Do you do the accent?

[The Mollusk]

Ooh, fine line, isn't it? Doing the accent. When do you do the accent?

Doing the accent, then, let's analyse it:

Using an appropriated term
Do you say "paper mashy" or do you say papier-mâché? Do you say "raisin debt" or do you say raison d'être, all French like? Are you worried it might make you look like a bit of a twat? I mean, you wouldn't learn Japanese but just speak it in a Mancunian accent, would you? I think this one boils down to self-consciousness. But then would you go to an Indian restaurant and order bhaji and do a fucking Indian accent? Is that okay? I don't think that's okay!

Doing an impression
You're at the Christmas party. Everyone already thinks you're a twat for bringing up the Die Hard is-it-or-isn't-it-a-Christmas-film debate. You want to ease the awkward tension with a chekky Hans Gruber quote. Something like "I guess I'm just another American who saw too many movies as a child." Do you do ze accent? Bearing in mind everyone already thinks you're a twat.

Saying a thing for no reason
Have you ever greeted a friend in a foreign language? Just been like, "Hola señorita!" like the absolute fucking mad lad that you are? I mean, discounting the fact that it makes you look like a twat, that's probably fine, isn't it? You're not a racist, you just think it sounds cool. But then, white kids on the internet in the last 10 years started using the N-word again purely because they thought it just sounded cool. Where does it end?!

Using a quirky font









So what do you reckon? Accent, or no accent? Or do you reckon the world would be a better place if we all were forced to speak the same language? Picking one out of the clear blue sky, for example, German?

I just don't know any more, Jez!

[shiftwork2]

I'm probably guilty of similar but the 'do one line in generic Northern' always mystified me.  The worst person ever to have lived, Zoe Ball, did this frequently.

[The Mollusk]

I agree with you! The North have suffered enough!

[Cloud]

I do a Northern accent, but that's probably because I'm from the North.

All down to context innit geezer?

[jobotic]

Do lots when I'm talking to myself or singing in shower, but I'm alone so I'll do what I want.

I do occasionally say "adios" which thinking about it is a bit twatty. I have a friend who says "hola" and it's very annoying. We both have estuary accents.

[C_Larence]

One of my favourite things to do is telling people my girlfriend does a really good Chinese accent and asking her to demonstrate.

[the science eel]

I'm probably guilty of similar but the 'do one line in generic Northern' always mystified me.  The worst person ever to have lived, Zoe Ball, did this frequently.

I'm absolutely ready to get on board with this idea, but I'm not really sure what you mean.

[Endicott]

Do you say "paper mashy" or do you say papier-mâché?

Paper mashay. It's a bit half and half.

Do you say "raisin debt" or do you say raison d'être, all French like?

raisin debt? Wot you bought too many raisins? No-one says raisin debt. You are stuck with the french pronunciation, or just don't use the expression at all.

Fortunately I've found many other ways to look like a twat, so this is all a bit moot.

[olliebean]

raisin debt? Wot you bought too many raisins? No-one says raisin debt. You are stuck with the french pronunciation, or just don't use the expression at all.

I'd say that's a half-and-half as well; the French pronunciation but with English "r"s.

[The Mollusk]

raisin debt? Wot you bought too many raisins? No-one says raisin debt. You are stuck with the french pronunciation, or just don't use the expression at all.

Ah yeah but do you say "raison" as it's spelled or do you do the "rr" sound more from the back of the mouth than the front, like wot French people do? You know what I mean.

fake edit: yeah what olliebean said

[Dex Sawash]

When driving alone, I often count things. Always with australian accent. Have tried counting in spanish with australian accent but it doesn't really work.

[Uncle TechTip]

Why don't we say Munchen or Parr-ee buty wanky football commentators say Zaragotha.

[Buelligan]

Ah yeah but do you say "raison" as it's spelled or do you do the "rr" sound more from the back of the mouth than the front, like wot French people do? You know what I mean.

fake edit: yeah what olliebean said

I don't think many French people, unless they're from Rutland, to the rr's thing on raison d'être.  I too was completely mystified by your raisin debt, where is the relationship?  The mad rosbifs again, I suppose.

I can truly say that English, all the English speakers I've met in France including myself, never seem able to sound convincingly French no matter how impressed their less francophone friends may be.  It's as plain as a pikestaff, lad, you ent French.  This often leads me to wonder how they got by in the War, undercover.  Utterly impossible.  I am seriously calling bullshit on it.

I know a German, complete German, who spent time in a very rural part of Britain as a child and now speaks utterly fluent English with a broad and totally convincing accent of that area, not a Teutonic trace.  Also, an Italian, fluent English-speaker who learnt it from ze Germans und now speaks English like an extra from Hello Hello.  That's all my accents stuff.  Thanks.

[The Mollusk]

I don't think many French people, unless they're from Rutland, to the rr's thing on raison d'être.  I too was completely mystified by your raisin debt, where is the relationship?

Because when spoken properly, the "re" at the end of "d'être" is very soft/light. So if spoken by someone non-French, that part of the word could be lost in mispronunciation by either not knowing how to do the accent, or not wanting to. Or just saying it quickly and fumbling it.

[thenoise]

Correct pronunciation =/= 'putting on an accent'. 'Raisin d'etre' is in English dictionaries, it's a French phrase in common use in English (much like many 'English' words.)

I pronounce 'bhajji' correctly, but I don't 'put on an accent', any more than I'd waggle my head around while saying it.

[The Mollusk]

I bet you do waggle your head around when you say it

[Thomas]

If it's one of yer papier-mâchés, I'll bastardise it with a near-Coronation Street pronunciation.

For leisure purposes I do two accents:

• Australian
  
  
• Herzog

[bgmnts]

I mean I try to pronounce them correctly in their original language yeah.

[Shit Good Nose]

Are we far enough away from apartheid now that it's no longer okay to do the white South African accent?


Despite having grown up with parents from South Wales, I've never been able to do a Welsh accent - quickly ends up going into shameful Indian, which has always been the pitfall of trying to do Welsh.  Easier to do North East Wales where they all sound like scousers.

• Herzog

I always say "jangle" instead of jungle whenever I'm with a certain group of friends (i.e. those that get what I'm on about).

[Thomas]

Are we far enough away from apartheid now that it's no longer okay to do the white South African accent?

What if you meet some gangbangers and you've got to fuckin love em?

[thecuriousorange]

You can't even say "Merci buckets" probably nowadays.

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

I have no clue what the 'Welsh accent turning Indian' people are on about, whenever I attempt one it always goes Geordie

[JesusAndYourBush]

I pronounce 'bhajji' correctly, but I don't 'put on an accent', any more than I'd waggle my head around while saying it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhL8AJng0os

[Shit Good Nose]

What if you meet some gangbangers and you've got to fuckin love em?

I think Bob is the only person left on the planet that can get away with doing accents like that.

[Captain Z]

This isn't quite what the topic is about but I wonder if there will be a reassessment of whether doing any accent for laughs is OK in the near future. There was a recent episode of WILTY with Ronan Keating and a story involving his manager. So Rob Brydon offered to play this part, giving it the whole 'begorrah begorrah to be sure' to hoots of laughter from everyone. On the one hand Rob Brydon is an impressionist, and can do a decent Irish accent. On the other hand, you wouldn't do this for the majority of other world accents these days would you. And on the third hand, I don't think I would have a problem with Rob Brydon performing an (accurate) Ronan Keating impersonation in a hypothetical scenario.

[Thomas]

Welsh doing Irish - okay.

English doing Irish - no?

English doing Welsh - passable.

English doing Welsh doing Irish - hmm??

[Endicott]

Couldn't we just ban Rob Bryden. It would be a lot simpler.

[EOLAN]

For all the flack about English speakers never sounding convincingly French; I don't think I ever met a French person who would pass as having any type of English accent.

[El Unicornio, mang]

For all the flack about English speakers never sounding convincingly French; I don't think I ever met a French person who would pass as having any type of English accent.

I have a French friend who has a very very convincing English accent, but there are words or intonations here and there which give it away. She gets a big annoyed/disappointed when people ask where she's from. I can imagine feeling the same way if I'd spent years living in Paris and trying to perfect a Parisian accent only to have a local say "Viens-tu d'Angleterre?" after saying "Bonjour"

I can understand wanting to hide an accent in a foreign country. I would get a bit sick of answering the same questions every time I spoke in America, and having to listen to "ooh, av a cuppa tea guv'nor" or whatever.

[Shit Good Nose]

For all the flack about English speakers never sounding convincingly French; I don't think I ever met a French person who would pass as having any type of English accent.

One of my aunts is French.  She met my (Welsh) uncle when he was working over there and moved back with him and shortly married.  They were both in their very early 20s, and, even though she was already pretty much fluent in English when they met, it wasn't until they moved back to Wales (Chepstow to be precise) that she spoke it as her main language, and she quickly developed quite a strong Welsh accent.  Now, when my cousin was born, my uncle would speak to him in English and my aunt would speak to him in French, so he grew up bilingual with a heavy lean to his mum's (my aunt's) apparently strong Nice accent.  He is also VERY convincingly French - most actual French people aren't able to guess he's actually English, and most of those that can it's usually because they've spent time in England themselves.  Anyway, they moved from Chepstow to Ashford when my cousin was about 10/11, so he now has this weird South Wales/home counties hybrid accent when he speaks English, but has maintained his Nice-French accent.