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Greetings, AmyVanDutch I am a 31 year-old man born and bred here in the Boston area, and I am still living here for the time being. I've also spent a considerable amount of time down South - mostly in East Tennessee - and was just there visiting some dear friends very recently. I feel far more at home there than I do here (and yes, for the smart-alecks who are sure to reply that I should move down South if I hate it so much here, I plan on doing so in due time.) Now, I do not want to discourage you from coming up here, as I wish there were more Southerners - i.e. genuine human beings - around. I love the South and I love Southerners, but I'm not your typical Yankee. I cannot lie to you as these others have; I've lived up here my entire life, and the truth is most Yankees absolutely despise Southerners. Not that any of them really know anything about the South, they just think they do. Just like they think they know anything and everything about anything and everything. Sure, some of them will humor you and pretend they love your accent and all that, and some will just be blunt and call you a 'hillbilly' to your face. Very few will actually respect you ... that is, unless you demand their respect. Trust me, you'll have no choice but to demand their respect should you choose to come here. Now, I think it far more kind to tell you the truth about this corner of the world than to whitewash everything. Most Northerners - especially in the cities like Boston and Cambridge - are far left-wingers. They fancy themselves as being these wonderful, tolerant people. You would stand a far better chance with these snobs if you were from a foreign country than being from the South. I suspect you are a white girl, but no matter. You have to know that Yankees - especially in Boston - outwardly portray themselves as so racially tolerant, and so tolerant toward the gays and so on and so forth. In fact, it's not tolerance, but patronizing. They perceive all Southern whites as being Klan members, though most will never admit it to you to your face. People up here, GENERALLY SPEAKING, are hypocrites to the max. Boston is at once liberal and puritanical. It's a really weird dichotomy. In Boston and Cambridge, you can be a in public and no one will dare say a word, but you can't buy a beer past Midnight (ten or eleven in the 'burbs.) Lord forbid if you are a (non-Catholic) Christian, and are not shy about proclaiming your beliefs. At best, you'll get strange looks. At worse, you'll be accused of being a hate-monger. Even worse - and I have no clue as to what your political persuasions are - you best not be a conservative or one who opposes the President. I wore a t-shirt with Obama's image on it and the words "NOT MY PRESIDENT," along with the Soviet hammer and sickle, not too long ago when visiting Harvard Square. Let's just say I was lucky to have made it out of there alive. Yeah, these Yankees are so tolerant and so liberal, but good luck to you if you dissent from their hypocritical worldview. The point of this post is not to scare you away from coming up here for school. In fact, I hope you and other Southerners do come up here and add a bit of TRUE diversity to this region. People in Boston and Cambridge may be nice to your face, but they WILL talk trash about you behind your back. Others will just be more blunt and dismiss you to your face. And others - perhaps the majority - just don't give a crap and won't pay you any attention whatsoever. Now, if you go out into the Suburbs, things won't be quite as bad as people there are more level-headed, but there will still be an element of left-wing and self-righteous snobbery and hypocrisy. Even if you yourself, AmyVanDutch, are a left-winger, your fellow lefties will assume you to be a right-wing 'Nazi' simply because you come from the South. You have to, should you choose to come here, have a very strong backbone. You have to demand respect from these people, for once these snobs are confronted they shrink like wallflowers. I hope you do come here and spread some true Southern Hospitality. Having been exposed to both sides of the Mason-Dixon divide, I know for a fact that we in the North really are in dire need of it. If you choose to come here, just be sure not to lose your identity, not for one second, and know that you are going to need every ounce of strength you have to survive here. Yes, you will indeed meet some true and genuine people - there's good and bad everywhere - but they are far outnumbered by the snobs, especially around Boston and Cambridge. Also know that the cost of living here is astronomical, and the weather is horrible a lot of the time. Again, I could lie to you like these other people have and say that everything will be sunshine and roses, but you ARE going to face extreme prejudice from the types of people who have no business judging anyone. Consider yourself forewarned. Yes, I am a bitter Yankee - and by the way, never call a Northerner a 'Yankee,' especially in Boston, they'll have a fit, even though they have no problem calling you 'Redneck,' 'hillbilly,' etc. - but I AM telling you the truth. There are good things about Boston - our history, the sport teams, the seafood - but it wouldn't be fair to you to come up here 'blind' to reality, so to speak. I wish you the best of luck, and God Bless!
Last edited by CaseyB; 10-05-2009 at 05:06 AM..
Reason: language
Yeah, I was expecting all this. Yes, I am white but I grew up in a place that is mostly black so i'm not a typical Southern person and I may not have conveyed that. If they stereotyped me, i'd probably ignore it, or maybe tell them what the term redneck really means. I only asked because I was curious, and I do have a strong backbone. Mainly, I chose Boston for the City, not the people. And you do sound very bitter. If you don't mind my asking, have people in Boston treated YOU badly? Obviously, it couldn't be for a southern accent.
On another note, You don't like Obama? I love him and I geuss that does make me left-wing, and also, my state is not so Klan anymore, because we voted him in.
THANK YOU for being so very honest with me. I really appreciate it!
Amy,
I've lived in the north and south ( not New England although I have visited Boston). I don't think people AS A WHOLE will make fun of your accent or care what religion you are,etc. True, the northeast is more liberal than much of the south,but the fact you like Obama will probably be a plus for you--although Republicans/conservatives obviously live on both sides of the Mason-Dixon.
And as far as Christian, there are LOTS of Christians in the North,although they will tend to be more Catholic,Presbyterian,Lutheran, and fewer Baptist than in the South (fewer are Fundamentalist also) but I can't see how that is an issue to anyone.
One difference I did notice, Southerners are a bit more friendly,Notherners more reserved. I have family that lives in New Hampshire too, and was never treated badly by people in the area when my family and I visited (we are from West Virginia--some consider it Yankee, others consider it a Southern state).
Well, Amy, you are most welcome. In response to Shy Chic, New Hampshire is an oasis of sanity in a desert of madness. Anyway, in response to your question, at times I have been treated badly up here because I do not conform to the standard orthodoxy, so to speak. Politics aside, just be prepared for the overall rudeness and coldness of these people. Once they get to know you perhaps you'll be okay. You're in for a culture shock, that much is indisputable. I'm rooting for you, even if you're an Obama supporter. God Bless.
Um, to inject a bit of levity after the intense tone that has suddenly appeared in this thread, I'll start by saying that I think you're generally going to be okay referring to people here as Yankees . . . just so long as they know you mean the term as in Northerners, not as in being supporters of a certain pro sports team which stirs up somewhat less than affectionate feelings among native Bostonians.
Okay now, I'll talk politics a little bit here. This is only for the purpose of giving you (Amy) a feel for the perspective my observations are coming from, and I really hope that we can all stay away from having this thread drift into becoming a political debate. Now me, I'm kind of a libertarian/populist/small govt./Constitutional non-activist, which all adds up in plain English to a generally mainstream conservative outlook, with some exceptions for areas involving individual freedom, such as drug laws, seat belt laws etc. (as in, even though I don't do drugs and do wear seat belts I don't think it's my business or the govt.'s to force others to conform to these standards). There is quite a bit that gives me a negative impression about Obama, but in terms of how well I think he's doing the actual day-to-day job of the presidency, being that he's been in office for only about 8-1/2 months, I'm adopting a wait-and-see attitude.
From that perspective, I think it's true that your views as you've briefly described them should be fairly well in line with the prevailing views in the Boston area. I do think that Sunking is correct in warning you of an element of pseudo-sophisticates in the local population who are likely to presume certain conservative, ultra-religious, racist, etc., views on your part as soon as they hear your accent. The thing about that is that this crowd does not make up the entire population of this city (though I'll acknowledge that they can be so forceful in the demeanor with which they express their views that sometimes it can seem that they do). This may be something you'll have to deal with, but there are many varying views among the local populace, and as long as you don't tend to be fazed by every perceived slight you encounter (and it doesn't sound as if you do), and are easygoing around people and willing to really listen to their views, you should be fine. Since you will be a college student, that should help in being accepted as well, since the college crowd includes people from basically all over the world, so someone from another region of the U.S. should certainly not be all that much of a curiosity.
As for the differences in accent, a little more perspective here: My parents both grew up in the South. Through them I myself have family connections in the South which have led me to spend a lot of time there, though not in quite a few years, since my grandparents died. I'll tell you that before moving to Boston my family at one time lived in Minneapolis, and my mother had spent some time in NYC. My mother sometimes used to say that it was refreshing to live in the Boston area, where people genrally seemed charmed by her Southern accent, in contrast to Mnnpls. and NYC, where her experience was that people often sneered at the accent or acted condescending.
Now, it's true that I grew up in the suburbs, and there is a more moderate set of views and attitudes in the 'burbs around here than there is in the city of Boston, so it was from that more moderate perspective that my mother encountered the positive reactions to her accent. Still, it was in the Boston metro area that she often heard, "Where are you from? I LOVE your accent." It's true that those who have warned you that you may get some bad reactions at times are correct, in the sense that there are jerks everywhere, and speech patterns that stand out are an obvious target for these sorts. Generally speaking, though, aside from the likelihood of being prejudged by the pseudo-sophisticate bunch, the main thing you may have to get used to about people's reaction to your accent would be the possbility of having a lot of people ask you questions about your accent, where you are from, etc. Oh, and yeah, you might find that you relive your mother's experience of finding the male segment of the population to be especially candid about letting you know that your accent has them totally smitten.
So okay, just a few thoughts. But I'm also wondering about which college(s) you're considering in this area, and curious about what you mean about thinking that Boston may have too many college students. (Despite what you may have heard, this city's character is NOT completely defined by the presence of college students, though it may seem that way in areas where a lot of students live.)
Oh yeah, one more thing: As I said, I haven't been down south in years, but I hear that Southern girls these days really tend to dress to the nines when they go out, even to casual events like football games. If you find your way to Boston, you'll discover soon enough that the girls here don't usually dress to kill every time they appear in public. They do seem to have a subtle way of dressing up when they go out clubbing and such, when designer jeans and a nice top might take the place of the Levi's and swetshirts that would be more typical everyday going-to-class attire. Anyway, just a little heads-up about differences in local customs.
Overall, if you go in with your eyes open about differences in local customs, and you're as easygoing and confident as you sound in your posts here, I'm guessing you would have a terrific experience being a college student in Boston. By the way, best of luck with the college application process.
To answer your questioin, anywhere I go it is pretty much set that I will go to a Community College, then transfer to a four-year University, and not because I can't get into a normal University but because I don't have the funds to just go straight in. This is because i'm emancipated (I'm sixteen- I don't think that was stressed, you may have thought you were speeking with an adult?). I don't have two parents to pull cash from. Even a Community College is going to see me working a few jobs, not being able to afford your insane prices up there(and possibly eating once a month and living in a cardboard box)!
But, I believe in "A dollar and a Dream".
Also, I had a Foreign Language teacher in the eighth grade who turned me on to this website;
(It's already in the Massachusetts section if you choose to listen, and it has to be downloaded but can easily be deleted).
And I listened to "Massachusetts Three" over and over because I've never heard anything like it and it's just hilarious to me(In a good way)!
I just moved to Mass from Texas (Austin, to be exact). Overall, I find that people are amused by my accent (aXcent), and I spend some part of most days entertaining my West Roxbury born-and-bred boyfriend by repeating words he asks (aXks) for. Apparently I am unable to pronounce the street I live on (Suffolk, which I say Suf-Folk), and anytime I say it to someone they look at me strange until I spell it, then correct me (yet again).
I have honestly found the funniest thing to be the different WORDS they use up here, rather than the way of saying it... for example: "Jimmies" up here is chocolate sprinkles, not a prophalactic, and a "Bubbla" is a water fountain. The town of READING (yes, as in the word from the dictionary) is pronounced REDDING for some unknown reason.
And I hope you aren't particularly attached to jack in the Box, Whataburger, Taco Cabana, Sonic, BBQ, Chicken Fried Steak, or Shiner, cuz you won't find it...
on the upside, there is a definite ENERGY to Bawston that you won't find down south. It's hard to explain, but I can see why Bawston appeals to so many people, despite the awful drivers, lack of parking, and awful weather for 6+ months a year. I find strangers to be rude, but those I am around are generally very friendly.
I think you'll like it up here, although I don't know what your other options were in order to rank it. And, if you don't, there's always the option of transferring. but at least you can say you experienced it and drew your own conclusions about how you and Bawston got along.
Well, Amy, you are most welcome. In response to Shy Chic, New Hampshire is an oasis of sanity in a desert of madness. Anyway, in response to your question, at times I have been treated badly up here because I do not conform to the standard orthodoxy, so to speak. Politics aside, just be prepared for the overall rudeness and coldness of these people. Once they get to know you perhaps you'll be okay. You're in for a culture shock, that much is indisputable. I'm rooting for you, even if you're an Obama supporter. God Bless.
Get a little perspective here Sunking, she simply said she is interested in going to school, not spend the rest of her life here. And did I miss her say anything about NH being an option?
Anyway she sounds like she is made of sturdier stuff than you are.
As a former Bostonian who has lived in a few places down south, I can tell you honestly going to school in Boston -and experiencing its distinct history, deep charm, timeless beauty and vibrant diversity- is a life-changing and worthy endeavor. We are not a monolith. Boston is made up of tons of people from all over the country and the world, and you won't have any more distinct of an accent than say someone from Ireland, Canada, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, India, China, New Jersey, NY, California, Louisiana, or the thousands upon thousands of expats who call Boston home.
While living in the south, I have been called a "Yankee". Even a "Damn Yankee". I've had my accent and vocabulary picked on. But, I don't take it personal. Water off a duck's back, as they say. It would be foolish to assume some folks would not find my way of speaking and doing slightly alien, and I accept that.
You might get a ribbing for the accent, briefly, but it will be inconsequential. Especially if you are in a college community here in the city.
As for the people, we are a goal-oriented, quick-moving bunch. We can seem aloof and sometimes rude. This might be a big adjustment for you. Don't take it personal. Given some time, you'll find a tight group of friends, and you'll make a hospitable home there.
Just curious, are you saying you are 16 right now and looking at schools for when you graduate HS or are you saying you are currently looking at colleges bc you are "that smart"? Only reason I ask is bc I noticed you keep misspelling the word 'guess'. Now maybe it's just me and my obsession with spelling things correctly (when I'm unsure of the spelling of a word, I NEED to look it up), but I would think that one who was smart enough to be in college at age 16 would notice an error like that. On the other hand, maybe it was just an oversight...but I notice it's that one word constantly being misspelled.
I'm not trying to be rude in any way, just trying to get an understanding on your situation. I'm not even from Mass. I just happened to notice this thread as I was browsing and it caught my attention.
Aside from that, just my view on this matter, my cousins who live in the burbs north of Atlanta (my uncle settled there after being in the airforce) told me in the South, you know who hates you but in the North it's more of a 'behind your back' kind of thing. I can definitely see that.
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