Snobbery- many different forms

These days you are lucky to see a doctor at all.

Grandma70s

My mother was a terrible coffee snob. I’m not. Instant is fine.

Some people would call me a music snob, because I really only like classical, but I don’t think a preference is snobbery.

I’m a bit of a speech snob, but it’s selective. I don’t mind if a garage hand has a regional accent, but I don’t like it if a doctor has. I know that’s irrational, but it’s how I was brought up, I suppose.

So you were brought up to be a snob? Well, like “everyone can learn RP”, everyone can learn not to be such a bigot.

Cressy - how I wish I went into a clothes shop (or wherever) and picked out the cheaper items.

Unfortunately, the fabrics I like are generally expensive so the end garment is always more. The drawer handles I like are more, the washbasins, the casement stays, the yarn, the bedlinen...

I went into a tile shop a few years ago and went straight to the one that was £3000 a square metre!

I am constantly compromising. I have a pretty modest budget.

Not sure where this puts me in the "snobbery stakes".

paddyann54

sorry that was to Grandma70's

Thank you for the apology Paddyann54. I have a particularly fine regional accent of which I am very proud.

Preferring something because it is better quality and therefore more expensive is not snobbery.

Snobbery is preferring something because it is expensive and considering people who do not or cannot afford your taste in products, as lesser individuals.

I try to shop environmentally. This means I buy 'Pasture for Life' beef and organic lamb chicken etc, which is expensive. This is not snobbery, I do not look down on those who cannot or will not buy it. The same with trying to buy more clothes made from natural fibres from sustainable soureces. I do not buy supermarket bread because it chokes me, but baked bread from real bakers.

No snobbery about any of those I do them all for a reason and do not judge those who do not.

Yes, that's it M0nica - liking things that happen to be great quality is not the same as choosing things because of brand or inflated price.

nanna8

Well you learn something everyday! I didn’t realise that there were different accents within Wales. So my ancestors from North Wales would have a different accent from the Southern Welsh? Fascinating. I do miss the differences and when I lived in the UK I could pick a few to the e act town. Not so here, though there are slight differences but more in vocabulary than accents. Anyway, I digress and back to snobbery- I used to have a snobby attitude towards females with Tatts but it is so common now it is melting away. I still don’t really like them,though. Two grandchildren have them but at least they are discreet ones.

Just within a few miles, nanna8!

People think of Richard Burton reading Under Milkwood - but just a few miles away the accent can be quite different.

Forlornhope

Grandma70s ‘I’m a bit of a speech snob, but it’s selective. I don’t mind if a garage hand has a regional accent, but I don’t like it if a doctor has. I know that’s irrational, but it’s how I was brought up, I suppose.’

This puzzles me. Do you mean UK regional accents, or world wide regional accents given the rich mix of folk working in the NHS?

I'm definitely an accent snob.
If someone speaks to me in cut-glass English I answer back in the same only hamed up.
I have an accent for where I live and one for good friends and the best is the one I use at yam {home} with DH.
When in other areas we can talk in code our DD's use it as well.
When my friends want a laugh they ask me to talk like a neighbour who is like a poor version of the Queen." One's holly needs trimming before the birds consume the berries" being the best this year.

Like Yammy I can do a range of regional accents - from broad Liverpool to RP English. I sometimes have a lot of fun with it on the phone pretending to be the cleaner/housekeeper.

My ring type doorbell now has a facility to respond in a male accent. I am looking forward to having fun with that one as well.

I am fortunate in that I can afford to buy what I like within reason and like Monica I buy locally produced meat and vegetables whenever possible and support our local shops over and above supermarkets.

This is not snobbery it’s being aware of the environment around you along with reaching the point that if I do not enjoy it, like it or have a valid use for something then it is not purchased.

Dottynan

I am a plastic bag snob. It has to be Waitrose or M and S. Nothing else bothers me

Plastic! Surely you’ve got Waitrose and M&S folding, fabric, re useable bags.

biglouis What is the accent of a cleaner?

I have had many cleaners, they have not all had the same accents.

My parents would not have allowed me to be snobbish. However this is a snobbish world and others do judge me by how old I am, and how I use language, and even by my taste in clothing and home decor. Snobbery is a special form of stereotyping.

Big Louis, would you look askance at a cleaner who spoke with received pronunciation and exhibited a high level of educational attainment?

Can one buy a doorbell answerer that speaks in the accents of a Rottweiler or Doberman?

I suppose in reverse if we hear someone with a plummy British accent here we tend to wonder what is wrong with them, or assume they are on holiday from the UK. 🧳

NotSpaghetti

Cressy - how I wish I went into a clothes shop (or wherever) and picked out the cheaper items.

Unfortunately, the fabrics I like are generally expensive so the end garment is always more. The drawer handles I like are more, the washbasins, the casement stays, the yarn, the bedlinen...

I went into a tile shop a few years ago and went straight to the one that was £3000 a square metre!

I am constantly compromising. I have a pretty modest budget.

Not sure where this puts me in the "snobbery stakes".

You’re like me then, champagne tastes and shandy money😂

Definitely a coffee snob.
As for shop-bought cakes.....well!

Caleo

Big Louis, would you look askance at a cleaner who spoke with received pronunciation and exhibited a high level of educational attainment?

I have a good friend who speaks RP who was an cleaner for several years. She was a single mum working towards her doctorate.

So true Oreo
🥂 🍻

When DS was studing for his PhD, he had a part time job in Tesco, most of the part time staff were students. He said there was an inverse pecking order. If you were doing a PhD you worked in the stores area loading and pushing trolleys. Those studying for Masters degrees were allowed out in the shop to load shelves and those still studying for their first degrees worked on the shop floor and were even trained to use the till and nobody in a permanent management post had a degree.

Knowing someone's job and what accent they speak in tells you absolutely nothing about who they are. Snobbery tells you more about the snob than what they are snobbish about

‘We all have preferences but not always linked to cost’ A perfect expression by Cressy. That is me to a ‘t’! I am fussy but it is not always the most expensive things that I prefer. Sometimes it’s just sheer laziness like coffee. I drink a LOT of coffee and am quite happy with a certain instant which is on the expensive side, true, BUT far too much faff to use pricey coffee machine for one cup so gave it to son. Similar with clothes. I bought a lovely navy blazer from Primark years ago which has lasted so well unlike a similar grey one from M&S which is ending up in the recycling pile! An expensive red velvet dress is hanging in the charity shop right now because the zip sticks on the seam. Replaced by a much cheaper monsoon version I got in their sale. I buy what is convenient/attractive to me and to my taste. Price does not always come in to it!

Coffee snob here. Nespresso capsules for me. Mug snob too. One type for my coffee, another type for my Earl Grey tea (tea snob too). Can’t abide thick heavy mugs! Don’t own any.

biglouis

Like Yammy I can do a range of regional accents - from broad Liverpool to RP English. I sometimes have a lot of fun with it on the phone pretending to be the cleaner/housekeeper.

My ring type doorbell now has a facility to respond in a male accent. I am looking forward to having fun with that one as well.

I'm glad someone has a sense of humour and is a bit naughty like I am bigloius.
My neighbour set me off many years ago when we arrived and I was told she thought the New neighbours could have gone round to say "Hello", not their cleaner[the cleaner being me in denims and cobwebs her dirty family had left ] when we bought their house.
One didn't agree with me having a yummy mummy car even a ten-year-old one.
One answered, "I hadn't had time to shower and change before introductions were formally made."

I like:
Cadburys or Galaxy chocolate
Supermarket instant coffee
Shop bought cakes and biscuits
B&M
Lidl
I wear my clothes until they fall apart....they start as best, then become everyday and finally become cleaning/hanging around the flat
I don't judge books by their covers. I know some wonderful people who don't have two ha'pennies to rub together and equally wonderful people who went to Eton and other public schools. ...and all the ones in between. I love the way people are different but the same in so many ways. I love chatting to strangers when I'm out with DH. I may be some people's nightmare because I'll happily strike up conversations with anyone.

But I am definitely a snob when it comes to my DH's family. I can't stand them. They are common in the worst ways. Racist, homophobic, mis/un educated, conniving, cruel, self absorbed, self aggrandising, unpleasant, heavy drinking, weed smoking yob, Scum readers. The worst are his sisters who think they've moved up in the world because they've bought their houses and filled them with expensive gadgets and tat. They think they've bettered themselves and perhaps wealth wise they have but unfortunately having more money and things doesn't necessarily make them better people. I could go on but you get the picture.