Common accent = bad education?

[Marcus McFlufferson]

Why do accents invoke stereotypes of education and vocabulary?
I have a very common Northern English accent, so everyone seems to assume I'm thick before I prove them wrong.

Does this happen to a lot of people? Will people assume you stupid or more intelligent by your accent? Also, do you judge people like this?
Why do people judge others on their accents?  

[ririnyan]

Ohhh yes. I get the same thing, but these days I tend to be more amused by it.

I'm not sure it's so much my accent on its own (it's pretty much non-location specific working class English) but the way I look and behave. I'll freely admit I'm not strikingly attractive and I'm also a very shy person; I don't tend to say much about myself unless people ask me. So when I do get past the initial conversation they're usually a little bit surprised when I tell them I'm an Oxford graduate. sweatdrop

I think you can do a lot to change what people's initial impressions of you are. Being assertive (which is my main problem) helps, as does looking presentable (another one >_<). These things can counteract the effect of accents, in my opinion.  

[Iveris]

Well, if a person (like a potential employer) already has their mind made up about certain accents, then I doubt there's much that can be done. If, for example, you're interviewing for a job, and you've got a rather pronounced Southern accent, with a person in Washington State, you probably won't get the job if the employer has it in his/her mind that Southerners are not very smart.  

[ririnyan]

I don't think I would go as far as to say that. Usually in a job interview you have to give the potential employer a resume first, and I think that, more than accent, probably forms their initial opinion of your intelligence. If you back up a good resume with a good performance at interview, I don't think accent would necessarily lose you a job.  

[Setsu-P has stepped out]

For me, it has more to do with appearance than accent. You can walk around sounding like the reddest of backwoods deep-South rednecks and still be quite intelligent. It's a matter of what you grow up hearing, and whether you've had formal voice training or made an effort not to sound like your locality. Now, walking around dressed like the shabbiest, reddest backwoods deep-South redneck and you lose a few Brownie points. A well put-together wardrobe goes a long way. Not necessarily something fancy, just clean clothes, hair, etc.  

[Luxx Aeternam]

I usually don't judge people until I get to know them. However, I will say this: the southern accent is very irritating to me. There are actually people in Michigan with that accent, so I suppose "southern" is the wrong term for it, but it still annoys me. I really don't know why.  

[Unknowncreepychick]

First thing first.

An accent is a way of speaking that exhibited by a person who generally speaks a language other then the one in question, i.e. a person from france speaking english may have a french accent.

People who speak the same language, but are from different parts of the world, for example, people from the UK or the south, speak with a dialect. So they would be speaking with a british dialect, or a southern dialect.

Finally to the point of this thread. To judge someone based on their dialect and not the thought that they put into their words is ignorance of a very high degree, to believe that someone is less intellegent simply because their dialect isn't the same as yours is irresponsable.

I myself tend to change my speach patterns according to the person, or persons I happen to be talking to at the moment in order to more effectively convey my thoughts. So if I'm conversing to someone who speaks with a predominantly southern dialect, then I tend to tailor my words so that they may better grasp my thoughts.  

[ririnyan]

Vagabond Soul

First thing first.

An accent is a way of speaking that exhibited by a person who generally speaks a language other then the one in question, i.e. a person from france speaking english may have a french accent.

People who speak the same language, but are from different parts of the world, for example, people from the UK or the south, speak with a dialect. So they would be speaking with a british dialect, or a southern dialect.

I would dispute this definition. Accent can refer to the way a foreign speaker or a native speaker speaks. Dialect is different since it refers to the actual words and grammar that are used.

Here are two comparative definitions:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/accent
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dialect  

[IEditYourWorld]

I grew up in the midwest, but many of my midwestern friends say I have a southern accent. I get stereotyped as a "good 'ol girl" for that all the time.

I am who I am.
IEditYourWorld  

[-Non[Stop]Disco-]

I grew up in Germany, but I have accent. Even when I'm speaking German. I speak a different dialect, so it sounds clearer than usual. So when I learned English in school, no accent.

I think it is unfair to judge intellegince just because you can notice a persons heritage when they speak.  

[Chase Keyhole]

I don't really have an accent of any sort... I'm from Canada. O.o  

[Violet the mystical]

I've actually judged a couple of people by the way they talk, and how stupid they act of course. -_-
I'm very much right about them though.
They are annoying.

 

[The Man who was Thursday]

Chase Keyhole

I don't really have an accent of any sort... I'm from Canada. O.o

No accent, eh?  

[splashseal]

Funny enough we watched a video on dialects and accents in my grammar class and it talked about the same thing. I don't judge people based on accents--I really like them and they make you interesting--but I think it is a matter of not so much the accent, but rather what it is associated with. So if people are portrayed a certain way and they have an accent, people will learn to associate that accent with that behavior and thus draw conclusions based off that, which is purely illogical.  

[Clearly Opaque]

Setsu-P

For me, it has more to do with appearance than accent. You can walk around sounding like the reddest of backwoods deep-South rednecks and still be quite intelligent. It's a matter of what you grow up hearing, and whether you've had formal voice training or made an effort not to sound like your locality. Now, walking around dressed like the shabbiest, reddest backwoods deep-South redneck and you lose a few Brownie points. A well put-together wardrobe goes a long way. Not necessarily something fancy, just clean clothes, hair, etc.

I can't agree more! I don't mind accents, I find them typically amusing in and of itself. It is not the accent that bothers me, but the attitude, the dress, and the manner of speaking. If someone comes up to me and asks for directions in bad English, I will give them my best; but if someone comes up to me and demands directions in clear and fluent English, I will probably, out of spite, send them the wrong way. For me, intelligence is not based on accent, race, color, or etc, it's based on attitude and other things.