You’re kidding, but the “posh” accent of the British upper classes is to a greater or lesser extent trained rather than merely acquired when one is learning the language as a child.
Also people with regional accents often actively make an effort to change their accent to RP (aka the BBC accent) when they move to places like London, though I supposed that’s pretty common the World over when people whose regional accents are from places deemed “provincial” move to the big cities in more prosperous regions.
Oh, and immigrants, I almost forgot immigrants: many people with foreign accents do make a lot of effort to speak the local language with the local accent. In fact, for many immigrants in Britain this joke is pretty close to reality.
You’re kidding, but the “posh” accent of the British upper classes is to a greater or lesser extent trained rather than merely acquired when one is learning the language as a child.
Also people with regional accents often actively make an effort to change their accent to RP (aka the BBC accent) when they move to places like London, though I supposed that’s pretty common the World over when people whose regional accents are from places deemed “provincial” move to the big cities in more prosperous regions.
Oh, and immigrants, I almost forgot immigrants: many people with foreign accents do make a lot of effort to speak the local language with the local accent. In fact, for many immigrants in Britain this joke is pretty close to reality.
So there’s actually a drop of truth in the joke.