Treat those who made this place with disdain; visitors with everything they want...what could go wrong??
How often do we see foreigners telling Brits how to pronounce things in their home language? Don't get me wrong it's nice to be understood should one venture out to another country, essential, for us, even. And even interesting to hear how things are said. Spice of life and all that. But the thing is, most often Juan tells us how to say things in Spanish...while retaining his own accent to speak English. Are our accents beneath them?? Or is every single, of the many, accents spoken in this country non compatable with every other language? If birds are accents, to speak is to fly...are all the Brits different types of Penguins?
It is pretty cold here most of the year...Yet recently it seems Australia, America are sharing the same overly accomodating characteristic. Penguins do exist in all of these countries...with modified conditions to allow them to flourish. Some hotel complexes in Benidorm aside, we don't generally ask for things to be altered. We are great assimilators, great at engulfing ourselves in other cultures, but why is this all give and no take on the part of anyone born (or even with family born outside of here)?
I remember in school, if one of the kids announced they were going on a family holiday to a foreign speaking country..."say something in..." was always the response from their peers. My dad and other parents made a point of teaching us hello, yes, no, please and thankyou wherever the destination. And correct our (me and my sister) pronounciation. Couple this with the "No no you say eeet like theeeese" conversations when you try to find middle ground with (frankly a lot of the time reluctant to engage, but you work with them so need to talk) foreign born people now living here. Why are we trying so hard to accomodate when it's clearly not reciprocated?
Maybe it's the way we treat and are seen to treat each other. When we holiday in this country it seems the exact opposite of engulfing in local customs occurs. I have found myself, friends and relatives hamming up our local accents when we go somewhere else. It's encouraged to make a point of being an outsider, affiliate with a different football club and wear the shirts at any opportunity just to emphasise this. Should we accept the chance that some Anglo-Saxons have self loathing penguin genes in their DNA? Until I see any science (real science, pipe down Greta) to verify this, I think not. So I will endeavour and encourage anyone reading to when visiting say, Nottingham, to teach my kids and myself to say things the local way, call it a cob not a barm, it's "snap" not lunch, "put wood in t'hole" not were you born in a barn and maybe even create a poster with a map of our isles with the translations from northern to what they say and how they say it. Now it may be tongue in cheek but I think the fellow indigenous populous of the UK would do well to replicate this. It will also set a better example than the door mat like, overly accomodating and long been taken the piss out of peoples we've become.
As far any government officials reading this (gosh I'm ambitious) help me by not only scoping out the legalities of immigrants entering the country but insert voice recognition devices into the customs boxes with a generic random saying of the place they propose to be getting work in. If "google doesnt understand" as it were, send em back!
Us Brits need to look out for each other, like the bloody penguins do!