What do you think about people who only use an accent for certain words?

[noisyturtle]

I find it incredibly condescending and annoying, unless you are speaking the entire sentence in that language.
No one but Americans do it. Not like someone from Japan or Mexico will be speaking about American food, then totally drop their native accent to say "hamburger and french fries" with a flat White guy accent. It's stupid.

Chefs especially are guilty of doing this constantly, as if naming the ingredient with an inflection makes it more respectful of the ingredient or something.

[smarmar]

Humans are just plain weird.
Not sure if this fits the thread, but I have an acquaintance who speaks in a general American accent but will use a British accent on a seemingly-random word. Like, when saying "can't" he'll pronounce the "a" as the "o" in "hot". He's in his early-mid twenties, so maybe he's still acclimating to his vocal chords. 

[tp4tissue]

It might be tourettes.

But autism spectrum in general is becoming extremely prevalent due to environmental pollution.  We've got all sorts of Weirdos like Tp4.

[iri]

Humans are just plain weird.
Not sure if this fits the thread, but I have an acquaintance who speaks in a general American accent but will use a British accent on a seemingly-random word. Like, when saying "can't" he'll pronounce the "a" as the "o" in "hot". He's in his early-mid twenties, so maybe he's still acclimating to his vocal chords. 

this has nothing to do with British English

[smarmar]

Humans are just plain weird.
Not sure if this fits the thread, but I have an acquaintance who speaks in a general American accent but will use a British accent on a seemingly-random word. Like, when saying "can't" he'll pronounce the "a" as the "o" in "hot". He's in his early-mid twenties, so maybe he's still acclimating to his vocal chords. 

this has nothing to do with British English

What would you say that it is, then? Just a quirk, maybe? The way he pronounces some words sounds British to my ears.

[iri]

Humans are just plain weird.
Not sure if this fits the thread, but I have an acquaintance who speaks in a general American accent but will use a British accent on a seemingly-random word. Like, when saying "can't" he'll pronounce the "a" as the "o" in "hot". He's in his early-mid twenties, so maybe he's still acclimating to his vocal chords. 

this has nothing to do with British English

What would you say that it is, then?

I've never seen or heard that person, how the **** would I know?

[Sniping]

i think it's more about how you carry yourself. this kind of mannerism can be fairly neutral if you just aren't being pretentious or annoying in general. i've been trying to lean less into people's issues, I find it really hard to get along with people when I do. generally, I feel like if you put anyone under a microscope for long enough, you'll find stuff you don't really jibe with. as in, no one's perfect, but if someone's imperfections are bothering you too much, it's probably not a good sign for you two. if it's a stranger, you probably won't have to face them for very long so just let it pass.

[smarmar]

I find it incredibly condescending and annoying, unless you are speaking the entire sentence in that language.
No one but Americans do it. Not like someone from Japan or Mexico will be speaking about American food, then totally drop their native accent to say "hamburger and french fries" with a flat White guy accent. It's stupid.

Chefs especially are guilty of doing this constantly, as if naming the ingredient with an inflection makes it more respectful of the ingredient or something.

Newscasters do this often. American media people will be speaking perfect white guy English and suddenly go full-Spanish accent when pronouncing the name of a Hispanic. I've heard Japanese newscasters do the same, but going from Japanese to perfect English for a couple of words. I like it; I think it's respectful toward the original pronunciation, especially if it's a proper name. But coming from a chef, though, might be a little different—maybe condescension.

[noisyturtle]

i think it's more about how you carry yourself. this kind of mannerism can be fairly neutral if you just aren't being pretentious or annoying in general. i've been trying to lean less into people's issues, I find it really hard to get along with people when I do. generally, I feel like if you put anyone under a microscope for long enough, you'll find stuff you don't really jibe with. as in, no one's perfect, but if someone's imperfections are bothering you too much, it's probably not a good sign for you two. if it's a stranger, you probably won't have to face them for very long so just let it pass.

Yeah, I'm the same. Mostly let things roll off like tears in the rain, unless it is someone I see on a near-daily biases I'll make an effort to find a middle ground.
I'm not the type to stuff it down 'cause I know that leads to a dark place, so I need to nip serious personality clashes in the bud early. It's actually easier that way, because you don't know the person yet so the awkwardness is unfounded, and believe it or not, usually brings you closer in the long run due to the early-onset personal conversation.

[Kavik]

I am this person with certain words. I try to keep the pronunciation as close to the native language's as possible if I am familiar with it. I try to say "root" for "route" and "foy-ey" for "foyer". Pronouncing "croissant" with the French pronunciation is awkward though, so I usually say it sarcastically. The "e" is "Porsche" always pronounced; even by English pronunciation rules, a vowel preceded by three consosants is pronounced and not silent! Likewise with "Schadenfreude".

I care more about pronunciation and clarity than accent (they are related, but distinct).

I notice things about my own native accent that I don't like, but it sounds a bit weird when I try to change things. For example, I find it ambiguous that I and most Americans use flaps for t's. Latter and ladder, hearty and hardy, leader and liter, let on and led on, metal and medal. By using hard t's in those cases, I end up sounding British or Irish for that one word unintentionally. I also recently learned that New Yorkers distinguish between "cot" and "caught" and between "merry", "marry", and "Mary", which is pretty cool, but I don't think I'm ready to adopt a New York accent.

Humans are just plain weird.
Not sure if this fits the thread, but I have an acquaintance who speaks in a general American accent but will use a British accent on a seemingly-random word. Like, when saying "can't" he'll pronounce the "a" as the "o" in "hot". He's in his early-mid twenties, so maybe he's still acclimating to his vocal chords. 

this has nothing to do with British English

What would you say that it is, then?

I've never seen or heard that person, how the **** would I know?

The "o" in "hot" may not be exactly the right phoneme (or it's different in your accent), but Brits tend to change the vowel sound between "can" and "can't" and use a hard "t" sound; whereas, American pronounce "can" and "can't" almost exactly the same (with maybe a very short glottal stop at the end for the "t") but just put stress on the negative form (which makes it very hard to tell the difference between the positive and negative sometimes even as a native AE speaker). I personally just try to add a hard "t" at the end to make it clear I'm using the negative form.

Good video on the subject (link with timestamp to relevant part 13:34):