:: The Wendy House ::

Lady on plane with English accent (LOPWEA):  where are you from?

Wendy:  Bristol, England

LOPWEA:  I though you had a foreign accent

Wendy:  I’ve recently lived abroad for 8 years,  where would you guess the accent is from?

LOPWEA:  Austraila or New Zealand

Wendy:  yes,  its ex-colonial English,  the NW US

Barista:  it’s not that I like your accent or anything,  but I just have to say that I saw the queen,  well 10 minutes of the Queen actually.

Wendy:  The Movie? (deliberately uses the American word to keep the cuteness thing at sub-gushing proportions)

Barista: Yeah,  and I didn’t know what it was about and that Diana is in it and I thought how important it is and that I should watch the movie.  Would you like a free sample caramel latte?

Wendy:  Yes please

Barista:  and the government,  I’ve seen that and they are so… ..so …how shall I say….   …candid…   I like the  way they stand-up and thump the table.  It’s not that i don’t like America  ….  

Wendy :  Thankyou (pays for yummy pie and leaves with extra free latte)

STOP IT!

Wendy reasserts a previous reqeust to stop making noise so that people can hear the speaker.  Reaction from the speaker was to attempt to immitate my accent:

I love the way you say “store pit“

Wendy:  How-do-you-do (handshake) my name’s Wendy

My self-introduction to a boy who could prove a useful work contact. 

Wendy:  Blah-di-blah-di blah, blah, blah…….does that sound reasonable to you?

I pause to let him reply.  Silence.

He’s still actually holding my hand and just gazing into my eyes.  This behaviour is not unusual amongst US boys when they first hear me speak.   I slowly removed my hand and decide to let him recover speech on his own time.

Wendy: I’ll arrange for us to meet for 30 mins or so to work-out the details of blah-di-blah-di-blah,  does that sound ok?

Sometimes people snap-out of it when they realise I’m going.  He smiled and nodded,  I smiled then pranced out of the room….

Wendy:  “blah-blah,  blah-di-blah-di-blah, now THAT’s AWESOME!”
Canadian: snigger, snigger snigger “have you ever heard a Bostonian say Awesome?” snigger
Wendy: “Um,  no”
Canadian: “it’s good to hear someone who doesn’t sound like they come from Boston say Awesome,  though I’ve completely missed what you thought was awesome,  can you remind me?”

Call me paranoid,  but I suspect many Americans are so busy silently sniggering over the way I’ve pronounced a word that they don’t actually hear what I’ve tried to say.  This Canadian was exceptional both in laughing out loud and in admitting to missing my point.  I like these kind of exceptions.