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

[CharlesB]

Some drunk heard me talking outside the pub tonight and gave me a hassle for my accent. As a background, my father is a Canadian and my grandfather a Scot raised in Canada. Between the UK and Canada most of my family shed blood in the war. I still have some of a canadian accent from being primarily raised by my father.

Most folks think I'm Canadian around here.

In spite of hte fact that if I were to move to Canada I could get instan citizenship and I was raised in a COMMONWEALTH family, where we always thought of our selves as subjects of her majesty in the commonwealth's dominion, I could explain this and still be told that I don't BELONG in this country...

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Ay!

I once made the mistake while in London of commenting on a guys accent. He was quick to remind me, "Hey mate, you've got the accent - I speak ENGLISH!" Touche' (Oh, that's French!)

At another time I naively entered a conversation on taxes with a Canadian who mentioned income taxes. When I inquired, "Oh, you've got income tax too?", the quick retort, delivered with a scowl was, "Yeh - only if we've got more than two igloos!" I could almost here the rest of the comment under his breath! (Bloody Yank!)

Oh well!

-dixon cannon

 

[Bebop]

Take solace in the fact that it came from a drunk. Alcohol is commonly involved in producing attitudes we consider ignorant.

 

[Barbigirl]

going

fftopic: a bit
I went to a party last night and someone asked me where I was from because I my accent. I thought that was odd since I am a born and raised west coaster...then I remembered, I have a "Valley" accent. :eusa_doh:

I had 9 years in Southern CA, then 21 in Reno so I am not exactly sure how I picked it up and maintained it so long.

I have this other really bad habit that when I hear someone speaking in an accent I immediately start copying their intonations -unintentionally- then realize I am doing it and worry they think I am making fun.

Miss Sis, I wondered if you noticed this on the Queen Mary? I caught myself a few times while listening to your lovely New Zealand tongue.

 

[Fletch]

Take solace in the fact that it came from a drunk. Alcohol is commonly involved in producing attitudes we consider ignorant.

Unfortunately, sometimes backed up with actions. Luckily Charles was diplomatic. I'd have gotten off a clever comeback and probably had to duck a pint glass.

 

[OldSkoolFrat]

What a Lager Lout.

 

[Sertsa]

I've found that, no matter where you go, you'll can find people who stupidly take issue with idiotic ideals, especially when their brains get mixed with a alcohol. But remember it was just some rambling drunk guy. Sure, he may think the same thing when he's sober, too, but I'll guess it's not the only less-than-bright thought in his head.

At least you're not trying to go all T.S. Eliot and artificially adopting a heavy British accent. I don't suppose it would work to remind drunken people that UK and Commonwealth libraries categorize Eliot as a British author, even though he was from Missouri.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I have this other really bad habit that when I hear someone speaking in an accent I immediately start copying their intonations -unintentionally- then realize I am doing it and worry they think I am making fun.

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.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

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. Considering the number of degrees they earned and their retirement checks, it worked.
I insist I don't have an accent, then someone imitates me and sounds all Minnie Pearl and have to admit I do indeed.
Ashley

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

Just tell 'em you voted for Bush and thanks for their help in the war.

 

[jake_fink]

I lived in England for five years and no-one made even a slightly derogatory comment about my accent. They often guessed wrong (Irish? Dutch? Norwegian?... I'm Canajian, eh, an' I goo oot an' aboot.), but they were never insulting.

In the grand scheme of things, if a drunk is giving you a hassle it probably has more to do with him (it was a he, I assume) being an angry drunk than with any national attitude (apart from the national attitude toward pouring vast quantities of beer into one's guts within very short periods of time).

Now, when a sober person hassles you... that's a different kettle of fish.

 

[Twitch]

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

 

[OldSkoolFrat]

Well, Lizzie, you surely know about the lobster gangs up there. If a Southern Boy like me, bought a license......... On the mid coast?

Cut lines, knotted lines, threats. Black balled at Odd-Fellows etc.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

oh well. Drunks is drunks . . . all around the globe. You sound different! Me take piss. Water, ducks, and their spinal coverings. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Everyone thinks i'm American.

bk

p.s. A canadian in the UK, and you did not have a maple leaf stitched to your bag/jacket?

 

[CharlesB]

oh well. Drunks is drunks . . . all around the globe. You sound different! Me take piss. Water, ducks, and their spinal coverings. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Everyone thinks i'm American.

bk

p.s. A canadian in the UK, and you did not have a maple leaf stitched to your bag/jacket?

My father is from Toronto. A lot of people think that I'm canadian when they first meet me.

 

[Miss 1929]

People can't tell

an accent, from diction a lot of the time.
I am always asked "where are you from? What is that accent" and I don't have one to speak of, I was raised a whole hundred and fifty miles away... it's a Northern California accent, I suppose, which sounds like nothing at all (or like the people on TV).
Certainly I never take umbrage at anything a drunk says, I just wish they would develop some self-control.

 

[reetpleat]

oh well. Drunks is drunks . . . all around the globe. You sound different! Me take piss. Water, ducks, and their spinal coverings. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Everyone thinks i'm American.

bk

p.s. A canadian in the UK, and you did not have a maple leaf stitched to your bag/jacket?

As the joke goes, you can tell a canadian because they have a little maple leaf flag stitched to their backpack. You can tell the american backpackers because they have a great big maple leaf flag stitched to their backpack.

 

[cookie]

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. Considering the number of degrees they earned and their retirement checks, it worked.
I insist I don't have an accent, then someone imitates me and sounds all Minnie Pearl and have to admit I do indeed.
Ashley

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

 

[Tango Yankee]

Just a drunken twit

During my four years in the UK I never had anyone take umbrage with my accent, whatever my accent is. On the other hand, one night an English friend of mine and I were in a small local bar in Dunkirk, chatting with a local in English. His girlfriend told him (in French) that he shouldn't talk to use unless we spoke French with him. I remembered enough French to understand that much! It surprised me, though, as I had never had anything but friendly encounters when in France. Her boyfriend blew her off and kept talking with us.

When I first joined the Air Force many people I met thought I was from southern Texas. I suppose they thought so as I do tend to speak somewhat slowly most of the time. I am, however, a native Southern Californian. Over the years I've picked up various phrases and words from the different areas I've been stationed, but I don't think my basic accent has changed. I do think that the locals here in southern Ohio immediately peg me as an outsider, but I've never been given any grief over it.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[LocktownDog]

I keep being told I have a Rhode Island accent. [huh] Grew up in New Jersey and have only passed through RI several times, not even stopping for gas. I could understand a Maine or maybe Vermont accent, as I used to summer up there every year. But Rhode Island?

Richard