Ok, I’m officially a grumpy old woman. Had my nephew over for stay over and in 24 hrs he asked:
1. Was I putting the dog in the trunk (its an estate car/station wagon. Dog tax: https://imgur.com/a/e5WlQ7D

2. Could he put a empty bottle in the trash can.

3. Cross over to the other side walk.

I’ve disowned him now and will never speak to him again.

43 comments

  2. You can’t blame the kid. They’re probably watching too much American media on Youtube and streaming services. Back when I was a kid (90s) we had the American shows like Barney but it balanced out by gaving replays of Bosco, watching Ray and the puppets on The Den and the likes of the Morbegs. Hardly any Irish media out there now, so can’t blame children for picking up the American lingo. I’d blame the parents for not correcting them on what words they should use instead.

    (Edited as it posted too soon).

  4. Does he have the “YouTube” accent? So, so many kids I know have American accents! Most of them have never even been out of Ireland. I reckon it’s because they were raised by YouTube, sat in front of a screen since birth practically.

  6. It’s been a thing for a few years. I remember watching a load of American TV when I was young and picking up a load of stuff like that and my accent is all over the place. Watching Friends, the WWE…etc because there are no good Irish shows really causes that sort of thing to drift into the local language.

  7. “I had my nephew over for stay over and in 24hrs he ask”…. Is literally the worst sentence I have seen all week.

  8. Honestly I had a Meath/American accent growing up which was awful / thanks to rte and bbc just constantly repeating US shows – this isn’t a new thing.

  9. My next door neighbors 6 year old sounds like he is from California,
    Completely American accent,
    Note loves star trek, fortnite, spiderman etc, it’s just surreal
    Listening to him speak.

  12. My kids say Candy and sidewalk from youtube videos. I told them its “sweets” or they get nothing.

  13. You see posts on r/Ireland a lot that are Americanised as well. I guess the younger generation are just brought up around more American media!

  17. they grow out of it with more interaction with peers and adults, your own generation probably faced same criticism with US boy bands and cartoons influencing your early childhood

  19. The easiest form of parenting is throwing them an ipad and let them watch youtube till their hearts content. All of the content on youtube for kids is american-made so their vocab is understandable. Albeit I do worry about kids watching a screen so close to their face from the age of nearly 1. I remember getting roared at for sitting close to the TV. We are rearing a generation of smartphone addicted children that will have serious social and mental health problems down the line. Ultimately I believe it falls on the hands of lazy parenting.

    Edit: Grammar

  21. Struth! I grew up only watching Home and Away and it never had an Aussie effect on me. Stone the flamin’ crows!

  22. My daughter gets tortured for her American accent by new teachers, other kids, parents who don’t know us. During one school play, my daughter had a few lines and a woman in front of me laughed loudly ‘Haha! Why is she putting on an American accent?!?’ for the whole auditorium to hear. A teacher shouted at her in first year for saying ‘test tube’ with an American accent and went on an entire class long rant about how he hates kids putting on American accents. Imagine their surprise when I spoke up and pointed out my children (and myself) are Americans, and that might just be why they talk like this. The anti-American sentiment here sadly can be quite bad for half-Irish, half-American children living here. We’ve been here 14 years and they still get abused something shocking, particularly by strangers.

  23. The generations before your Nephew abandoned their native language so it’s a bit hypocritical to blame him for picking up some American words

  25. It’s more funny in this way but the actual damaging cultural homogenisation (not growing up with any media older than like six months because of the YouTube algorithm) is all parenting. Go to the beach, buy a book of old Irish kids’ stories, learn a few granny songs, just to have some kind of rustic culutual element going on.

    What would I know, I’m 20 and don’t have kids, but it’s just what I value the most out of my freshly reviewed childhood.

  26. How old is the nephew? I think this is a phase some kids go through. I sounded like an American when I was a kid, but I grew out of it in my teens. In my case, I spent more time watching TV by myself than hanging out with other kids, so that was the accent I was most exposed to. Stick him in front of Killinascully or Ros na Rún for a few hours and he’ll be grand.

  27. If it’s any consolation, my partner from the mainland EU speaks English with an Irish accent because their English teachers were Irish, and they visited rural Clare often. A lot of English teachers in the EU are Irish apparently because now it’s harder for British English teachers to work there, but also before because something to do with how many multi-lingual Irish teachers there were in comparison to British ones who wanted to work in the EU.

    Meanwhile their sister speaks English with an American accent because of Netflix.

  28. Thank goodness you yourself escaped speaking a language foreign to Ireland because of it being prevalent during your upbringing…

  30. I live in the Gaeltacht, my kids speak Irish and English at home, and Americanisations are creaping into their Irish too.

    I have heard my kids refer to their sweets as “mo chuid chandy”

    As in,

    “D’ith sé mo chuid chandy”.

    It’s truely bizarre to hear. They do watch some American tv/utube. But only an hour or two a week. I think a lot comes from playground.

    But then I do hear a lot of Americanised accents in Irish language media, particularly from younger female speaker’s. You even hear it on kids cartoons on TG4. I sometimes wonder is it some misguided attempt to seem cool, consciously or not.

  31. I work with kids and when they are playing shop a lot of them say dollars. I’m sick of telling them we use euros in Ireland. We even have play money that’s Euros not some generic monopoly money.

  35. It’s the homogenisation of the English language. First it was the King James Bible and now it’s the internet.

    The future is now, old lady.

  36. When I was in school I had a full-blown American accent. I played Call of Duty and Halo online with mostly Americans and they couldn’t understand me most of the time, I adapted and started saying words how they’d say them and there was no issue from then on. I actually got quite good at it. You grow out of it eventually, but it’s no surprise when we are smothered with US media.

  39. Mine speaks in a full American accent or, more specifically, a “hey guys” YouTuber accent. I’m hoping he’ll shake it as the years go by.

  40. Can I see if I understand? I’m studying to better fit in Ireland in case I have to flee the US.

    1. He should have said boot instead of trunk.
    2. Trash can should be bin.
    3. Sidewalk should be pavement.

    I’m not sure why estate car matters. Americans call estate cars wagons or station wagons, but wouldn’t call that the trunk on a wagon. It’s the back or way back.

  41. If it’s any consolation 15 years ago in America I was the inverse of your nephew. The accent has mostly faded though I refuse to ever stop saying cunt.

  43. If it makes you feel better I’ve somehow got an ulster growing up in the Bulgarian mountains so your country has some export too

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