Regarding accents...

[SckizoBoy]

Qualifier: I'm a middle-class (which is a borderline non sequitur here, these days) native (edit: apologies, born and bred would be a better descriptor) Londoner and a BBC with an RP accent.

Now, I don't know about you, but I have quite a diverse circle of acquaintances and friends with varying backgrounds/accents etc. etc. My sister came over to my place just earlier today to pick up some stuff and kept referring to me as 'dude', something that made me wince, because she has a similar accent to me and you don't need to tell me how weird/wrong that sounds. Now, I can pull off with using such language because I change my accent (and language, at that) depending on who I'm talking with. With my colleagues at work, I'll speak 'East End', with my old man, I'll speak almost like Stephen Fry, with Chinese people, I'll speak with a Singaporean/Malaysian Chinese accent, with most of my friends I'll speak with a slight Anglian accent (and slowly) and with close friends, I'll speak 'normally' (and very fast). A lot of the time, I need to check myself because I do it inadvertently/automatically.

Question: is this offensive in any way? Do you do it (or analogous)?

 

[ChickenZombie]

I don't see why you can't talk like you all the time...

 

[No_Remainders]

Yeah... I'd say some people might take offence to it.

I sure as fuck wouldn't want you trying an Irish accent if you were talking to me.

Edit: It's fine if you're speaking in a different language. By all means, talk in the accent you feel comfortably speaking in when it's another language, but if it's your normal language, then talk in your actual accent.

 

[VoidWanderer]

Well, my accent seems to hail from every single English speaking country. Being born in England and having a Scottish mother this makes for some very amusing guesswork. There are times when I can pick up when my accent comes through as slightly different, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out.

 

[Blow_Pop]

Why would it be offensive? I'm American and pick up accents easily. I have a real nice Scottish accent developing and a fairly decent ...well can't tell you specifically where in the UK unless I'm doing it but we shall say a generalised UK accent since mine ranges from Northern to Southern depending on who I've talked to lately. I do it well enough that people question exactly where I'm from. Some people I have figured are born to be chameleon's as far as their accents.

 

[Shadowphrin]

I second the thought that you should just speak like you all the time. Especially if you have a middle-class London accent.

I tend to be a bit more Queen's English at job interviews and the like, because certain TV shows have made it even worse to be the classy Essex bird that I normally am. And my accent isn't even that strong...

 

[Chemical Alia]

I'm from eastern Pennsylvania (basically New Jersey), and have lived in Texas a little over three years now. Every time I utter something that was slightly influenced by my Dallas surroundings I run to go wash my mouth out with soap. Don't like that.

I only switch accents when I'm speaking in another language, German or Chinese. For Chinese, I was taught Beijing standard, but it switched to more Taiwan-ish over the years, probably from media influence since I've never actually been there.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I don't see why you can't talk like you all the time...

Because if you have friends who are posh, and friends who are common, and you are half way in between, you don't want to be seen as posh by the common people and as common by the posh people.

OP: I get where you're coming from (apart from speaking in a Chinese accent to your Chinese friends, that's unnecessary and could be seen as you mocking them). I'm not sure if I noticeably change my accent, but in other ways I do change the way I talk between my friends and my family.

 

[Captain_Fantastic]

i kind of do the same thing in that i pick up accents very quickly irish and spanish being the worst but the only accents i have normally around me are newfoundland or newfy and basically most from east canada have a similiar one it sounds kind of stereotypic canadian
then theres the english sounding south african i like and occasionally pick up
then there is the "i have a speech impediment" south african for example(I jus wana go home! Dusnt feel right being here) and that is litterally how they speak

 

[ace_of_something]

Isn't there just a 'middle class' accent? We call the flat, non-regional accent here 'newscaster american'. Couldn't you speak like... newscaster English?
I wouldn't mimic a foreign person's accent, I could see them taking that is very insulting. My wife has a very slight French accent, my father despite living in the USA since he was about 7 years old sounds like the Swedish chef, my brother's wife has a pretty damn heavy Italian accent... I wouldn't take those accents when talking to them.

 

[trollnystan]

I do something similar and I really wish I didn't. Whenever I hang around someone with a differing accent from me I will start to change the melody of my own accent to match theirs. The worst is I do it so incredibly badly it comes off sounding like a parody and I have almost no control over it whatsoever.

Once I catch myself I stop but it'll sneak in again sooner or later. Makes visiting my family in the west of Sweden incredibly embarrassing.

My father however could and would switch his accents on purpose; when he was talking to his workmates he'd speak the local accent; when he spoke to his parents/siblings he spoke his native accent; when he spoke to us he'd speak, well, English actually, but when he did speak Swedish he'd use the local accent again.

It CAN be offensive - I think I sound offensive when I do it, however inadvertently - but it doesn't have to be.

 

[Dags90]

I'm from eastern Pennsylvania (basically New Jersey), and have lived in Texas a little over three years now. Every time I utter something that was slightly influenced by my Dallas surroundings I run to go wash my mouth out with soap. Don't like that.

Don't lose your paranoid distrust of strangers either, or you've pretty much lost what it means to be from the Northeast.

The only thing I do that's similar is try not to drop f-bombs in front of old people or young children.

 

[Rawne1980]

I'm a Scouser living in Burnley.

My Scouse accent may have faded a bit over the years but i've still got a heavy Lancashire accent that follows me wherever I may talk.

My speech is the same no matter who I talk to.

 

[JoJo]

I always speak in a relatively formal southern English accent, what some would call "posh" I suppose, I never change it. I'm terrible at accents anyway according to my friends so I'd sound silly if I was copying other people.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

For the most part, my accent stays the same. Though, I tend to get a random accent sometimes half-way through a word or sentance which causes to stop and reapeat what I just said normally whilst thinking 'what the fuck?'

And swapping accents depending on who you are speaking to is totally normal.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

When with friends, I sound kinda like Mitch Hedburg but around strangers I'm nervous and my voice becomes kinda monotone.

To my ears, though. Don't really have any recordings of myself. On a side note, is there such a thing as an Upstate New York accent? I'm assuming there is, but we don't seem to speak similarly and Google has been unhelpful.

 

[SckizoBoy]

I get where you're coming from (apart from speaking in a Chinese accent to your Chinese friends, that's unnecessary and could be seen as you mocking them). I'm not sure if I noticeably change my accent, but in other ways I do change the way I talk between my friends and my family.

Ah, forgot to mention, I'm a BBC (British Born Chinese), so 'Chinese School' was what I grew up with. And most of the kids (who unlike me spoke/speak Cantonese/Hark Ga at home), so their English came out as HK/Singapore in accent.

Isn't there just a 'middle class' accent? We call the flat, non-regional accent here 'newscaster american'. Couldn't you speak like... newscaster English?
I wouldn't mimic a foreign person's accent, I could see them taking that is very insulting.

See above regarding foreign accent, as for 'newscaster English', I suppose so, but that is the way I 'normally' speak, though there is regional variation (and that's just with BBC, though most are middle/upper-English in accent). However, I can fully justify changing the way I speak around my old man, since he's quite deaf and I naturally speak very quickly and softly, so I need to slow down, project, enunciate and it comes out a bit like Stephen Fry.

I only switch accents when I'm speaking in another language, German or Chinese. For Chinese, I was taught Beijing standard, but it switched to more Taiwan-ish over the years, probably from media influence since I've never actually been there.

Well, that's kind of given, or do you mean you vary your accent when speaking said languages? I speak those two languages too, though Hochdeutsch (even if it comes out weirdly southern... you can blame my Baden born chemistry lecturer for that) and HK Cantonese, though for that, I can't pick accents at all (though to be fair, only really three provinces-ish speak it).

 

[TheEldestScroll]

see i don't know how accents actually work in terms of "picking up an accent", but i think you should just talk normally. i'm sure if i went and spent ten years in london, i might pick your accent slightly, but i wouldn't talk in an absurd americanized fake english accent out of the gate. i'm pretty much positive that most people and of all accents of the british isles wouldn't take too kindly to that. and its even more absurd when an englishman tries to mimic an american accent. so yeah, be yourself.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I don't really care about accents. Its a part of who you are and naturally I have no idea if I have one or not O.O

Provided it doesn't make speech impossible to understand, I like accents. I just talk like me

 

[Chemical Alia]

I'm from eastern Pennsylvania (basically New Jersey), and have lived in Texas a little over three years now. Every time I utter something that was slightly influenced by my Dallas surroundings I run to go wash my mouth out with soap. Don't like that.

Don't lose your paranoid distrust of strangers either, or you've pretty much lost what it means to be from the Northeast.

The only thing I do that's similar is try not to drop f-bombs in front of old people or young children.

Yeah, I really noticed the difference in the way strangers regard each other out here compared to back home. I had a roommate from South Dakota when I lived in Germany, and she told me about how strangers are always friendly and strike up conversations with you out there. As long as I keep a steady supply of Tastykakes out here, it doesn't really matter.

Well, that's kind of given, or do you mean you vary your accent when speaking said languages? I speak those two languages too, though Hochdeutsch (even if it comes out weirdly southern... you can blame my Baden born chemistry lecturer for that) and HK Cantonese, though for that, I can't pick accents at all (though to be fair, only really three provinces-ish speak it).

My accent varies more in non-English languages to the local accent because I didn't grow up in any particular part of those countries. The closest I had was hearing a lot of Pennsylvania Dutch stuff when I was little, and I had to change the pronunciation and stuff to hochdeutsch.