Local accents.

[NorthAngel]

More than half of British parents discourage their children from speaking with their local accent for fear of harming their life chances, according to a survey.

I live in Newcastle and I dislike the geordie accent and do try and stop my children from using geordie slang. Is this wrong?
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[Steve50]

Wish they could do the same with the scottish,some of em you can't understand a single word,that's why i never watched Rab c nesbit,although funny,the accents were un-understandable,and when you try and listen to a drunk one..

[Hutchylad]

I think its wrong, slang is a massive part of culture and if you are stopping your kids using it you are depriving them of culture IMO.

I am 20 years old, so still quite young I believe With my friends I use all sorts of slang, but when I feel I have to I can "speak propper" perfectly well

What about internet words if they are on the PC like LOL or similar things?
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[Hutchylad]

[TraceT]

My Mum says that when I was little I spoke "Queen's English". I got the living daylights kicked out of me at High School for being "a snob", just because of the way I spoke and because I lived in the opposite direction to the rest of the school.

To hear me now you wouldn't ever know - ask anyone who knows me - common as muck I am now!!

Imo, for this reason and this reason alone accents aren't a bad thing, especially at a young age. If I'd of spoken with a Prestonian accent, I would of blended in better at High School.

[NorthAngel]

[micky D]

i think it would be a shame to lose the accents of areas you come from , as long as they speak nicely why would your accent be a problem
i was brought up in the east end of london i do have a slight accent ( cockney) but it has never been a problem . i love the goerdie , liverpudlian and manucunian tones apart from jamie carragher cant understand a bloody word he says

[Alex B]

Its a valuable life skill to be able to communicate with other people. The value of a communication is only as high as others' understanding. Therefore, people are better at life if they can talk in a way that can be understood.

Its a good thing, and its not close.

Its also a valuable, employable skill to be able to show that you can present a professional appearance in business situations. This means that even if you talk in a silly accent down the pub, you must be able to switch to RP in business interviews, meetings and presentations.

There is also no doubt that many accents sound 'dumb' (often due to slow pace, rising pitch at the end of sentences - brummie, some scouse, some geordie, etc) , and not being able to hide them would certainly hurt a persons EV.

Some accents also sound too 'working class' - I think if I spoke like I was still a local in Chesterfield, you might hire me to do your plumbing, but not as a business consultant.

And its not all the poorer areas - People from areas like Northampton can sound overly plumby implying dim pretentiousness and inbreeding, again they should learn RP unless applying for an in-the-family Equestrian job.

[oldbloke]

I live in Wet Yorks but work in Manc, so The Lad's been in nursery in Manc. He currently has a Manc accent and I'm seriously hoping it changes to Yorkshire later. In particular I hope we can get him to pronounce his Ts and stop using the glo`al stop.
I'm from the West Country (awl roit moi luvver?) originally and ErIndoors says part of the initial attraction was my rhotic accent (she studied languages so uses posh words like 'rhotic' when normal people would say I roll my Rs a bit).
I like the Tyneside accents. About the only one I don't much care for is Estuary.

[BennyP]

[AngusD]

A distinction should be made between accents and slang. If people are that bothered they should concentrate on speaking properly. Listening to (fellow) northerners elongating a couple of vowels here and there and overdoing their 'h' is always amusing, as are certain southerners who believe that their accent makes them sound posh but will say 'I was sat' or 'none of them were' - both these howlers are seen on the news, while the latter slips by editors every day because 'none of them was' doesn't sound right (it took me ages explaining this to a friend who'd asked for help editing his first novel).
My daughter switches between different accents, living in Scotland with parents from England and Belgium. She brought a form home from school and one of the questions asked where she 'stayed' rather than lived (very common around these parts, where the accent, incidentally, is very nice). No biggie, but an example of a school replacing the correct word.
We might make fun of others' accents, but in many (including European) countries these obvious differences take on much more political and sometimes serious significance.
Cheers,
AngusD

[RobGibraltar]

I was born in wolverhampon, raised in devon, lived in gib for a bit and now live in scotland. I can turn on most accents but usually speak fairly neutrally with a hint of public school if I'm not in an aussie mood

so wye aye ang pet, yez gan oot on tha toon like ya na man?
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[NorthAngel]

[jellyface]

When I was living in the US and now in Australia, I often have to say that I do not have an accent, as I am from London.

I get quite a lot of strange reactions to that from many ignorant people
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[Steve50]