@Gabby101 Interestingly, when I lived in the south that was one thing I used to comment that southerners never did, they never poked fun at themselves. Not about being southern, and they were not in touch with their family’s national background at all. Except, I had one friend who was Russian, and only had been in the country 7 years when I first met her. She would make fun about being Russian. I myself growing up in the northeast, we all joked like that. We Jewish girls joked when we were acting JAPpy, and the Italians talked with their hands, and the Irish drank, whatever the stereotype, they were brought up in a non-serious, we all laughed, way. The absence of that in the south was extremely strange to me. It felt like they were worried about being caught stereotyping, but a friend of mine from Oklahoma said in her part of the country it isn’t done, because no one even thinks about where their family came from. That when she moved to NYC and people would ask, “what are you?” Or, “what nationality are you?” Or, anything similar, she had no idea what they were talking about at first, she had never been asked before.
Anyway, in the south my experience isn’t that they laugh at themselves for their southern ways, rather they think they are right. They have senses of humor for many many things, but not that thing. I hope this girl and her family are the exception to the rule. Maybe when a southerner is out of their environment they are more likely to be the way you described.
@RockerChick14 Is she saying things like “Yes ma’am” to the teachers? It’s not just accent, it’s also word choice. Those things she will probably figure out and stop doing and it will help. Hopefully, her parents clued her in or will help her with those differences. I know southerners who are taught if ma’am doesn’t come at the end of a sentence when answering an adult it is reason to be disciplined.