Born in small village in the Cotswolds (Duns Tew) outside Oxford. Grew up there and the nearby town (Banbury) mostly. But before the age of 6 I’d also lived a couple years in the US, split between Baton Rouge Louisiana and Denver Colorado. After which I was back in Banbury till I turned 20.
Hated it. Country bumpkin is in my DNA. I’d have stayed in the village given a chance.
Knew I needed to get out and lead a different life. Picked two languages and tossed a coin. It landed on heads (Japanese) so I studied that and just 2 years later I was gone 6000 miles away in Okayama. That was nearly 23 years ago and I only visited Banbury a couple times in that period (it really went downhill. I made the right decision). Lived in Tokyo 15 years (longest I’d lived anywhere). Settled in Sapporo. The bumpkin in me sighed with relief. Surrounded by mountains and ski slopes out my window. The occasional deer and bears wander into our suburbs.
Is there such a demise? I haven’t noticed when travelling about. And TV has corrected/overcompensated (depending on your viewpoint), with accents that are not all as understandable as one another (to me).
As for ‘nice’ and unpleasant accents, that is obviously a matter of taste. There are some I like, from length and breadth of Britain, and some I loathe (and some I don’t feel either way but struggle to understand!). But identifying dislikes in particular is not something I’d do publicly as people can’t help where they were born/ brought up, and having an awful accent to my ears doesn’t mean the person is not extremely nice.
One thing I have found interesting is how some people’s accents adapt if they move somewhere different, changing to be very much like the local, but others not. I am in the latter group. But tgen some people can mimic others’ voices, while others can’t. As the last applies to me, I think suspect it is something genetic that makes it easy/automatic for some people and not others. I’m guessing ability learning multiple languages might be related.
And the odd natural hot spring feeding some onsens not far away, plus some lovely food with an abundance of good fish in that area. And one ramen bar I recal from my visit, tiny, seating only about s-8 customers but delightful!
So true. As a result no one can place my accent. They can’t even get the nationality right anymore.
I’m very auto adaptable to accents. When I left the UK I was living in Yorkshire. And that was my accent at the time. Whereas Banbury has more of a Thames estuary accent.
As a small child, I had an American accent. That’s what was spoken in the home. I love different accents. I take the piss out of them often but it comes from a place of love. Now I get to it in another language.
Born in North Sydney and lived in Sydney and the Central Coast. We now live in the sleepy rural town of Gloucester which is about 3 1/2 hours north west of Sydney.