Are you interested in dropping your southern accent?

by jam 29 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  jam

  Well you are in luck, Oak Ridge National Laboratory in

  TN offered a class for their 4000 employees from 90

  different countries, get this,a class that teaches how to

  minimice a southern accent. A six-week class that

  would help employees learn to recognize the pronunciation

  and grammer diffferences that make your speech sound

  southern, and learn what to do so you neutralize it through

  a technique called "Code switching", WTH is code switching.

  Sorry folks they cancel the class. I wonder why.LOL

  Damn't, "We" all talk just fine...
• 

  stillin

  The southern dialect has changed a lot in 30 years. TV and radio announcers almost never have much of the old twang, and certainly none of the colorful euphemisms and figures of speech that colored southern speech in years past.

  I kind of miss it. I've found that intellect comes in myriads of speech patterns and that, if a person chooses to label another as stupid or even ignorant based on his native tongue, the one doing the pre-judging is the one who loses out.
• 

  Magnum

  Are you serious? Does a southern accent really have a stigma as if southerners aren't as smart as others?

  Another question arises - are they referring to southern black or southern white or both? To, me there is no difference in the speech of blacks and whites in the north and the west, but in the south, the blacks (not all) have one accent or style of speech and the whites (not all) have another. Both are easily recognizable. So, I wonder what they mean by "southern". I'm guessing it's the white version that makes people think of hillbillies.
• 

  jam

  It's been 54 years and I still have that southern accent, Ark.

  A Vietnamese co-worker ask me where was I born, he ask

  were your born in Central or South America. You sound

  a little different from most Americans..LOL
• 

  Terry

  I was reared in Fort Worth, Texas.

  I had no idea I had an accent, bad grammar or a Southern point of view . . . until . . .

  My eighth grade teacher listened to my oral book report and gave me constructive criticism.

  I was a shy child with a weird combination of inferiority complex and sense of superiorty operating simultaneously.

  The teacher, Mrs. Greene, gave me six things I needed to work on and I was humiliated and furious.

  I protested. She calmly suggested I go home and record myself reading a long, expressive passage out of a book . . .

  and then LISTEN to myself--just to see if I continued to believe she had been too hard on me.

  Well . . .

  I did perform that experiment and I was apalled. I was shocked. I was hit hard to discover what a HAYSEED I was.

  I was a poor White-trash, rural, Southern hick.

  It was a blow.

  I immediately embarked on a self-improvement program.

  I memorized 16 new vocabulary words per day and wrote out the exact pronunciations indicated in the dictionary.

  I found a person in school with perfect diction and had them listen to me when I read. I asked for corrections.

  Example: "I'm going on a walk."

  I would say it like this "I'm goin' own a wah-uk."

  "Give me ten cents" would come out, "Gimme tin sints."

  "I have a dent in my fender." would be "I have a dint in my finder."

  My vowel sounds were all off.

  Oil sounded like All.

  Ignorant came out "Ig-nernt" and so on.

  Within a 3 year period I had turned it around! It was the single most important improvement I've made to my life.

  I regard a Southern accent now as being on a grayscale from "Charming to . . . stupid."
• 

  jam

  Magnum: I believe they were refering to all southerns. What is

  so funny, no classes was offered for the other employees from over

  90 different countries..
• 

  Magnum

  jam: What is so funny, no classes was offered for the other employees from over 90 different countries..

  Yeah, I was thinking about that - that is odd.

  Terry: I regard a Southern accent now as being on a grayscale from "Charming to . . . stupid."

  I think I do, too.
• 

  Quarterback

  Get er done.....
• 

  jam

  Terry I wish I had done that. When I came out here (Calif) from

  Arkansas I withdrew. I came from a all black school and at 11 years

  old, an A student it was a culture shock. All the kids sounded strange.

  In the south my teacher spoke like me, here my teacher spoke as if

  she was from England. My grades plummet..
• 

  LoisLane looking for Superman

  LOL... I have often wanted to take English elocution lessons. lol

  When I first married, and moved far away without any friends or family near for love and support, my ex and I spent a weekend at a prominent elder's home. He and his wife took their big dictionary out, and sat me down in their living room, to tear my English apart. I was brave and did not cry, but thought what small minded untraveled people these small town people were.

  -----> (See, LoisLane is doing better. I did not call them a$$hol@s!). <----- for me. lol

  Their big ambition before they became JW was to be high ups in the Salvation Army, now he is the go to man, in a large area, to hear disfellowshipping cases.

  I like hearing the different accents.

  I love me and I am just fine.

  Oh -----> I just remembered. Not only did they insult how I spoke, these ignoramuses called me a Yankee!

  LoisLane of the Southern persuasion