This was a poster that would have been found around England during WWII.
It's made a bit of a comeback with the current economic crisis.
The other day I walked in the door to work and commented on a co-worker's outfit. Later in the office one of the nurses said, "when you came in I couldn't tell who it was." She explained that I sounded very British and that she has noticed that my American accent isn't as strong. I laughed as I was very surprised to hear this. It makes sense as now the main exposure I have to "American English" is being around Philip in the evening. Last time I was in MN, as soon as I got of the plane someone made a comment that they thought they could hear some accent (I completely disagreed. . . and of course after a few days in MN my o's started to be drawn out a bit more :) I am interested to see what it is like 2 years from now if I continue to work full-time in the British community.
I have noticed some British phrases seep into my vocabularly to the point where I don't think about them, which I have found quite interesting. I catch myself talking to Philip at home and realizing that I just said something very "British"
"how do you get on with ____" = how do you get along with _____
"do you want to have a chat (or a catch-up)" = do you want to talk ---- this may just be a clinic thing, I'm not completely sure
"bits" = pieces
"lot" = whole group
"bin" = garbage can
When my mother and father in-law were here we had a funny moment where I didn't realize the accent I was talking with. We were in the car and I turned the key to shut it off. Our antenna makes a loud noise when it goes back into the car. Laura asked "what is that?" To which I answered, "the antenna (which I pronounced on-tenna)" She looked at me and asked, "The what?" a couple more times. To which I kept saying "ontenna" She laughed and asked me if I heard what I was saying. I gave her a puzzled look and then she said, "do you mean the ANtenna?" We had a good laugh. It was at that point where I realized my speech was beginning to slowly change unconciously *no - I just want to clarify I do NOT have a British accent, really -- I maintain that I still sound pretty "Coloradan" (NOT Minnesotan).
4 comments:
"Keep calm and carry on" - I like that! That could be very wise advice in lots of situations/locations. I might have to add that to my Minnesotan vacabulary. So our girl is starting to sound like a Brit, huh? Just throw in a "whatever" or an "uffda" once in awhile for good measure. I tried to call several times today for a "chat" but missed you.
haha... i love this post.. because it's yet another thing i can say... "WELCOME TO MILITARY LIFE!!!" This is what occurs when you move from place to place! I always pick up accents very quickly without knowing it! At least you have a pretty cool one to pick up on now! :) Just wait till the kids come and they start moving around... they pick up accents 80 times faster! hehe. LOVE YA JOY!
you write in accent too...with all those "mums" you use... :)
YEA i do the whole British thing too, especially when i was working on the economy!
Post a Comment