Switching between accents
 

Hi Everyone,

I was just curious how many of you that have been here a while now tend to switch between accents. I generally just like sounding like me. (Londoner) However, I am guessing switching between both may have its advantages when you live here? I recently have made a friend from the UK here but she has been here for over 10 years now. When she talks with me, her strong Leeds accents comes out, when she is speaking to Canadian she comes out with a strong Canadian accent. lol I have also met a few other brits here who tell me soon as they arrive back at Heathrow Airport, they are back in swing with a strong brit accent or some just stay in that mode or vice versa.

Does this just not get confusing to keep switching? What do you think and what are your personal experiences with this? :lol:

Re: Switching between accents
 

As with any part of an identity, such as wearing glasses, or having a piercing, having a british accent leads some people to treat you in a different way, sometimes more positive, sometimes negative.

I've contemplated the idea of switching accents before, consciously mind you, but I have yet to actually go ahead and do it, simply because how do you explain it to people who have already heard the british accent? ;)

It sounds like your friend does it without really thinking about it, which is similar to something I've been told about before where people go to foreign countries and start speaking the foreign language and then pick up the accent of the person they're speaking to. Perhaps your friend should look into doing some acting? :D

Exotic Wiltshire Accent
 

I don't think I could pull off a convincing Canadian accent after living here for 5 years. Mind you, some of the elderly I meet who came to Canada from the UK in the fifties sound like they arrived yesterday - so I have no intention of deliberately trying to change me accent.

I would just love it though if Canadians would guess that I'm English - not South African, New Zealander or Australian. I must come from a very exotic area in Wiltshire!

Sarah

(Still not getting house-about-out right either).

Re: Switching between accents
 

I'm not sure that its something done consciously. The missus drifts from her combine 'aarvester to Ontarian in the space of a couple of phone calls. She says I sometimes have a softer ecky thump. When back in the old country, find the biggest eye rolls are reserved for the vocab / conversational faux pas such as gas for petrol, 'put the garbage in the trunk' etc.

However after 15 years it is still (and always will be) tomato and not tomado :)

Re: Switching between accents
 

Hey guys,

For me it is not the accent, although friends in Great Britain tell me that I have a twang on certain words and vice versa.

For me it is the words I use. Example being.. "Homely" When talking about how comfortable my house is I would say "Homely". Canadians find it funny when I use this word. They inform me that I should say "Homey" as people will think that I am talking about matters of a homosexual nature. Of course, I flat out refused to correct this as it is apart of who I am to use words that are..... WAIT FOR IT!....... "Chiefly British!". Quite frankly I am getting fed up with the "When in Rome" retort which comes my way every time I defend my cultural heritage. Other then that I am very precious about spelling and pronouncing the way I was brought up and I am a Cockney. LOL!

Other then that I get a lot of attention from the ladies and my friends stay constantly amused. My sense of humour gets them every time too. Other then that I love living in Nova Scotia and I'd never move back to London unless my hand was forced! I am a proud Londoner but this city is far to aggressive for the likes of me these days. (I am visiting for Christmas).

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!

Re: Switching between accents
 

We hope to be moving over soon - we were wondering how quickly (if at all) children pick up the Canadian accent??

We have two girls 12 and 9, when we were over for two weeks in May, the girls were already putting on the accent because they thought it funny - but when does this stop being a funny thing to do and become just the norm for them?? Going to school with lots of Canadian children must have an affect of the accent?

Re: Switching between accents
 

They're destined to stick out amongst their peers, be ostracized and taunted by children that are determined to prove that new immigrants understand their place in society. Maybe.

Give them 12 months and they'll sound funny to their English friends and relatives. More likely.

Re: Switching between accents
 

LOL :D

Re: Switching between accents
 

I would say it depends on their age. Our two girls (4 & 6) were speaking like the locals within 2 weeks of starting school. Our 13 year old son held out for some time but finally succumbed.

We would walk our girls to school and they would come out of school speaking like the locals. By the time we had walked home (about 10 mins) they would have slowly morphed back to speaking like us again. However, if one of their friends opened a door and spoke to them, the transformed instantly back to speaking like locals. It was remarkable to hear and appeared completely subconcious.

Without a doubt, IMVHO the worst type of accent is when one hears an expat speaking like a local. It ends up sounding like Loyd Grossman and just doesn't sound right at all. I would say that most expats retain the accent of their homeland, but use the local nouns.

Re: Switching between accents
 

I think the younger you are when you move here the most likely to pick it up. I would just sound silly trying to imitate and i think my brit accent will be here to stay. :eek: I also sometime get asked if my accent is Australian too. I mean most get it right, but really? The only thing i have picked up is the word equivalents of some words. Going to the store instead of the shops and the highway instead of motorway. etc lol I still use tomato and not tomado. :lol:

Re: Switching between accents
 

Having now got an accent that's kind of stuck between Scottish and Canadian (have been roughly half my life in both places, but changed countries at an early age so seem to have picked up both) I do switch quite easily. Altho I don't think I sound totally Canadian or Scottish - often seem to be mixed up for Northern Irish or Newfoundland accents!

A big factor is age - the older you are (adult versus child/teenager) I think you are more likely to keep the accent you have, or close to it.

However, I do think that it sometimes depends on how public facing your job is. I worked in a fairly famous hotel when I first moved back to Canada in my 20's and found it was much easier to be understood - even by the tourists - with more of a Canadian accent..... so I gradually swung more to that.

Re: Switching between accents
 

being a geordie I think they may have a problem understanding me so I guess I will have to slow the accent down and change a few words lol but I luv me accen I daresay my son will pick up the local accent at college otherwise I doubt he will be understood its great sometimes tho cos people dont have a clue what we are saying even in the UK lol

Re: Switching between accents
 

It happens naturally with me. I left Northern Ireland at 18 to go to university in England and I had to slow down and speak more clearly to be understood. When I was on the phone to someone in NI, my English friends had no clue what I was saying. After a combined 27 years in England, Canada and now the US, I now have a generic North American accent with a slight, occasional Irish twang that only certain people can detect. However, if I'm around UK or Irish visitors, I can easily slip back into my former accents with ease - all totally subconciously though as I make no conscious effort to switch accents (I don't think I could switch very well if I consciously tried to).

Funnily enough, my English wife has more trouble being understood over here than I do. I think once my Northern Ireland accent became "anglicized" by my time in England, the result was something that sounds almost North American anyway.

Re: Switching between accents
 

My accent hasn't really changed, but the speed of the words has slowed down and with larger pauses inbetween words. just so the locals have a clue what i'm on about, i did it without realising. But when my bro in law came out to visit i switched back to speaking like i always have and my canadian friends just look blankly at me :D

My daughter's accent on the other hand has almost changed completly to a Canadian one with the occasional bit of her british accent thrown into certain words and phrases.

Re: Switching between accents
 

Your 12 year old most likely won't but your 9 year old most likely will. You will start to notice subtle changes after a year of school.

Re: Switching between accents
 

My OH has just started saying Worrrk! Most odd! :blink:
I'm sure it used only to have one r in the word, and that barely perceptible! :huh:

Re: Switching between accents
 

The changes for the 9 year old should arrive quickly - much sooner than a year. Also 12 is still young enough to assimilate very quickly as well. I went to high school in Northern Ireland with an American kid whose Irish parents had moved back home from Buffalo, NY when he was 14. We noticed changes to his accent after only a few weeks - and he was speaking like a native after a couple of years despite being born and raised in the US.

Re: Switching between accents
 

There was a girl that moved down to our school when she was 13, she had a very strong Manchester accent when she arrived - within only a few months she sounded like born and bred Hampshire Hog! :D

Re: Switching between accents
 

I worked for a year as a veterinarian in canada - I had to change the way i spoke very quickly since people found my english accent very difficult to understand and it became very frustrating to have to repeat everything multiple times.

After 6 months, I stopped being asked where in england I was from and canadians could no longer figure out my accent - A few people thought i sounded south african. Since returning to the UK, I have retained a canadian twang and it seems that I have lost my well spoken hampshire- english accent permanently. In fact, I often get mistaken for a foreigner despite being back in the UK for almost 3 years.

My accent and dialect now varies dramatically depending on who I'm talking to and I find that I'm able to switch between the two dialects easily. This is probably because I talk to my canadian boyfriend (who is still in canada) daily and visit him often.

Re: Switching between accents
 

my kids have been in school for nearly a year with the youngest being 7..none of them have even the hint of a canadian accent..they have reatined their english accents completely and i dont know why??:confused:

Re: Switching between accents
 

Very unusual - especially for the 7 year old. Do they spend much time with their friends outside of school e.g. sleepovers?

My oldest 2 girls were born in Canada and moved to the UK while quite young. They lost their Canadian accents very quickly and picked up London accents in a few months. A couple of years later we moved to the US and everyone commented on their "lovely, cute English accents". Those accents were again gone in a few months and they quickly became total Yanks.

Re: Switching between accents
 

my older two who are 11 and 13 now do spend alot of time with their friends sleepeovers etc my youngest not so much even so i would have thought they would have changed their accents to some degree but not at all.

Re: Switching between accents
 

We have been here 2 years - kids are now 12 and 16 - still sound British - sometimes a twang when talking quick with friends. Probably cos I beat it out of them when they get home and make them talk like Queeny ;)

Re: Switching between accents
 

Looks like there are no sure answers to this one as all of our experiences vary widely. I say, just let your kids grow up to become amazing people. Their experiences will make them who they are.

BIG SMILE :)

Re: Switching between accents
 

[QUOTE=chanceUK;9074453]I worked for a year as a veterinarian in canada - I had to change the way i spoke very quickly since people found my english accent very difficult to understand and it became very frustrating to have to repeat everything multiple times.


I found the same. I have changed the way I pronounce certain words so that people can understand me. I don't get so irritated as I used to...It used to really get to me lol.

I have to say: Natalie as Nadalie, Butter as Budder for two quick examples!

I was called Leslie for the first year of my working here - where Natalie and Leslie comes together I have no idea (apart from the last 'lee' sound). One of my friends still calls me Leslie 2 years down the line - just for the craic (little %$#@@).

I do laugh at my neighbours (or neighbors!) though - because they now say "silly cow", "Silly bint" and "Sod it", the odd b**ger or numbnut! :). They were telling me the other day that they now say these things as naturally as I do -(what a bad influence!). As I guess I do when I say "dink" and other local slang I get from them.

Did you know calling a woman a Silly Cow out here is tantamount to calling her the most foul swearword we have in the UK language! No neither did I - what we usually use for a silly term of endearment could get you a slap round the head here! Hence why my neighbors have picked it up to take the P out of me!

Hey ho - we live and learn! Just my tuppence of crap hahah

Re: Switching between accents
 

It's actually natural to 'mimick' voice and body language when communicating. i've been here 18 mths & find it can help them understand you particularly if you are dealing with (non-UK) newcomers, they find a thick accent hard to understand. and I've even spoken to people who have spent decades actively resisting picking up the canadian accent.

Re: Switching between accents
 

Imagine how hard it is for me... I'm Cockney! LOL!

I have been teaching Cockney Rhyming Slang to my friends though so this makes up for things! My plan is to get them as fluent as me so that we can talk more concentrated Cockney then that will help keep my accent strong. Am I sly or what? HAHAhAHA!

Re: Switching between accents
 

I've lived in Canada for over 30 years and still have a British accent. I came here in my early 20's. When I go back to the UK, people say that I sound Canadian (or American), but as soon as I open my mouth here, people know I'm from England. I've never tried to lose my accent, but nor have I tried to keep it. My husband is Canadian, as are most of our friends. My kids (who are now adults) think I talk funny! I suppose if you have such a thick accent that people can't understand you, you might want to try to change, but otherwise, I wouldn't try - it must be quite difficult to consciously think about your accent every time you speak.