People who change their accents.

I have only lived in the states for 6 years and unfortunately my accent and the words I say have changed. It is not something. That I thouht would ever happen but it has. I am not some stuck up celebrity, just fed up having to repeat myself.

 

Even livin in England, I never changed ma accent, I just repeat maself a * tonne. The only difference was when I was workin in a call centre and a had to drop a lot of the scottish stuff. But other than that, I think ma accents got stronger over the years if anything.

 

There's a guy in my English class who tries to talk with a cringeworthy "English" accent just because he's a Chelsea fan who says London is his favourite city in the world, he's been there once as far as I know. He also probably thinks that the the * accent will somehow give him better grades. I find it extremely hard not to punch him on the face at times.

 

I'm from Glasgow and have a reasonably broad accent. Lived in Stirling for 4 years and although kept my accent I did start using local words and on my return to Glasgow was accused by mates of turning into a chookter.

 

Ronnie Whelan's accent does my head in.. Added to the fact that He talks a lot of * makes him hard to listen to.

 

Scottish accents are offensive, no wonder they change it

 

People who change their accents are fake as *. Simple as that.

It's not something that occurs naturally anyway. It is definitely something that is put on.

The Glasgow Uni accent is probably the worst.

 

That's slightly different. I know a Czech guy who moved to Glasgow 4 years ago with pretty poor to average English. Because he was surrounded by Scots when he learned the language he's picked up the dialect/accent too and got used to speaking to people that way. Right now there's only a slight hint of an Eastern European accent.

Whereas, if you're Scottish and Irish moving to say, the US, then you don't really have an excuse as you know the language already and should really be less easily influenced. Unless you're a kid in which case you'll likely pick it up.

 

I think it's okay to pick up a few new words. Everyone does even within their own dialects. But if you change your pronounciation, syntax and grammar too much, like more than what it takes to be understood in your new area, then you've no backbone.

 

I used to work with a Swede who spoke with a broad American accent because she had watched Friends to help her learn conversational English. It was actually a bit of a surprise to learn she was Swedish as I immediately assumed she was American.



To be honest I have mates who speak various dialects so I tune down my Glaswegian slang to suit. It works fine for me just as long as they never bump into each other and I'm faced with cross accusations of either talking like a ned or talking like an English poof! :smiley-laughing002:

Well it's no that bad, but I digress.

 

I would say Northern Europeans all sound american when they speak English - Swedes, Danes, Germans, Dutch, Norwegians etc they must half learn from watching American TV shows with subtitles or whatever. They dont sound pure american but they sound more American than other english speaking countries especially the women.

 

That's true. They basically learn American English, whereas the French, Russians, Indians etc learn British English. It shows when they talk English.

The weirdest example of that I know is this Dutch fella I used to be pals wae. Grew up in Holland but his parents owned an Irish-themed bar there, so he speaks English with a fairly strong Irish accent. I guess if you learn from speaking to people from whatever area rather than from books or tapes, you're goni learn that language with their accent.

 

I think it is sad that a lot of the Scots dialect has become more anglofied, or even more American. There are lots of brilliant Scottish words that are slowly dying out.

But that is different from accent and I also think people in Scotland defend incoherent babble as accent sometimes when it isn't. Nor is it 'Scottish' but rather just poor English. I know people take the * out of university accents but when your flatmates come from around the world and you are trying to speak fife-ish (in my case) then it doesn't work. It isn't fake but your accent changes through necessity so people know what you are talking about.