As a Southerner, how do you think I would be treated?

[indy-bama_grl]

Sorry to tell you but Indy can be very harsh on Southerners. Its nothing personal, but it is the way it is. I am movin to Alabama and no one seems happy to hear I am leavin a northern state for a southern state. The only thing that I can reccomend is don't move here it sucks, my personal opinion. I have lived here for 18 years and the only thing I like about it is the snowy winters, and even that is becoming non-existent.

However, if you have to move to INDY, I reccomend that you lose the accent pronto.

[hoosier-girl]

Originally Posted by nova

Indiana is a good state for most. as for the accent all of indian has some form of an accent.

Yeah. Well, I'm from Indiana, as you can tell from my user name, but I live in Arizona now, and I've had quite a few people ask me if I'm from the south!

[Ronzou]

I won't speak for anyone else, but me. (I live in Northern Indiana)

Some of my college instructors, have souther accents. And in no ways do I find them unintelligent. Yes sometimes it might be hard to understand what they are saying, but when when you finally do understand what they are saying even with the accent because you've been in their classes more than once, it's not a problem, and you can understand everything just fine.

Just a heads up though. Regardless who you are, accent or not, a lot of people have a bad attitude. I noticed a huge difference when I was in North Carolina, lots of people were open and everything, up here, just trying to talk to some people is a task.

Good luck!

[Runt52]

Dear Undertheironsea:
I moved to Ft.Wayne 22 yaers ago from Wisconsin. I still get some "flack" for my cheesehead accent. But I find that a lot of native Hoosiers have a slight southern drawl. Most of my cheeseheadness has disappeared since being here. I think you'll find (much as I have) that most Hoosiers are a nice group of people. Like has been mentioned before, some people just aren't open to strangers or someone with a different up bringing than they had. Good luck on the proposed move.

Steve

[hoosier-girl]

Originally Posted by indy-bama_grl

Sorry to tell you but Indy can be very harsh on Southerners. Its nothing personal, but it is the way it is. I am movin to Alabama and no one seems happy to hear I am leavin a northern state for a southern state. The only thing that I can reccomend is don't move here it sucks, my personal opinion. I have lived here for 18 years and the only thing I like about it is the snowy winters, and even that is becoming non-existent.

However, if you have to move to INDY, I reccomend that you lose the accent pronto.

I don't think it's fair or true to say that. If you're moving to Indiana I wouldn't reccomend losing your accent, I'd say just be yourself. You're not going to be rejected because you have a southern accent. There are plenty of people there who have southern accents and they're treated just fine, besides most native hoosiers have a slight southern accent (as it's been said before), especially in the southern parts of the state.
By the way which Indiana towns do ya'll think are most southern sounding?

[regionrat1]

Well if all of you knew anything then you would know that chicagoland is Indiana and that is why Northwest Indiana only has Lake, Porter, and La porte counties as Northwest Indiana and nothing below or anything past La porte county due to the fact if you can't see Chicago from your city's beach then your not a region rat. No St. Joesph is not Northwestern Indiana they are considered Northeastern Indiana. One of that reasons they are not considered Northwestern Indiana is that they are not connected to the lake and they do not get as many Chicago News station as we do in La porte, Lake, and Porter counties and Thier are some other reason that I forget. Oh and if your looking for a job then come to Northwest Indiana and live in Chesterton or Michigan city and find a job in Chicago which with a train ride is cheaper then driving and you can buy a yearly pass on the southshore railroad for like a 60-100 dollars can't remember not exactly sure i'll check if you ask. Yes the biggest money makers for this state are the steel companies I would know cause i'm a fourth generation steel worker and my grandfather is a second generation railmen he use to work for the pullman standard co. in the 60's before he went to vietnam, and they went out of business. Trust me I was in the military stationed in Virginia and the south treated me like they were doing me a favor while I was down south. When I traveled, since i didn't have southern draw they hated me trust me I got in a lot of fights just for going into a bar and asking for a drink in Tennesse. They knew i was from the region. The pharse "The region" has been used since my grandparents were little so no its not new. The reason all of you get courtesy down south that are south of 30 are because of the southern draw. They didn't call Indiana one of the Iron birgades from the civil war because we grew corn, soybeans, and had dairy farms it was because of the region that we were called one of the iron birgades. You could argue and say well no cause of us eating alot of corn that we were called that cause we were strong. No our hats even had steel on them for a symbol. So next time you want to bash the region don't even think about it. We make up hoosiers and the long history of being a Indiana natives. No we are not a melting pot I don't call Irish, Geman, Polish, and African American a melting pot you get lucky if you find a Spainish person here. Now I didn't say Mexican American, so don't say same thing, because it isn't. So if you think your from the region then you better live in Laporte, Lake, and Porter counties to say you are because you would have learned that in the 4th grade of what I just said in my rant. I'm from Michigan City, IN and we can see the Chicago on a clear day from Mount Baldy which use to be know as the hoosier slide in the early to mid 20th centry. We are also the only part of this country that has dunes by a lake so just remember all you hoosiers from south of 30 just remember most of your families came from the south. So no not all of your families were native born Yankees. I still consider the real south past the mason dixie line though. We get alot of lake effect snow during the winter, for instance like right now outside it has 3 ft. of snow outside and still coming down. Just to let all of you know school is still going on even if thier is 10 ft. of snow out thats what shovels are for and salt.


P.S. Tornado alley ends in La porte county next time you say that, look it up.

[Capt. Dan]

Things must have changed in recent years if southern people are treated badly in NW Indiana. Gary, Hammond, Whiting,East Chicago,Hobart and even out to Valpo and Crown Point were settled by mostly Southerners who came up north to work in the mills and start churches. I was a child in Gary in the 50's and 60's and ALL of our neighbors were from Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia and The Carolinas. No matter the color of their skin, most were Southern transplants.

[regionrat1]

Were i lived back in the 50's and 60's in Michigan city everybody knew eachother and it just recent that we had influx of southerns thats what my family and alot of people around town say.

[williamaaron]

I am from Southern Indiana, between Santa Claus and Owensboro, KY. I go to school in Muncie though and there are a lot of people there who give my friend and I from here so much crap of our "strong southern accents." As everyone else has said though, these people are the ones from the Northwest area around Chicago, Gary, etc. Some of these people actually became friends with us and just joke around with it. Others when they got aggravated would basically tell us to go back to Kentucky, even though we're from Indiana. When they start impersonating us they make it sound like we're from Alabama and at first it was offensive, but then we started overdramatizing their Chicago accent and they shut up real fast. A lot of people I go to school with though from the Indy and Lafayette areas found us very charming though. We never knew we had an accent nor did we expect to cause so much commotion over it. Pretty much though, if you're area code is 812 or eastern 765, chances are you probably have the "southern accent." Just be yourself and ignore people's comment. You're going to get a job based on your skills, employers could care less what you sound like.