For all you experts, and human rights activists

 

Is it racist to hate or dislike certain accents? ie when people speak English but with accent 

 

People from some countries have very distinctive accents, For example Russians speaking English or Indians speaking English etc

 

Lets keep Irish and Scottish out of it as these two speak a language of their own yet to be understood by the rest of English speaking world????????

 

Fire away with your thoughts

No I don't its racist to dislike accents, i understand most Americans quite well but there are quite a few Brits with horrible accents. I understood some Germans speaking English even better.

 

So no Its perfectly normal to dislike certain accents as long as that does not translate to hating the person. 

4 minutes ago, BestB said:

Is it racist to hate or dislike certain accents?

If they aren't native English speakers, I usually don't want to speak to them.

Can't be bothered really, doesn't matter what colour their skin is.

Germans, Dutch, French, Thai, Khmer ....... I just don't want to talk to them.

Mind you, there's few English speakers I can tolerate for long either.

1 minute ago, robblok said:

No I don't its racist to dislike accents, i understand most Americans quite well but there are quite a few Brits with horrible accents. I understood some Germans speaking English even better.

 

So no Its perfectly normal to dislike certain accents as long as that does not translate to hating the person. 

But if you dislike the accent, will you not dislike the person speaking?

 

I find some accents "uncomfortable" as they require a high degree of concentration to be understood, especially if they are not aware of it and speak way to fast.

 

Some of the accents you come across on youtube are really bad and just prompt a closure.

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

If they aren't native English speakers, I usually don't want to speak to them.

Can't be bothered really, doesn't matter what colour their skin is.

Germans, Dutch, French, Thai, Khmer ....... I just don't want to talk to them.

See your point, so must be native? what if they fluent? but have an accent?

Just now, CharlieH said:

I find some accents "uncomfortable" as they require a high degree of concentration to be understood, especially if they are not aware of it and speak way to fast.

Did we not agree to keep Irish and Scots out of it?????????

2 minutes ago, BestB said:

See your point, so must be native? what if they fluent? but have an accent?

Slight accent is acceptable with full and correct vocabulary, but if they didn't know the difference between lose and loose, I wouldn't bother with them.

3 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

If they aren't native English speakers, I usually don't want to speak to them.

Can't be bothered really, doesn't matter what colour their skin is.

Germans, Dutch, French, Thai, Khmer ....... I just don't want to talk to them.

Mind you, there's few English speakers I can tolerate for long either.

You must be a lonely guy

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

Slight accent is acceptable with full and correct vocabulary, but if they didn't know the difference between lose and loose, I wouldn't bother.

One does not feel as good as the other?;)

1 minute ago, varun said:

You must be a lonely guy

Surrounded by my family that all speak English with a slight London accent.

Normal for people to experience auditory fatigue when listening to non-native speakers for long periods.

I think it's perfectly ok to like or dislike accents, people from different nationalities, different skin color,  religion, sexual orientation,  skinny or fat people or whatever. We all don't need to like everybody in the same way. 

 

The problematic part is if we do something bad to those other people. I.e. if I see a group of black guys, probably Africans, late at night in the dark I stay away from them. And I stay away from fat women. And I won't look for a restaurant full with Chinese tourists. But all of them might be nice people and if I would be introduced to them maybe I would like them. And then I can still decide if I like their accent or not.

Yes, for those who is not native speaker and attempting English then you should cut them some slack.

Except for the French of course, they make everyone puke.

5555

I am puzzled as to why the original poster thinks that it can be racist to dislike the sound of an accent. 

 

Surely a person's race is irrelevant to the topic. 

 

Each of us speaks English with some sort of accent and so you may like or dislike the accent of each individual person, but to decide that you dislike an entire race of people based on the accent of a single individual of a race seems somewhat unusual.  Surely there would be a high probability that you would end up hating every single race, including your own.

 

 

3 minutes ago, pferdy62 said:

I am puzzled as to why the original poster thinks that it can be racist to dislike the sound of an accent. 

 

Surely a person's race is irrelevant to the topic. 

 

Each of us speaks English with some sort of accent and so you may like or dislike the accent of each individual person, but to decide that you dislike an entire race of people based on the accent of a single individual of a race seems somewhat unusual.  Surely there would be a high probability that you would end up hating every single race, including your own.

 

 

Not to have you puzzled any longer, let me explain for you in basic terms.

 

If one dislikes certain accents, he/she would not like having contact with person speaking with that accent, perhaps ignore or mistreat that person, make fun of accent and so on.

 

Hopefully you are no longer puzzled.

I can understand the Queen no problem she sounds like she comes from upper class Boston like John Kerry. 

45 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

If they aren't native English speakers, I usually don't want to speak to them.

Can't be bothered really, doesn't matter what colour their skin is.

Germans, Dutch, French, Thai, Khmer ....... I just don't want to talk to them.

Mind you, there's few English speakers I can tolerate for long either.

So tolerant and accepting ???? of you

I wonder if this is a "tonal" thing, as in the sounds of some music. (for me, atonal contemporary music)

I do not feel it is inherently racist, having said that, should you treat that person differently because of the accent, then it could be , and would be in some jurisdictions discrimination 

 

50 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Slight accent is acceptable with full and correct vocabulary, but if they didn't know the difference between lose and loose, I wouldn't bother with them.

You won't be bothering with many on here then.

 

Off/of a problem too? Irritates me.

18 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

I can understand the Queen no problem she sounds like she comes from upper class Boston like John Kerry. 

Umm I think that it is John Kerry sounds like a well educated English person, who had speech coaches, and therapists.

 

54 minutes ago, BestB said:

But if you dislike the accent, will you not dislike the person speaking?

 

No I wont why would I ? Do you dislike Thai girls for not speaking perfect English ?

25 minutes ago, BestB said:

Not to have you puzzled any longer, let me explain for you in basic terms.

 

If one dislikes certain accents, he/she would not like having contact with person speaking with that accent, perhaps ignore or mistreat that person, make fun of accent and so on.

 

Hopefully you are no longer puzzled.

Hmmm....I can understand not liking someone because of their personality and being even more annoyed with their accent on top of that.  But to not like someone just purely because of their accent?  Not sure if I would classify that as racist, but certainly intolerant, bigoted, that sort of thing. 

31 minutes ago, BestB said:

... perhaps ignore or mistreat that person, ...

 

IMHO I would suggest that this is now racist (or is that "accentist"?) as you are acting on your dislike of the accent.

 

2 minutes ago, Berkshire said:

Hmmm....I can understand not liking someone because of their personality and being even more annoyed with their accent on top of that.  But to not like someone just purely because of their accent?  Not sure if I would classify that as racist, but certainly intolerant, bigoted, that sort of thing. 

Nothing was mentioned about disliking the person, it was about the attribute of the accent.

1 hour ago, BestB said:

For all you experts, and human rights activists

 

Is it racist to hate or dislike certain accents? ie when people speak English but with accent 

Just curious, but how would YOU feel if someone hated you simply because they didn't like your accent? 

1 minute ago, RJRS1301 said:

Nothing was mentioned about disliking the person, it was about the attribute of the accent.

Post #16 seems to suggest otherwise. 

1 minute ago, Berkshire said:

Just curious, but how would YOU feel if someone hated you simply because they didn't like your accent? 

it was about disliking/hating the accent, not the person

Racist is about RACE

 

racist |ˈrāsəst|

noun

a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.

 

adjective

showing or feeling discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or believing that a particular race is superior to another.

 

So, no I don't think it is racist for a white Brit to hate a Swedish accent, e. g. 

 

I would of thought grammar is more irritating then accents.

1 minute ago, amexpat said:

Racist is about RACE

 

racist |ˈrāsəst|

noun

a person who shows or feels discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or who believes that a particular race is superior to another.

 

adjective

showing or feeling discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or believing that a particular race is superior to another.

 

So, no I don't think it is racist for a white Brit to hate a Swedish accent, e. g. 

 

I would of thought grammar is more irritating then accents.

of thought ????

then accents ????