As a denizen of the United States I’ve always thought the Australian accent was charming (esp. women’s accents) , but about 5 or 6 years ago I saw a TV news magazine feature in a 20/20 type program, where the topic was the desire of upwardly mobile Australians to get rid of or mimimize their accents because of the perception that it was “ugly” and try to speak more like something approaching a BBC style English accent or at least a more “English like” version of Australian .
In the feature it showed people with fairly broad Australian accents doing the Eliza Dolittle thing with various language teachers. I was struck by how odd this seemed because Australians have always seemed be a fairly proud and successful people who reveled in, and celebrated their cultural differences, and the last thing I would have expected was an inferiority complex of any kind. Was this a temporary or isolated phenomenon, with the show making much ado about nothing, or are some upwardy mobile Australians still doing this?
Wow. That’s weird, 'cause I’ve got a coterie of all-American teens here who spent a good part of the summer with Strine accents thanks to the crocodile hunter’s movie, what’s his name.
Yes, I’ve read some similar articles. Mainly I think it is for solicitor-types who want to work in Britain.
For the record, I’ve been accused of not being Australian by other Aussie due to my accent. I’ve also been asked by some English people if I was English :eek:
I don’t know about all that. I DO know that I wasn’t very impressed with my sister talking like an Australian; after living with six aussie folks for six months. Not that I don’t like Australians. I love the bunch I’ve hung out with before. It was just that nobody could understand what the hell she was saying when she got home. I couldn’t understand anything she said really. I understood the Aussies I got drunk with fine. But a Tennessee girl acting like something she’s not is … well… stupid.
Now she is in Korea living with a bunch of Irish folks and is trying to sound Irish. :smack: I don’t get it but it’s her life and I love her just the same.
I don’t know what’s wrong with being yourself, and celebrating your culture. I guess sometimes we all want to be be something more than we are. Or maby it’s more than what we think we are.
What’s wrong with that?
I myself am perfectly happy being me.
There is a stereotype around here that if you have a broad okker (sp?) accent, you are somehow less intelligent and a bit of a redneck - I think there’s an element of snobbery to it.
My family gives me crap about my accent. I’m told, I used to have quite a refined accent, and then I went to uni and studied engineering, and my accent has become quite broad. I can’t hear it myself.
I wish that I could speak with less of an accent and go back to the whole refined accent thing. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m ashamed.
This type of thing is nothing new. Many southerners in the USA have been shedding their accents for years now. Apparently bland midwestern is somehow more cultured and intelligent than a good old southern drawl. Same thing, some people hear somebody with a pronounced southern accent and immediately deduct about 20 IQ points. I have learned to turn my accent on and off depending on the company I’m in and I sorta resent having to do it.
And no. Well, yes some of us try to “Brit up” our accents, but it doesn’t happen so much these days (partially because the accent isn’t as broad and twangy as it once was - check out any old black and white Aussie movie, then watch a new one).
Up until… ooo… about the 70s, I guess, broad Australian accents (“Strine”) were avoided on television and radio. These days, they are quite accepted. Margaret Throsby, a veteran radion announcer with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, recalls that her first ever two words spoken on radio (in the 60s) were “concert hour”, pronouced as a plummy “concert aah”. In those days, it simply wasn’t done to give words like “dance” the Aussie nasal treatment. It was “daahnce” all the way.
People finally woke up to how pretentious this all was, and realised that an intelligent, educated person will sound intelligent and educated with whatever accent they happen to have, be it broad Australian, Deep South USA, or anything else. And if you’re a dipstick, the same rules apply. In no-nonsense countries like Australia and the United States, the “quaite refained, don’t you know” affectations don’t get anybody very far these days. That said, the Steve Irwin nonsense doesn’t wash with most Aussies either.
Ashamed of my accent ? No, not at all, and it can be quite broad and coarse after I’ve had a few beers
That sad, trying to be objective about it, I don’t think the Australian accent is a particularly nice one. I’d love to have a New Zealand accent. That’s my favourite accent of English-speakers.
There’s no reason to be ashamed though… I just speak like I do, end of story.
I’m certainly not ashamed of my accent. I’m not thrilled with the really broad “Steve Irwin” style Australian accent, but I’m perfectly fine with the way I talk, mate.
Like Goo, though, I don’t think the Australian accent is particularly nice or “charming” as the op says. But it’s the way I talk and I’m damned if I’m going to try and change it.
(Don’t get the NZ bit though - After hearing the Kiwis on the Footy Show shouting “Brung Back the Buff!”, I’m convinced it’s the silliest accent in the English speaking world.)
I’ve never heard of these “Tone down your accent” classes. I guess a TV show can find anything wacky if it needs to.
Hmmm…interesting sort of like Australian but with more English intonation, with some words pronunced or stressed differently and somehow the overall phrasing and conversation speed is faster and less arch than either English or Australian and more American like in “pitch”. It’s like a flatter, faster version of an Australian accent overall with some other differences.
I’m from the USA, and I definately have a thing for Australian accents. Too bad that Australian guy in my tour group had a girlfriend…
Seriously, though, I don’t think that anyone should be ashamed of their accents. They simply help define character. Your accent was picked up wherever you spent some time, and that place helped shape you; therefore the accent is just a bit of a symbol of that.
