Poking A Hornet's Nest

It would seem that Ms Hopkins has poked a hornet's nest and the hornets are flying in her direction

From my experience, it does tend to be people who are somewhat ignorant that apply labels to people without knowing anything about them but this attitude to accents is one that does irritate me: how on earth can you claim someone is unintelligent because of an accent?

'Correct' English is a very recent thing and would have been unknown, let alone comtemplated, until the social climbers needed a boost:

'The correlation between class and accent is a British phenomenon, says Brown.'

“If you were from Yorkshire in the middle ages you spoke with a Yorkshire accent, whether you were a peasant or a nobleman,” he said.

' “Later if you look at Dickens novels, he put in portrayals of local accents and dialects. It reflects at that stage there was a strong notion of a standard spoken form of English which was used by people who aspired to a higher social status. Those of a lower social status used local dialect.” '

I hope people who use this type of yardstick to assess people, will read the comments made by Dr Catherine Brown and realise just how uneducated they sound when making judgement with no factual basis!

Some good may have come from Ms Hopkins and people will not have their career efforts thwarted because of their accent

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/are-we-judg...9.html#JeAnkVu

Re: Poking A Hornet's Nest

I have travelled our lovely country from top to bottom and side to side and as soon as I go North or West of the Thames valley I seem to be considered really posh and people assume I have been to a really good school and have been educated to with an inch of my life.

Left comprehensive school at 15, from a family of farmer labourers/travellers/police and cleaners.

Always struck me as strange because my accent is just what most people here speak.

Cannot say I have judged anyone on accent although I do have problems understanding really broad Scottish.

Re: Poking A Hornet's Nest

Yes, I can struggle with a strong Glaswegian accent and also with a strong Geordie accent but I would never label them as being thick a brick! A few years ago, I dated a man from Co Durham for about 3 years and managed to do a fair impression of Geordie-speak - or so I thought, his niece fell about laughing saying she'd never heard Geordie spoken with a Brummie accent before

Re: Poking A Hornet's Nest

I love most accents, there are a couple that grate but - never have given a thought on the intelligence just on an accent, its what they've got to say that gives me a clue .....

Re: Poking A Hornet's Nest

I think that accent is gradually becoming less of a problem. Nowadays many of the TV presenters have strong, regional accents.

Re: Poking A Hornet's Nest

Accents make people and life more colourful. Mind you I have to say that, I'm married to a northerner!
Throughout my career I have worked with a number of call centres and can honestly vouch for the power of an accent. It's true that some areas of the UK have less appealing accents however the most successful call centres are in places like the Yorkshire, South Wales, and Scotland.