I can't believe this sort of attitude still persists today

[Salv]

Ah, but the Canadians, and Americans, were sure welcome when old Aldolf was on the prowl a few years ago, eh?

Because of course all Brits feel exactly the same as that drunk that had a pop at CharlesB. We're just a bunch of ingrates who don't realise how lucky we are not to be speaking German.

 

[FedoraGent]

Just dismiss it.

CharlesB,

Just dismiss it as the blithering meanderings of a drunk twit. Because that's what it was, a twit spouting his mouth off due to his own ignorance. Don't let it have any power over you. And honestly, I strongly dislike intolerance of that sort. But as a rule, I ignore people like that.

FG.

 

[eightbore]

Yeah but a Southern accent doesn't stop you being President anymore 3 in the last 30 years is not bad!

Tell me you aren't counting the Bush clan as southern? Unless one counts being born in "southern" Connecticut, summering in "southern" Maine and attending secondary school in "southern" New Hampshire as "being southern", the Bush bunch is really "all hat and no cattle". I can move to Texas tomorrow, but that doesn't really make me a cowboy does it...no matter how much I try to sound "common"? A Stanford linguist actually coined a term describing the Bush manner of speaking. He called it "faux-bubba".

 

[Starius]

My parents, from Louisiana and Georgia, made sure they lost their accents as they wanted to move up the career ladder and it's true that that whenever people hear a Southern accent, they always want to deduct 100 IQ points.
Ashley

Yeah, that does seem to be true.... just yesterday, I was watching a video on youtube of a guy making a particular argument. While I agreed with almost all of his points, he still sounded like he didn't know what he was talking about because of his southern accent - and also because almost every other word was a swear word.


Seems we are judged (and judge) on how our speech is dressed just as much as how our bodies are.

 

[Benny Holiday]

There's nothing like a nasty drunk to spoil your evening, and unfortunately, at this time of the year there are plenty of drunks to be found out and about.

In a related incident, I once really annoyed to discover that a supposed 'class distinction' attitude still prevails here in Sydney a few years back. My band was booked to perform at a private function in Cammeray, in well-heeled North Sydney. Both the bass player and guitarist were named Rob. As we departed, one of the so-called upper class women who'd spoken with the band members called out a farewell to 'Rob'. Both Robs replied in kind - guitarist Rob from Woolstonecraft, in the North, with his plummier accent, and bassist Rob from the West, with his broad Australian accent. The woman actually snottily responded, "No not you - I was speaking to the other Rob." Can you believe that? :rage:

Sad that an accent or perceived class can be the catalyst for social stupidity in this day and age.

 

[eightbore]

Seems we are judged (and judge) on how our speech is dressed just as much as how our bodies are.

Said the man in the big furry trooper hat. Just kidding I actually need one just like it.

Best,

eightbore

 

[Doh!]

I was temping in an office years ago, when one of my fellow temps (a New Yorker) asked me where I was from. When I told him St. Louis, he looked at me kind of puzzledly and said, "But you don't have a southern accent."

I politely told him, "That's because St. Louis ISN'T IN THE SOUTH."

(OK, maybe not so politely.)

 

[Miss Brill]

I've lived in Tennessee 28 of my 35 years & people still rag me about my Yankee accent. I talk too fast, and I talk too "proper" so no one can understand what I'm saying. People are stupid. [huh]

 

[OldSkoolFrat]

Hmmmm

 

[Hausfrau]

I've had that happen to me loads in London for my American accent when I lived there! I've had rocks thrown at me by kids and made fun of at almost every shop I went to. The sad thing is I am a British Citizen and my parents are East Londoners.. However, now, considering the state of things in the UK I don't blame them for getting edgy around "foreigners".

 

[Ecuador Jim]

I do this too -- I worked for ten years for a British gal with a very plummy BBC accent (which she picked up working for the BBC, oddly enough), and whenever we got together to work on a project I'd end up sounding like her. Once when she had laryngitis and couldn't do her radio show I recorded it for her -- and no one was ever the wiser!

However, I have tried very hard to eradicate my own accent -- except for the occasional "ayuh" and "yessah" slipping out, most people can never tell where I come from.

Ah, Lizzie, some of us love the sound of a true Mainer

 

[carebear]

I've had that happen to me loads in London for my American accent when I lived there! I've had rocks thrown at me by kids and made fun of at almost every shop I went to. The sad thing is I am a British Citizen and my parents are East Londoners.. However, now, considering the state of things in the UK I don't blame them for getting edgy around "foreigners".

What possible state can things be in where an American accent could rationally cause alarm or concern?

Are they afraid we might vote for someone they don't like right in front of them or something? [huh]

 

[eightbore]

Maybe those fearing the American accent are tea merchants?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

There's no fear of the American accent in the UK. Some people find it impossible to separate the policies of governments/MICs and the people from the countries those corporations represent. Some people, and this is particularly evident when they're drunk, don't understand that Federal Government PLC does not represent the views of every American. Therefore they direct their anger and hatred at the people they hear.

people are dumb. this is not confined to Anglo-American affairs. It's a worldwide phenomenon.

bk

 

[Jovan]

I think I'd survive. I pick up accents fairly easily like some people have commented in this thread. As a result, no one is ever quite sure where I'm from.

I'm technically Canadian born, though mostly raised here in Florida. Ironically though, my Canadian friend thinks I sound "like a surfer." I don't know what the hell he's talking about.

Getting back on topic, I agree you should ignore him. I've met maybe one Brit in my life who actually thinks that way, and he was just another Internet Tough Guy. (Bloke? )

 

[Haversack]

Starius wrote: "Seems we are judged (and judge) on how our speech is dressed just as much as how our bodies are."

-Paging Professor Higgins. Telephone call for Henry Higgins!-

Haversack.

 

[carebear]

There's no fear of the American accent in the UK. Some people find it impossible to separate the policies of governments/MICs and the people from the countries those corporations represent. Some people, and this is particularly evident when they're drunk, don't understand that Federal Government PLC does not represent the views of every American. Therefore they direct their anger and hatred at the people they hear.

people are dumb. this is not confined to Anglo-American affairs. It's a worldwide phenomenon.

bk

Baron,

I wasn't actually using the word "fearful", it was this comment that raised the question.

However, now, considering the state of things in the UK I don't blame them for getting edgy around "foreigners".

I guess my question should have been more direct.

Hausfrau,

What is "the state of things in the UK" you're referring to? What do you mean by "edgy"?

If I'm reading it right, the remark referred to crime/terrorism/racial tension in the UK.

What confuses me is what possible connection an American accent wuld have to the kind of "foreigners" that might be making people be "edgy"?

All anyone seems to have with us is a political beef, not that we are a direct threat to Britain or individuals there in any way.

[huh]

 

[Benny Holiday]

people are dumb. this is not confined to Anglo-American affairs. It's a worldwide phenomenon.

bk

My friend has summed it all up for us in three succinct sentences. This is the base reason for not only every silly comment about our accents or nationality, but also why we receive stupid comments because we choose not to follow the majority of the sheep in society but can think individually and thus dress and act differently from said sheep.

 

[kokopelli]

Accent, what accent

Seriously however, I do have a lot of fun with my accent. Sandy (wife) and I travel a lot and she really does the "southern thing". I've worked in the international community for thirty years, so I can hide my "southern side" when I need/want too. It's great fun to "please and thank you ma'am" my way around the US! We "southerners" also have the physical accents that can sometimes get us in trouble. We can't help but open doors for women and get close when speaking. I've gotten some strange comments about things like that. Sometimes the accent comes in very handy... Ron

 

[pigeon toe]

Well I'm glad I didn't choose to study abroad in the UK! I'll be leaving for the Netherlands soon, I hope I don't encounter any of that over there. Somehow I doubt it though, all the Dutch exchange students I met over here were ridiculously nice and friendly. Then again, they did choose to come to the US, so who knows about everyone else!