The Student Room Group

Why do Irish/English teenagers have a dislike for ''posh'' accents?

When I came to Ireland from the US as a child I had an American/South African accent. Some people found it interesting, and a good few were a bit too vocal of their distaste.


But that wasn't the only problem. People had just as much trouble understanding my accent as they did hating it. So I decided to adopt a new accent. I chose a standard English accent. Imitating an Dublin accent is quite difficult.




After a while it became permanent. No one bothered me about it. But I heard people talking behind my back saying that I thought I was better than everyone because I was American and made myself posher by speaking an English accent.


Even when I went to secondary school I switched between American and British and people complained of the same thing. Trying to look to posh.


I think its ridiculous how trying to speak with a different accent properly, (especially English) gets you subjected to ridicule and criticism. Has anyone had this experience?
I am from Edinburgh, and I would say I have a rather posh Scottish accent, which verges on being an English accent. I would say there is a general feeling of dislike towards accents which are deemed to be 'posh'.

Reverse snobbery?
Jealousy?

I do not know what the reason behind it is.
Reply 2
It's all down to the class system.
Reply 3
Original post by mongolodyte
When I came to Ireland from the US as a child I had an American/South African accent. Some people found it interesting, and a good few were a bit too vocal of their distaste.


But that wasn't the only problem. People had just as much trouble understanding my accent as they did hating it. So I decided to adopt a new accent. I chose a standard English accent. Imitating an Dublin accent is quite difficult.




After a while it became permanent. No one bothered me about it. But I heard people talking behind my back saying that I thought I was better than everyone because I was American and made myself posher by speaking an English accent.


Even when I went to secondary school I switched between American and British and people complained of the same thing. Trying to look to posh.


I think its ridiculous how trying to speak with a different accent properly, (especially English) gets you subjected to ridicule and criticism. Has anyone had this experience?


Surely if you were under the age of about 14 when you moved you would have picked up the local accent anyway?

Do you mean you alternated accents when speaking to the same person? I switch accents too, but I'm consistent in who I use each accent with. Changing accent mid-speech would be very odd.

I expect that for historical reasons some Irish people won't like anything to do with England, and will be even more affronted that you're using an English accent for no real reason. In your case picking up an Irish accent would have been normal, unless you were already in your late teens or at an international school, where everyone sounds vaguely American.
A posh accent is usually a sign of a posh upbringing, and a posh upbringing, although not always, often involves some amount of snobbery. And generally people are against snobbery, at least when it's committed against them. I don't think it's personal, I mean it's ridiculous but not personal...
Reply 5
Original post by G8D
The problem is that a "posh" accent often comes with a snobby **** behind it. Even if you don't fit this type you still remind people of it.


Hmmm. I thought that was only among poorer students. I lived in a pretty upper middle class area and went to school in the same place. I don't think there were any lower class students.

Why wouldn't people of middle class want to at least aspire to be 'posher and/or have posh friends. I mean wealth isn't that important but would you want to associate with people who can't speak properly in public?
If you've lived somewhere long enough, but have an accent from somewhere else then people will assume you've rejected the local identity. Especially if the accent you use is perceived to be more prestigious, then you're perceived to be rejecting the locals.

Simple as that
Reply 7
Being posh is associated with being nerdy. No other reason than that.
Reply 8
Original post by mongolodyte
Hmmm. I thought that was only among poorer students. I lived in a pretty upper middle class area and went to school in the same place. I don't think there were any lower class students.

Why wouldn't people of middle class want to at least aspire to be 'posher and/or have posh friends. I mean wealth isn't that important but would you want to associate with people who can't speak properly in public?


Depends on the context. All language is "good" per context, by definition.
Original post by mongolodyte
When I came to Ireland from the US as a child I had an American/South African accent. Some people found it interesting, and a good few were a bit too vocal of their distaste.


But that wasn't the only problem. People had just as much trouble understanding my accent as they did hating it. So I decided to adopt a new accent. I chose a standard English accent. Imitating an Dublin accent is quite difficult.




After a while it became permanent. No one bothered me about it. But I heard people talking behind my back saying that I thought I was better than everyone because I was American and made myself posher by speaking an English accent.


Even when I went to secondary school I switched between American and British and people complained of the same thing. Trying to look to posh.


I think its ridiculous how trying to speak with a different accent properly, (especially English) gets you subjected to ridicule and criticism. Has anyone had this experience?


Because probably all of the people you were with, especially in Ireland, are common people as opposed to posh people so they just feel intimidated.

A lot of people moan and mimic me for having a posh accent which I don't even have but then you realise thats purely because you talk properly, in proper English, and they don't.
Personally, whilst I always speak quite properly, I'll adopt some of the regional dropped letters and (to a lesser degree) vowel pronunciations if I'm at home and speaking to someone whom I might otherwise alienate by seeming too posh. (I'll also avoid using words like 'whilst' and 'whom', correct as they are.)

I think Zürich is about right, and that the idea that people are put off by 'posh' accents because they suggest you're 'nerdy' is wrong.

In particular, though, you won't be perceived well if the 'posh' accent is not your natural accent, and you've just adopted it, particularly if you adopted it for its prestige. A genuine upper class person speaking as such is not pretentious. Someone from another background who is imitating an upper class person usually is, and will be seen as, pretentious.

Likewise, if you're known to be from an upper class background, and try to imitate a lower class accent, you're at risk of ending up sounding like a total dick (George Osborne does a good job of this). I think the real point is that, if you seem like you're a genuine person, the way you speak is much less likely to be an issue.
It's just people being intolerant.

When in stoke some random girl didn't like my ex's "posh" southern accent and beat her up because of it....

Talking to some people it pretty much boils down to poorer people thinking posh sounding people are automatically rich.... poor people don't like rich people, simples.
Why would you put on an accent.....Just seems like you're not comfortable with who you are and it clearly didn't help you with people not liking your accent it made it worse by the sounds of it and just made them think you were trying to be something you're not which most people wouldn't like as you'd appear kind of fake.
Original post by mongolodyte
When I came to Ireland from the US as a child I had an American/South African accent. Some people found it interesting, and a good few were a bit too vocal of their distaste.


But that wasn't the only problem. People had just as much trouble understanding my accent as they did hating it. So I decided to adopt a new accent. I chose a standard English accent. Imitating an Dublin accent is quite difficult.




After a while it became permanent. No one bothered me about it. But I heard people talking behind my back saying that I thought I was better than everyone because I was American and made myself posher by speaking an English accent.


Even when I went to secondary school I switched between American and British and people complained of the same thing. Trying to look to posh.


I think its ridiculous how trying to speak with a different accent properly, (especially English) gets you subjected to ridicule and criticism. Has anyone had this experience?


My natural accent is a standard English accent - Received Pronunciation if you want to be precise - however because I grew up in the north west of England, I get bullied for the way I speak, even though I've not had a snobby upbringing (my mum was on benefits until I was 13, abandoned by my father).

I'm saddened to see the number of people who make judgements based on the way people speak.
Reply 14
An American putting on any form of English accent is probably going to get mocked for it, I don't know what you expected really.

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