

Actually, it was a relief being somewhere where accent isn't an immediate marker of social class. Less of a relief having to live in a country where the likes of Reagan, Shrub, and trump could be elected president. But after the past 12 years maybe the differences in US and UK leadership aren't so great after all.
 
Grew up Central-ish London.

Northerners/Welsh/Scots think I sound 'cockney', whereas cockney/London folk from working class backgrounds think I sound quite posh. I guess it's a matter of perspective.

I love all regional accents. Adds to the spice of life. The only "accent" I can't stand is that Emile Smith-Rowe accent most kids have in London these days. It's horrific to listen to.
 
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