r/Glasgow Tools

While there may be a bit of crab bucket mentality there, there are just as many people outside the bucket holding the lid shut.

I moved from a "rough bit" to a "posh bit" when I was in primary school. Some of the parents of these "West End Wanker" accented kids didn't want their kids to play with me because I didn't pronounce my T's well enough for them and I wore trackies. I was kept out the top Maths and English classes at my new school, despite belonging in them, for general misbehaviour issues; no one thing in particular, just a convenient excuse for a bit of casual classism, preventing the slightly uncultured kid from achieving the same as the robotically well mannered kids.

Obviously I had a few teething problems from moving from an environment where fighting was normal to an environment where everyone still played hide and seek, but I wasn't causing any trouble, I was overjoyed to be away from the fighting and aggression of the previous school; on my very last day there a guy in the year above me brought in a knife, attacked his teacher with it, then climbed on the school roof and we all got evacuated as the police, fire brigade, etc. all got called to fetch him down. So it was good to be away from all that but all of a sudden I was getting treated like I was the sort of kid who would bring in a knife into primary school; teachers took an instant dislike to me, if any of my new mates got into trouble then it must have been me who led them astray, and if anyone got hurt then it was my fault. If something got stolen, my pockets would be felt first, and the only reason for any of it was my accent.

There was one day someones car was damaged round the corner from my mums new house, and the owner came to the door blaming me for it. Apparently they had seen me kick my football at it. I was one of the only kids on the street that liked football, and was often playing in the street by myself, so it was a believable plot, if it weren't for the fact that I'd been at my dads all weekend. Another neighbour came to the door accusing me of shining a laser pen in his window then calling him a paedo bastard when he came to the door, when I did nothing of the sort. I hadn't even been out. It was an actual witch hunt, all because I spoke different, and they thought my presence was somehow bringing their toxic wee community into disrepute.

So just knowing what these snobs think (subconsciously in many cases) of normal people with normal accents, I've always been determined never to 'moderate' mine. I could understand if someone did so in order to rid themselves of a stigma in a situation like the one I was in. I'd think it a bit spineless personally but I could understand it (my sister went that way). To most people though, I reckon it would just seem like you now dislike your "old" accent, look down upon it and think you are now above people who speak like that (just like many people with "more proper" accents do). So that is why people have such harsh reactions to people purposefully changing their accents; it feels like you are putting them and their accent down.