Aussie Accent - Why My Aussie Born Son Does Not Have One?

blitzzbargain on 11/06/2018 - 00:00
Last edited 11/06/2018 - 00:24

Hi All,

My son was born and is raised in Australia. He is 9 years old. Yes, he is bi-lingual. We speak our native tongue at home. He is very easy to switch languages (automatically) - which I think he has the skill to do that as it is not an easy thing to do.
However, I notice that he does not have any Aussie accent and tone. That's a bit of concern as most of his friends have a strong Aussie Accent.
If it is possible, I like him to have it because it shows a true identity, but what do we need to do to make this happen? Do we need to speak English all the time? Is it too late for his age for having the accent?

I like him to have some degree of Aussie Accent if it is possible.

Please advise or share your experience.
Thank you.

Toys & Kids

Comments

  • Amaris on 11/06/2018 - 08:22

    Maybe sign him up for this

    https://www.australiaenglish.com/Accent+Reduction.html

    ;-)

  • wazzoj on 11/06/2018 - 09:13
    +15

    It's perfectly fine for your son to be Bi.

  • bobbified on 11/06/2018 - 09:18
    +5

    You want your kid to sound like a bogan? haha

    Are you referring to the pronunciation of words in the Australian accent or are you referring to the way some aussies speak? like, G'day mate! Welcome to 'straya!

    I was born here, really only speak english (with aussie pronunciations) and I'm glad I don't talk like a bogan! haha

    • blitzzbargain on 11/06/2018 - 09:29

      I am not referring to slank but the tone. Like a heavy Aussie tone.. talk like local.. he is local anyway..😁

      • bobbified on 11/06/2018 - 09:46

        I bet your kid does talk with an aussie accent, but nowhere near as strong as you think he should be sounding.

        I think the aim is to have him speak english without a foreign accent (as someone would had they grown up speaking a different language elsewhere) rather than trying to push him to have an aussie accent.

      • smuggler on 11/06/2018 - 11:04
        +6

        First, stop calling your kid a local. You sound like an Indian or Chinese. The Indian and Chinese at my workplace call Australians locals.

  • Hardlyworkin on 11/06/2018 - 09:25

    Place a peg on his nose when he talks. If he wasn't so young I would have said to give him a few VB's. Australian is just drunk British afterall.

    • matt3 on 11/06/2018 - 14:57

      I was going to suggest a Southern Cross tattoo on a sunburnt shoulder.

      • buckster on 11/06/2018 - 16:05

        Or on his ankle so everyone can see it when he wears his thongs about

  • [Deactivated] on 11/06/2018 - 09:43

    Your lucky

  • TheBilly on 11/06/2018 - 09:54
    +2

    I think you only really have a problem if his accent is Indian or Chinese. Other wise don't carry so much unneccessary stress. If it is Indian or Chinese, re post the thread with an updated title, so people can provide accent specific advice as there may be a very real problem in your household.

  • rambutann on 11/06/2018 - 10:19

    Move to the outskirts of Perth. That ought to do the trick.

    • deebrie on 11/06/2018 - 14:42

      Dardydale!

  • bloomer on 11/06/2018 - 11:03
    +2

    It is unusual for a child who has been here for nine years to have an obvious non-local accent, but a lot can change during the early teen years. If the accent is just mild characteristics of your (his parents') accent in English, it is likely to be a bad idea to send him for any sort of training because training might make him become too self-conscious and then have other negative effects too at this age.

  • smuggler on 11/06/2018 - 11:05

    Enrol him into sports and preferably not a team with ethnics.

    • Scrooge McDuck on 11/06/2018 - 12:57

      That only leaves cricket.

      • smuggler on 11/06/2018 - 13:03

        More area dependent than it is do with the sport.

        Swimming, water polo, any water sports, AFL, gymnastics, diving, cricket etc.

        • Scrooge McDuck on 11/06/2018 - 13:09
          +4

          How silly of me, I completely forgot that ethnics can't swim.

        • smuggler on 11/06/2018 - 13:10
          +1

          @Scrooge McDuck:

          They may be able to swim, but I'd say the majority of competitive swimmers are white even in Sydney and Melb.

        • Sofie519 on 11/06/2018 - 13:38
          -3

          @Scrooge McDuck: Obviously why they needed a boat to get here! shame!~ hahha

        • Findo on 11/06/2018 - 13:42

          @smuggler: lots of Asian age groupers in Sydney now

      • follow on 11/06/2018 - 13:15

        Cricket?

  • roguescholar on 11/06/2018 - 11:54
    +1

    Are you in Melbourne? If you really must have him speak "Australian".

    You could use Jenny Kent.

    Jenny is a Melbourne based voice and dialect coach who works with actors and many others who are seeking to improve vocal communication, clarity, diversity, voice power, presentation and performance.

    She worked with Dev Patel for his performance in the movie Lion.
    Lion: Dev Patel nails Australian accent opposite Nicole Kidman, David Wenham.

    Although to me, it just sounds ludicrous that you would want to do this.

    • bloomer on 11/06/2018 - 13:11
      +1

      Coaches for dramatic performance definitely aren't the right choice for real-life communication skills.

  • steelau on 11/06/2018 - 12:07

    I think a large part of it is all the kids shows being heavily British accents which my kids have somewhat adopted.

    • smuggler on 11/06/2018 - 13:13

      There are plenty of Aussie cartoons.

  • Findo on 11/06/2018 - 13:05

    Does he have an Indian or Chinese accent then?

    • blitzzbargain on 11/06/2018 - 13:13

      Neither. I think he has a neutral accent. I can hear a very very slight Aussie Accent when he mentions some words (e.g Board, Bored etc.)

      • Antikythera on 11/06/2018 - 15:57

        i was educated at a mix of public and private schools and have a very neutral accent. both sides of my family have been in australia since the 1850s. mum was university educated after private secondary school and dad left school at 14 to help run the family farm. neither had what I would consider a strong accent.

        i think perhaps your ear is more tuned to hear it because of your native tounge. also perhaps when you are together your son's accent migrates towards your native one. i know when i speak to my sister who lives in the USA, at the start of the conversation her accent is primarily american but by the end of the phone call she becomes more aussie.

      • gromit on 12/06/2018 - 13:00
        +1

        I find neutral accents tend to come across as more educated. Perhaps that is simply my own views from growing up in regional Australia and not generally held but I know I have a bias towards a neutral accent over a strong Australian or foreign accent.

      • abb on 12/06/2018 - 14:00

        I think he has a neutral accent.

        What does that mean? There's no such thing.

        Do you mean the mid-Atlantic CNN newsreader accent??

  • Bills22 on 11/06/2018 - 13:07
    +1

    Sorry, I switch between British and American at times especially when pronouncing certain words. Preference would be to certainly to not sound like an Australian bogan. Your kid is on the right track. As long as the accent is neutral, it will be fine.

  • BradH13 on 11/06/2018 - 13:28
    +2

    Why would you want your child to have an Australian accent?

    I've been trying hard to lose mine (or at least tone it down).

    I hate it.

    • blitzzbargain on 11/06/2018 - 20:53

      I just reckon it helps to show his true identity as we live in Australia

    • lddv04 on 11/06/2018 - 21:16

      I'll take yours thanks. I was born overseas and have been in Oz for many years and consider myself Australian. Unfortunately I cannot get rid of the atrocious accent I inherited from the country of my birth!

    • montorola on 12/06/2018 - 10:50

      Mate you need to take a trip overseas.

      Australian accents are one of the sexiest according to women abroad

      • gromit on 13/06/2018 - 17:42

        That is more myth than reality. Most can't even tell the difference between British/Australian/New Zealand and for many non English native speakers you can throw the US into the mix as sounding the same.

  • Chewiebacca on 11/06/2018 - 13:44
    +8

    Just let him grow up. He’s 9, majority of his life his only source of exposure for language is at home and your family, hence the accent. With time at school and outside of solely your home, developing language skills, hanging with friends, he’ll naturally adjust the same way he has acclimatised to your family home.

    Despite my opinion that I find it kind’ve absurd you desire a specific accent for your son, for an example I grew up in a mixed-background home with 3 totally different languages spoken on a frequent basis, my mother with a learned Aussie English accent/not great, and my father with an American English accent mixed with Australian having lived here for 20+ years, and I personally have an accent that just shifts drastically based on who I am speaking to.

    Sure mine isn’t your stereotypical Crocodile Dundee Aussie accent at all, but it’s unrecognisably Australian. By the same token, there are plenty of developed Aussie accents which upon hearing you’d be able to take a stab at what their background is, doesn’t mean they aren’t Australian. Australia is multicultural, they are all equally Australian.

    Your son is living and growing in Australia, as long as he’s not living in a secluded walled garden he’ll have the accent to represent his Aussie self.

  • zealmax on 11/06/2018 - 13:53
    +11

    My friend sent their kid to Westmead public school. Friend told me, that his daughter has picked up an Indian accent from going to that school. Kids pickup and drop accents as they grow up. All depends on the people they are around. Nothing to worry about.

    • smuggler on 11/06/2018 - 13:59
      +19

      his daughter has picked up an Indian accent from going to that school.

      hahahahaha

  • stumo on 11/06/2018 - 13:58
    +4

    Have you heard him when he is just amongst his friends? ie. he doesn't know you are there listening. It could be that he adopts a modified English accent for home use, and a proper Aussie accent for his mates.

    • blitzzbargain on 11/06/2018 - 20:54

      Thanks for the tip. I will try to find out what is his accent when he talks to his friends.

      • johnno07 on 12/06/2018 - 06:46
        +8

        Great. An excuse for you to be even weirder about this.

      • dailygringo on 12/06/2018 - 13:17

        This would be called 'code-switching'; this article from the Atlanticis worth reading.

        The idea being that he can speak English in two different ways; the way that it is spoken at home, and the way that it is spoken at school, and that it can be a really useful skill to have!

  • xiabonan on 11/06/2018 - 14:05
    +8

    I don't know what's your ethnicity and why you're concerned about this. From what I can gather it's usually migrants who have a complex with accents. I'm an international student studying at USYD law school and most of our lecturers do not have a strong Aussie accent despite many of them being native born white Australians (added 'white' here because OP would probably feel that whites should be somehow more Aussie). They have what's best described as a neutral accent. Heck many even have a slight British or American accent because they studied, worked and lived many years in those two countries.

    I'd say out of people I've come into contact with, tradesmen and blue collar workers have the most 'Aussie' accent, but they do not represent the whole country. Like I said, scholars at University generally do not. If you listen to the news, news anchors generally have a neutral accent too because they cater to the masses. Politicians usually do not have a strong accent as well. As for the business world, forget about accents many don't even speak perfect English let alone a perfect authentic Aussie accent.

    I'm not saying having an Aussie accent is bad. It is not. If your worry is that your kid will somehow be discriminated upon by those who think he or she is not Aussie enough, that's their fault and not your kid's. Imitating or faking accents will probably attract more teasing, to be honest.

    If you want to integrate or assimilate into Australian society, embrace the values not the accent. Most importantly, be a good human-being. Who knows what kind of accent will be popular when your kid grows up? What's he/she going to do then? Be yourself, be confident, speak good English with sound grammar and vocabulary and do it confidently there shouldn't be any issue at all.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/06/2018 - 14:06
    +7

    I think non-white people take it for granted how people feel a sense of belonging especially in a country where they are a minority. I'm not try to critique any race/culture/identity. This is human nature, on a different site it would be a different majority group. In-groups form through may non-verbal signals/physical traits/behaviours/etc.

    Some posters are correct, the more "similar" signals you have the easier it is for you to fit in. Take part in certain "Australian" activities etc. Unfortunately the most obvious thing is looks as that is what people take in from more than 50m away and that is what they stick with if you don't even talk to them.

    No need to get so defensive, this is not about racism, this is about the sense of belonging (or maybe trying to buy into a group identity).

    That is why people dress up the way they do in a certain workplace or why people drive nice cars, wear fancy watches or style their hair a certain way.

    1) Try as you might, being "politically correct" is just a facade. Companies might tell everyone that they value diversity but deep inside, everyone knows fitting in gets you the job more reliably and frequently.

    2) Looking different is enough to get you "vilified" as a terrorist, violet person, junkie, gentrifying investor and job stealer etc. Why wait till people actually see your passport when speaking to them is enough to get them to "soften" their "fear of the other".

    3) I've noticed that if you don't look white, you always get treated like a foreigner (tourist/student etc). I'm not saying that its a bad thing (again, its not about racism), but some people might not like it. Not many people might admit it but how you treat people before you see them is entirely dependent on their looks (don't get defensive again, this actually makes a difference when choosing between 6-8 objectively "good/pleasant" options). You then further refine the decision trees after the both of you have conversed over a couple of sentences. That is where the accent makes a difference.

    4) Almost all of us here are adults. OP's child is feeling left out. Think back to 20 years ago. Fitting in boiled down to trivial things like which was your favourite power ranger or what sort of shoes you wore to school. Do you think a kid feeling left out will understand the transparent lip service society tells everyone to maintain its benevolent facade? Kids don't care about maintaining that facade. If you're left out, they will ensure that they make you feel it.

    Personally, I don't really care, but I can understand how the OP feels. It might strike you as superficial or something the OP wants to use to feel superior among his immigrant friends but if you already look the part AND sound the part, I doubt you'd understand the chasm in trying to belong when traits beyond your control may have already decided that for you.

    • xiabonan on 11/06/2018 - 14:12
      +6

      Where's the part that says OP's child is feeling left out? It seems it's only OP's wish that his kid speaks a more Aussie accent and not the Kid's. For all it's worth the Kid might be perfectly happy with his or her accent.

      • blitzzbargain on 11/06/2018 - 20:56

        Yeah, you are right 100%. My son feels ok.. Nothing makes him feel left out.

      • [Deactivated] on 11/06/2018 - 21:22

        Opps, you're right. I missed that completely.

    • follow on 11/06/2018 - 14:21

      OP's child is feeling left out.

      From what the OP wrote, it seems that they're the one.

  • djmm on 11/06/2018 - 14:24
    +3

    If he use the word "c**t" then he is Aussie enough already

    • mini2 on 13/06/2018 - 13:02

      Yeh then when he head over to the US he might get a bit of rock shock or 2, it's highly offensive over there.

      • HighAndDry on 13/06/2018 - 13:03

        That's why you need to have a strong Aussie accent, so people know and will forgive you instead of beating the snot out of you for it.

  • idonotknowwhy on 11/06/2018 - 14:27

    Move out to cranny or frangger for a few years. The (profanity)'ll be speaking (profanity) bogan in no time!

  • bloomer on 11/06/2018 - 14:33
    +1

    This accent reduction trainer makes the point that an accent shouldn't be changed unless there's an obvious need for it. https://www.earandspeak.com.au/frequently-asked-questions

  • nobro25 on 11/06/2018 - 14:44
    +1

    Just get him to watch Ozzy man reviews and learn from him.

    • metaverse on 11/06/2018 - 16:01

      related videos on YouTube will be from superwog and mychonny. He'll watch those too.

      • blitzzbargain on 11/06/2018 - 20:59

        Hahahhaa.. We actually just watched mychonny's vidoes. Super funny. He has a very strong Aussie Accent even though I think he speaks his native tongue at home (Vietnamese I believe)

  • shakoo on 11/06/2018 - 15:46
    +3

    don't discount the fact that he might just be putting on the accent (either intentionally or unintentionally) when speaking with/around you so as to sound like the rest of the family.

    do you (and/or the rest of the family) speak with a non-Australian accent? would you be willing to affect an australian accent to try and have your son pick up an australian accent?

  • dufflover on 11/06/2018 - 16:12

    "Some" people just never seem to have the accent no matter how long they've been here.
    We had a Viet workmate, who's been here since a very young kid (2 yr old I think he said) yet still has the thickest sounding accent that makes him sound like a FOB. (and no, he is not offended by that statement)

  • Tenebraene on 11/06/2018 - 16:32
    +8

    I study linguistics so maybe I'll have something to share. Keep up with what you're doing, don't speak English in front of your son if you don't have the kind of accent you want him to have. Try to speak as much of your native language as possible because it's going to be a lot harder for him to acquire that language in any other way. People get their accents from the people who speak it around them.

    What do you mean he doesn't have an Aussie accent and tone? There are three main native accents in Australia, the Broad Australian accent that is the stereotypical Australian accent people think of: think Steve Irwin or the typical outback person. Perhaps the least common one is the Cultivated Accent which is rather similar to the British Received Pronunciation. The most common one is the General Australian accent which is an in betweener of the other two accents.
    Perhaps his friends have a Broad Australian accent and your son has a General Australian accent and that's why you think it's not "aussie" enough? Also, I'm not sure, but considering you aren't a native speaker of English, maybe it's harder for you to differentiate between English accents?

    Whatever it is, please don't worry because whatever his accent is, it's not going to ostracise him in any way. You should also keep in mind that his true identity is not simply "Australian", but also where you came from. If he has a bit of your accent, it can mean that he feels a part of your native culture, and that he is embracing his identity as both your native country and Australian.

    • blitzzbargain on 11/06/2018 - 21:01

      I agree with you.. He may have General Australian Accent.

  • belongsinforums on 11/06/2018 - 16:39
    +1

    I don't have an Australian accent. But I was ASD so I might be an exception. Never been disadvantaged by my accent to my knowledge

  • deanylev on 11/06/2018 - 16:51
    +1

    I was born in New Zealand, but the rest of my family is South African. I have a thick South African accent, and I simply embrace it. I think being unique is cool, but fair enough if you'd like him to fit in more.

    • zealmax on 12/06/2018 - 17:07
      +1

      I find South African accent sounds a lot like New Zealand accent. I like them both.

      • deanylev on 12/06/2018 - 19:36

        Yeah I hear people say that a lot too :)

  • Procyon on 11/06/2018 - 17:13
    +2

    Please keep on speaking in your native language with him at home! He has plenty of opportunities to speak English outside home, and he’ll thank you a million times over when he’s older that he can speak another language as a native speaker.

    • blitzzbargain on 11/06/2018 - 21:03

      Yeah. I plan to keep speaking in our native language at home and I hope he can pick up Aussie Accent from school and his friends :)

  • greatlamp on 11/06/2018 - 17:15
    +2

    I used to believe I did not have an Australian accent. Growing up people at school would tell me I had an American accent.

    I am bilingual, and learned to speak english primarily by watching (American) tv.

    However when I travelled outside Australia it was very obvious to everyone I met that I was Australian. It turns out that while I don't have a crocodile dundee accent, it is still Australian. I imagine your child is similar

  • Toons on 11/06/2018 - 17:30
    +1

    One of the lads I went to school with developed a heavy English accent without ever being there because thats what he wanted to sound like.

    One of the asian guys who started in our school in year 10 was perhaps in a similar situation where the rest of his family spoke in both their home language but you would of thought he had grown up with Alf Stuart most thick Aussie accent I'd ever heard.

    People tend to emulate what is around them for the majority of time and if your son can speak 2 languages easily who cares so much about the accent as long as what is being said and understood is correct.

    I met a couple of Swiss kids in Vietnam with their parents the younger one who was nine spoke 9 languages fluently and not all from the same category. English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese,and one of the African languages. kid was amazing he ended up being the interpreter on the cruise brought everyone together by smashing the language barrier to me that is more valuable than the degree of Aussie accent by a mile.

  • TheBilly on 11/06/2018 - 18:14

    Rodney Rude re runs should do the trick

  • Marcsie on 11/06/2018 - 18:15
    +1

    First world problem :)

  • kachi on 11/06/2018 - 18:47

    I am in the similar situation to your son (parents raised us in nz/aus, spoke us to in native tongue and english was used in school etc). I personally wouldn't worry about it.
    I agree with @stumo. To friends/others, I have a more australian/new zealand accent but when speaking to my parents I automatically use the accent in our native tongue even when speaking english to them I do not use the nz/aus accent. It's something I can't really turn off, and it feels odd if I speak to my parents in a nz/aus accent. Not sure if you want your son to speak 'bogan australian' that's something you'd have to be raised in certain areas to get haha but if you want the general/non-foreign accent I'm pretty sure your son does have with it, you probably just aren't in the environments where he speaks that way.

  • freakatronic on 11/06/2018 - 18:51
    -4

    The Australian accent isn't a nice one. Better not to have it if it can be avoided at all.

  • This Guy on 11/06/2018 - 18:55
    +2

    I get where you are coming from, but a neutral accent is far better than an 'Aussie' accent. Accents are regional. Neutral English shows pride in education.

    If you really want your child to get an 'Aussie' accent, get them drunk, hit them in the head a few times and then get them to pull a few cones. It will do amazing things for their cool factor.

  • Halc on 11/06/2018 - 18:55
    +2

    i'n still in shock OP thinks speech path is required to correct an accent. what next, do you want a plastic surgeon as well to make your child's skin white and eyes blue? new low for my faith in humanity

  • [Deactivated] on 11/06/2018 - 19:04

    First world problem, just wish au was still a first world country.
    Monkey see monkey do, your problem not your kid
    "My son was born and is raised in Australia. He is 9 years old. Yes, he is bi-lingual. We speak our native tongue at home"
    If he is born in Au the native tongue is Au , if he is born in Ch then it's Ch Mandarin/ Cantonese etc as there are many version such as Au Aboriginal about 365 varieties or Bogan Sydney or Perth or British 10 pound pom or Kiwi or Americano via movies .speak Bogan at home , The average Au born doesn't give a 👌 in the work place or as friends, people are people , go for a drive in the remotest part of Au and you will see Chinese Cafe and thats the only cafe in town, if they survived 80 years ago why is it a problem now
    He doesn't have an accent because his parents don't think it's important enough for them to put the effort and learn an accent.
    Talking about an accent

    Arnold Schwarzenegger's Amazing Motivational Story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkKxmdeap_s&app=desktop

    Great timing from Buzzfeed ,just say these everyday ,if you don't understand them maybe you don't understand ozstraliano, remember you need to say them with an accent😁 not really worth the effort
    The 100 Most Australian Words Of All Time
    https://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisrodley/most-strayan-words-of-a…

  • skywards on 11/06/2018 - 19:19

    Umm your son is still 9 years old, I’ll give it a decade or so

  • MessyG on 11/06/2018 - 19:31

    Sorry to be blunt - but are you in a rich suburb? People from the richer suburbs tend to have less of an accent - if he's at school with other kids from these suburbs, there's not much of an accent at all. I've worked all over the place and really hear a difference in Aussie accents now depending on where people are from. Anecdata only.

    I understand you wanting your kid to fit in (what parent doesn't worry about this!) but a neutral accent is a good thing, and besides, be proud that your kid is bilingual! That's a massive skill to take into life.

    • blitzzbargain on 11/06/2018 - 21:07

      Yeah, we live in "middle to upper class suburb. My son's school has around 30% of the students whose language background other than English (based on myschool.edu.au)

  • SmartCover on 11/06/2018 - 19:51
    +1

    Watch all 9,220 episodes of Home and Away and watch your son speak with 100% Aussie accent.

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094481/

    • blitzzbargain on 11/06/2018 - 21:09

      Too much drama for a young kid. :)

      • qwijibo on 11/06/2018 - 21:14

        Just get him to watch the bits with Alf Stewart (is he still on it?) say ocker things like "strewth" and "stone the flaming crows!"

        And/or get him to eat more vegemite.

    • pinkybrain on 12/06/2018 - 06:59

      Accents don't develop by watching a show..
      especially when the language has already been acquired…

      Children usually develop their accents when they first learn to speak that language..

      So it could have been at home or at school etc..

      If at home then they picked it up from the parents(first language teacher) who may have their own non australian accent if they are migrants.

      An accent is just how to pronounce a word, how it sounds when spoken.

      Also part of the accent is some unique words used by the region..

      In australia, there's a few accent due to our multiculterism

      true blue Australian..?
      -bogan
      -british english
      -australian

      Multicultural ones
      -Asian english
      -Indian english
      -Irish enlish
      -and many others based on their country

  • p1 ama on 11/06/2018 - 21:15
    +1

    Your son definitely will have an Australian accent, maybe not a Ocka/Strine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocker) accent, but it will definitely be distinctively Australian to any native English speaker.

    I generally think that a neutral accent is much better in today's world. I'm not "white", but I grew up in a very working class suburb, so I had a very strong Ocka accent when I was younger - think "yeee mayte, how's it garn?" - the truth is that most non-Australians wouldn't understand that sort of accent very well and even when you speak to anyone who grew up in a posher area, you'd find yourself repeating things. Over time, I've lost that accent as I've grown up, so what I now sound like is a typical news anchor or politician, still an Australian accent, but less of the Strine and cheek action (you'll know what I mean if you speak with that accent - the sound comes from pulling up your cheek).

    As the need to communicate to a broader range of people increases, I would think that accents become less distinctive. I'd compare the Ocka accent to something like the deep southern accent in the US - it's frowned upon by anyone who's not from that area. There also tends to be a view that more educated individuals have a more neutral accent as well (because you pronounce words more accurately).

    To sum up, it's not cool to have an Ocka accent, nor is it really desirable. If anything, it's the sort of thing that you want to give up as you grow up to be taken more seriously.

    • pinkybrain on 12/06/2018 - 07:01

      Agreed.
      Some accents are so dense that it is hard to understand them

    • Emerald Owl on 12/06/2018 - 11:26
      +1

      No that sounds very elitist and unAustralian. Rejecting people because they’re from the country or outback is a disgrace and I hope nobody does that to anyone. This is the problem with immigrants from very class based cultures that are obsessed with designer labels, prestigious jobs and property, etc. just treat everybody equally mate. (I’m a 4th generation lawyer who lives down the road from Mal)

  • lostn on 11/06/2018 - 21:19

    Make him watch nothing but Steve Irwin for a few months and he'll get teh Aussie accent.

  • Lumens on 11/06/2018 - 21:20
    +3

    Why are you so confused? Kids adopt their accent from the people they speak most to which just happens to be yourself.

  • colaman on 11/06/2018 - 21:35
    +2

    He probably has an accent already. Maybe not strong one. As he grows up and communicates with more Aussies he may develop more. It may really depend who he grows up around and his influences in his life. Wouldn't force it. Let it happen by itself and that will show who he is.

  • BargainisLife on 11/06/2018 - 21:54

    Does one's accent really show their identity?

    My mate's an ABC ie Australian Born Chinese, raised in Melbourne and never spent more than 3 months in China his entire life. His mandarin is very limited as you can imagine but he does speak fluent English with a thick Aussie accent and is well versed in Aussie slangs, so he's about as 'Straya' as you can get at least accent wise. Yet from time to time I'd hear stories from him about how people from different ethnic groups asking him where he is really from or saying 'nihao' or 'xiexie' to him expecting him to be impressed. He is really annoyed by that because if you close your eyes and listen to him speak, you'd not hesitate for a second to think that he is a 'true local' born and raised under the Aussie sun but only thing these people cared about was his appearance.

    I guess the point of the story is that having a strong Aussie accent isn't really going to make your son appear 'more local' than how he looks. People often make snap judgements based on one's appearance so as long as he doesn't look Caucasian or Indigenous there's always going to be someone out there questioning where he is from.

    So if you really want to help him show identity, make sure to teach him values from your background and make sure he learns as much as he can in school about Australia, then allow him to mix everything into a cocktail of values like most of us in this multiculture nation, and that would actually show his 'true identity' as opposed to masking everything with an accent.

    • anastasiastarz on 12/06/2018 - 02:35
      +1

      In the same boat (never actually been in a boat though XD) I have chinese tourists attempting to talk to me and it's hilarious because I'm not even chinese (even if the chinese ladies at work have accepted me as one of their own). I get asked where I come from weekly-ish? I freelance and travel (around the city that is, a lot), as the number of new people I meet increases so does the frequency of being asked where I come from BEFORE… then they go on to say they've been there and it's lovely. Though I haven't ever been there, and then they'll ask if I speak the language, if not then they say I should lean it… - All this could have been avoided if I was white. And often it's situations where I can't really leave eg. uber, tram, networking

      I was once chosen for an job interview because my name (married name) is white, though rejected because I wasn't white and too old (over 16) - yes they actually told me that, (though for another job they asked my relationship status to determine my availability and commitment - that was more about being a girl rather than race though). For another job I was chosen once again for the same reason, though it was a phone interview and it was a once off thing, so it was too late for them to replace me when I got there. - I freelance, hence so many jobs/contracts/stories.

  • Cheemeister on 11/06/2018 - 21:54

    I was born in Australia, lived in a few other countries and came back with an American accent. Many years later I'm told I sound more Aussie.

    I'd recommend not worrying about it, because 1) his accent will evolve, and 2) there probably isn't anything worthwhile to do about it.

  • nikey2k27 on 11/06/2018 - 21:54

    what is your son's other language?

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