Button Garden

Monday 25 October 2010

Where are you from?

 

Having lived in the South of England for ten or so years now I don't get asked where I am from as often anymore.  My accent only really shows itself on those tell tale words such as bath, path  and grass.  Automatically people say 'Where are you from?' or 'Are you Northern?'

I'm not.  I'm  from the Midlands.

This doesn't seem to register in their faces.  If they are from the South then the Midlands still counts as North, if they are from the North then the Midlands is the South.  So where am I from?

I'm from the home of Aston Villa, the Balti and Ozzy Osborne.  I'm from where the words sing, thing and bring have an extra phoneme.  My home town has more canals than Venice, more inhabitants than Manchester and more students than Cambridge.  Where I come from there are people of every colour, religion and creed.  I come from a place where cultures mingle, mix and evolve.  Where music, art and food fuse diversity together.

Where I come from, it doesn't matter where you're from.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now, there's a minibook waiting to be made :)
Fab answer and I loved the last sentence.

Anne said...

Oh, I love this! You've managed to say so much and yet be concise. I seem to rattle on and on and on trying to say what I mean. This is very good (said by someone who is a definate softy southerner, and tends to think of everything north of London as being The North!).

Liberty :) said...

ahh you got me saying sing, bring and thing in a brummy accent in my head. I agree the midlands is a random mixed up place close to hertfordshire in my mind!!!!!! oh bless me Im from the north, we get mixed up sometimes!

Lou said...

Hehe...I'm from NZ but living in London so still learning my UK geography and accents etc. My questions related to my accent too seeing as several times a day I have customers looking at me qith a confused look on their faces...we Kiwi's tend to speak very fast...

Amber Letuli said...

Great post! I really love your answer.

jkluginbill said...

Love your question and answer. I live in the U.S. in the upper NW corner and we tend to think that we don't have accents...then we go south or east and stand out completely!

Love the last sentence! LOVE!

Kirsty.A said...

Good blog. The last sentence particularly. I'm still working on my answers to True Stories Prompt1

Rachel Brett said...

A great answer Donna, the last line is brilliant! :)

A.N.Other said...

ahh sorry to make you cry!! totally wouldn't have believed that I could get thinner and more beautiful with age and my biggest concerns were never getting a boyfriend!! that all changed quite soon and I just wish I'd have known all of that now, but I guess I'd never have been the person I am today?!

Anonymous said...

Love your post and I too am from the Midlands but have lived in East Anglia for more years than I care to say. Having lived in lots of places when I was younger my accent does not give anything away :0

Sian said...

This is great! I love your writing and I'll certainly be back to see how you make some of the other prompts your own

Melissa said...

Great question & answer & very well written - thanks for sharing!

Stephanie Joanna said...

awesome, awesome, awesome answer ... especially that last line!

Anonymous said...

I just stopped to visit from the True Stories forum. I love your takes on the daily prompts...especially the dictionary pages. However, I love this entry! I was born and raised in California...a part of the US that is generally said not to have any accent. When I was 17 I spent about 18 months in the southern part of the US and picked up an odd mixture of southern slang (y'all) and a very faint trace of a southern accent. For many years after I moved back to California people were were unsure of where I was from as my accent was so odd! My mother even told me to "stop talking like THAT!!!" I had no idea what she was talking about. I am sure my mother is happy to "hear" that after 25 years back in California the southern accent is gone (unless I'm very tired) and I only very occasionally say y'all!!

And now after reading what you've written about YOUR accent I am so curious as to what you sound like!! I am sure that it is delightful!

Can't wait to see more of what you post on the forum! Have a beautiful day!

Sarah said...

Well said! x

Nadja said...

Wonderfully written! As for me, I don't have an accent. Everyone else does. =)

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