Ridiculous bourgois snobbery...

[miserable_rose]

Today I had an uncontrollable laughing fit when I heard what my aunt had been talking to my parents about. Basically, my cousin is about to go to secondary school and my aunt wants to send him to a private, rather a comprehensive, school.

Her reasons are as follows:

• He went to a private primary school.
• He will be subject to "bad influences".
• He'll end

Comments

[opheliathemad]

i love accents! i love it when people have fascinating accents. i can tell the difference between jersey, and long island, and brooklyn and queens, and south, and DEEP south, and western, and MID western and whatever the hell sarah palin thinks she's from. of course, i probably couldn't tell two different english accents apart if you paid me. Patti Lupone doesn't really have a great cockney accent, but she was so over the top in sweeney todd, i don't think she was going for anything particular. i thought NPH did ok...but then again, i'm american.

i guess some accents just sound nicer than others. in new york, no matter how smart you are, if you talk with a brooklyn accent people are going to think you're dumb.

[miserable_rose]

I really love accents too! They fascinate me, hence my mad digression on them. I really love looking at the roots of accents, like most American accents coming from Irish and Australian accents are descended from Cockney. While I probably couldn't pull off an American accent very well, I can differentiate between them.

I thought Patti and NPH were great in Sweeney. I just find it hilarious when Americans try to imitate my accent because it sounds so funny to my ears.

I don't have any prejudice when it comes to accents at all. I'm quite surprised people think Brooklyn accents sound dumb. Do you have a Brooklyn accent?

[opheliathemad]

No, i have a generic new york accent, sort of normal-american i suppose. brooklyn used to be the sterotypical 'dumb' accent, but it's lately been replaced by that guido-italian jersey accent...because of a certain show i won't mention.

i love australian accents the most, i think! i'm crazy about errol flynn's accent, which is like australian-trying-to-sound-british! it's so cute!

[miserable_rose]

Oh, I like New York accents a lot. They sound quite sincere and businesslike to me. And I have no idea as to what show you're refering to but I'm guessing it's not very good.

I really love Australian accents too. My aunt, uncle and cousin all live in Sydney, so they have great accents. I'm very keen on my friend Emily's accent which is western Australian. It's very light and sounds almost British since she has been living here for the past 10 years. It sounds very similar Tim Minchin's accent. He is one of my favourite comedians and has lived over here for ages and sounds semi-British. I think Australian sounds closest to cockney, so I've been trying to teach my Australian cousin how to say "Cor Blimey, Guv'nah!" like a proper cockney geezer.

[coloneldespard]

I thought a lot of that had faded and that "BBC British" as a generic, acceptable accent was on the way out...although I suppose now that while, say, a Scouser, Yorkshire or other Northener accent might be thought more acceptable, it's urban accents like the "London Ashtray" that carry a social stigma. Although I suppose there's still shadows of that association of the North with poverty?

One of my great London mates has a brilliant London Ashtray accent that I love to imitate. She, meantime, likes to imitate my Aussie Strine accent (which I exagerate to amuse her).

And yes, sadly, it does still come down to class. It can work in reverse, too - one of the most hard working, lovely ladies I know who came out here (someone who struggled financial and was herself the daughter of a struggling single mother), and because she had a lovely Kentish accent, was thought quite upper-crust.

[miserable_rose]

It really is very old fashioned (and not in a good way) to judge people on their accent. I love the fact that people have so many different accents and dialects. I was quite upset that a friend of my Dad's had been to drama school and had lost her lovely Scottish accent. It is getting better, like you said, with there being some broadcasters with regional accents. Unfortunately, RP still remains the accent of choice.

London and Aussie accents are both fantastic! I do love it when people get them badly wrong (which is quite often), it's so funny!

Your poor friend. I really do hate snobbery and prejudice, especially in the world of work. People should really know better.

Oh, and Despard, you probably shouldn't refer to people as lovely ladies. My mind completely gets the wrong idea.