Can I Change my Accent?

[Board Game Geek]

Hi,

I was wondering what accent I should adopt to be a more successful mover and shaker.

Being an ex-am-dram afficionado, I tend to vary my accent according to the company I am in.

Eg, if in a taxi, I adopt a more fruity "Estuary Essex" English, but when dealing with the upper echelons, I go for "Etonian English".

Naturally, I am "Etonian" sort of accented, but can drop it at a drop of a hat and most if not all would never know.

However, it is a drag and I would like to know if I should revert to the Etonian and be done with it, or retrain myself for the Estuary.

Any ideas ?

[malvolio]

Being the child of a serviceman with some 14 schools to my name, I find my accent now matches wherever I am at the time - at a new school you have about 4 hours to acquire the local dialect! So at home it's Zummerzet me boy, at work it's sort of west-end london innit, at my parent's it's back to Welsh by yer and socially a sort of neutral middle English. However, I have been variously taken for a Scot, and Aussie and a Yorkie!

And I don't know if you've noticed but almost every utterance from New Liebour seems to come out with a Glaswegian accent these days...

Best bet is to use whatever accent comes out, since I don't think people actually notice any more. But be careful when talking to people with proper ones - my best man used to get reet garrity when I asked him if he was cooming up t' pub for pint....

[Cojak]

Being in exactly the same position as you, malvolio, I have gone in exactly the opposite direction with an RP accent despite my mother coming from Northern Ireland and my father coming from Cornwall...

It goes down a treat with the continentals, particularly if you s l o w i t d o w n s o t h e y c a n u n d e r s t a n d you...

(this board has removed they extra spaces added :\ )

[Sysman]

Brought up to speak "properly" (not with the local Yorkshire), I picked up RP at Uni. That served me well when I first started working abroad as foreigners could understand me, and on trips back home nobody could tell where I came from.

Then I moved back to Yorkshire and got sick of being called variously, snob, stuck up git, Southern wufter, so learnt Yorkshire, but this time with the full blown accent, tha nos.

But then abroad again and back to clear English, but not what I would call RP.

Give me a couple of hours back in Yorkshire and I can revert to that.

I hate eshtuwawy English with a passion, and point blank refuse to use it.

[malvolio]

I hate eshtuwawy English with a passion, and point blank refuse to use it.

Yes, I agree - just like real English but without all the consonants! Ugh...

>:

[xoggoth]

We are all two faced buggers. I tend also to go from rather posh to sarf Lundon depending on company. Also tend to drop into Australian if I meet any ozzies or sometimes for no particular reason at all. Various people have thought me Australian in the past.

I think being able to turn on the posh is still an asset in the UK, particularly when dealing with officialdom. No matter how liberal/lefty these middle class concerned types may be, way deep down they don't really like the common people.