Thread: Yanks....you gotta luv em

Or Croydon, or Lewisham where I went to school in the 60's. That train line brings back memories. I caught the Strathfield - Burwood -Croydon - Lewisham ( "all stops to Central") to school with all the PLC girls getting on and off at Croydon; and then later Strathfield - Redfern - Central express train for 4 years on my way to UNSW at Kensington. I remember Alan Davidson, the legendary fast bowler, caught my train to the City too. What a fine looking man he was, silver hair, glasses, neat grey suit and briefcase, looking very fit and strong. He was very impressive.

When we lived in San Diego we attended several social gatherings, run by the University where I worked (UCSD), for "International Visitors". Along with the international people there were also a bunch of "locals" invited to help the internationals feel welcome. One of the locals was a born and bred in the USA Medical research doctor who I chatted with for about 5 minutes (the usual questions where are you from, what are you doing etc) when he said "You guys speak English really well, what language do you normal speak?"

Anothe other funny language thing that happened while I was in the US was a Chinese graduate student (fresh out of central China - he'd never even seen the ocean before) arrives and starts working in our lab. His english was terrible not helped by the fact that outside work he'd always hang around with the other Chinese researchers but at work few people would speak to him except me. Anyway - 12 months later our supervising prof said to me "you do realise that [the Chinese student] now talks English with an Aussie accent?"

there's a story from the First World War about a group of Aussies taking the mick out of some yanks by speaking in placenames - Cabramatta, Tarnagulla that sort of thing.

Originally Posted by BobL

... now talks English with an Aussie accent?"

Something similar happened to my sons. They were about 5 and 7 years old at the time.

I was working in field support for Digital Equipment Corporation or DEC in the Los Angeles area. During my work day I would be on the telephone with people in headquarters for DEC which was in Boston. I had developed an ear for the New England or Bostonian accent.

One day as I was listening to my sons talk at the dinner table I realized that they both had developed a Bostonian accent. It was one of those awakenings that I was so used to hearing at work that hearing it from the boys didn't really register.

Considering that I had not developed the Bostonian accent and SWMBO had never been to the New England area we were mystified where the accent was coming from. Several months later I was home on vacation and SWMBO calls the boys in from outside because their favorite TV program was on.

The program was on the Public Broadcasting Network, PBS. (Donation and government supported) The program was "Zoom" and the characters were school kids from the fourth to sixth years. The program was produced the PBS affiliate in Boston, WGBH. As I was watching the show with the boys, it was very obvious where the accent was coming from. SWMBO and I had a good laugh over that one.