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I was aware that, at least in the past, there was a discrimination in UK on the basis of accents. I think this is due to the fact that the British Empire was composed from a lot of different country, with different accents and trivially, if you have power on someone else, that has some differences from you, you tend to consider s/he “inferior” for that difference.
In Italy there is prejudice about accents, that it is linked to the differences among the regions. I moved in Turin from a little village in the center of Italy and until I lost a bit my accent (that I wasn’t aware to have) people look at me strangely when I was talking. From my friend coming from the Southern part of Italy it was worse. A guy I met at university was full of prejudices on Southern Italians and often mocked accents of the South. On the other hand, when my boyfriend and I come in my origin area, usually I am the one who talks with people in the offices and in the restaurants because we are worried that people hearing a Northern accent think that we are tourist and try to fool us.
In talking English, I never felt discriminated because of my accent, sometimes it is only happened that people I was talking to asked me where I was from. And, at a party, some guys started to talk us repeating two or three Italian sentences, but I don’t consider discrimination because they were drunk and they truly tried to start a conversation with us.
Previously, I had a lot of concerns about my accent, in particular while I was talking in English, but in the last years they faded away. This depends on the fact that my English improved and I had the necessity to use it.
