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Hi Kerin,
I wasn’t aware that in UK there was so many accents, I only knew about Scottish and Welsh and then I thought that there was only a standard British accent.
On the contrary, in the United States I experienced how the english we learn at school is rarely used. In the US accents and idioms change not only from state by state but also by ethnic background. For example, in a city like San Francisco, speaking with asian or african americans or hispanic people it’s something like speaking three different language, even if they were born in the same city.
Speaking about Italy I don’t think (or at least I never experienced it) that there is a snobbery around accents, actually we have an opposite phenomenom: in some situations it’s hard to be accepted if you don’t speak and understand the same local accent. Here, accents and idioms are widely used, and with pride, as a sign of identity.
Actually I don’t care about accents until they don’t hinder communication, I feel quite annoyed when someone use a local accents or idiom with people that cannot clearly understand it, it’s like saying that you don’t care about communicating with that person.
