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Accent rage rant!
I hate having an accent sometimes, and wish I could just blend in. I never order anything over the phone because I hate having to repeat myself, and at the hospital yesterday I was screaming in pain and they kept asking me to repeat my name and claimed I wasn't saying it properly and nobody understood me when I was asking for a bag of ice.
Seriously. I think I have a pretty clear north American accent.
I'm having such a crap day. Snarl.
Seriously. I think I have a pretty clear north American accent.
I'm having such a crap day. Snarl.
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Re: Accent rage rant!
((hugs)). I feel your pain. Usually among non-native English speakers, North American accents are some of the easiest to understand. Yet I often get asked to repeat myself by English speakers from other continents. I have a very nondescript, non-harsh, non-placeable North American accent. If that happened when I was in the hospital I'd probably want to shank a b*tch.
Also, how could you not say your own name properly? First of all, it's your name. Second of all, it's not like it has dozens of pronunciation options.
My name here us said with an "eese" on the end, whereas I say it with an "ass" on the end.
To be fair, I may have been saying anything at that moment.
I had that when I lived in America. We had to change our accent to order a glass of water in a restaurant or the American/Cuban/Jamaican waitron would not know what we were saying.
Here I just sound posh, apparently.
Hope today is a better day for you. Xx
At least you have internet access, right? Bright side and all that. Do you get to start on the serious drugs soon?
I'm driving to Sing Monday morning to meet with a new neurologist. Fingers crossed that he's not as big of a chauvinist as the one in KL was.
I'm sorry too Tofu
I never ordered anything when we were living in London. Ever. And now dh gets it here, last night at dinner her ordered water and had to say it like 3 times for the person to understand.
I guess it's more motivating to get better so you can get the hell out of here?
Can people bring you food?
Seriously. Vegetarian option is either cheese and pickle or egg salad.
Shudder.
Hm, don't know what a cannular line is (and hope I never have to find out!) but it doesn't sound nice. Boo
Re: your accent, sometimes that catches people off-guard in another country and I think they're so surprised to hear something said in a way that's different from what they're used to, that they need to take a moment and re-calibrate their listening, so they pay closer attention. Does that make sense?!
Very jealous that you're in the UK. Please, eat lots of those weird and delicious chip flavours for me! And the chocolate.... yummmmm. Crap. Now I'm hungry.
I love you, but there is seriously something wrong with you. The chocolate here is awesome! I have never had Canadian chocolate, but if it is anything like American chocolate then the UK choc is 1000% times better. When I lived in the US the only choc I bought was York peppermint patties or Lindor.
The Brits sure love their sweets (I laugh myself silly out of sheer glee every time I walk through their bread aisles, with all their cakes and tarts and cookies and doughnuts), and I'm apparently no exception. DH can't believe my teeth haven't rotted out of my head already. I think I've just built-up a tolerance to it, lol.
Having said that, the only chocolate I go crazy over here in Canada is Cadbury's because it's soooo creamy, and I think a lot of their stuff is formulated in the UK. Maybe British chocolate is an acquired taste?
it used to drive my dh CRAZY that when he visited me in MN and would ask for anything like a 'coke' (coca cola) people would say 'huh?' 'what?'
and then I'd say it and they'd say OHHHH COKE!
lol
I don't get too much of that here, I guess my accent doesn't stick out quite so much, although I do sometimes wonder 'why are people staring at me while I talk?' then I realise - oh yea I have a different accent - I forget sometimes after being SO used to the Aussie accent.....
this post makes me think of this sketch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r48KA2X2Rb4
Still funny after all these years.
Along these lines and since this thread has taken several turns anyway (btw, Tofu, I'm so sorry you're having another flare-up and hope that it's over very very soon so you can eat regular food again :-( )...
A German friend was visiting me years ago and my parents asked him what he liked to eat. His reply was "Not seafood." Which is a perfectly normal response, except when you say it like he did, it sounded like, "Nazi food."
Suffice to say it was several minutes before we stopped laughing enough to explain to him what had just happened.
BFP1: DD1 born April 2011 at 34w1d via unplanned c/s due to HELLP, DVT 1 week PP
BFP3: DD2 born Feb 2013 at 38w4d via unplanned RCS due to uterine dehiscence
Wedding/Honeymoon Pictures
For me the bigger frustration is not understanding the local accent. I got so flustered at a store once I forgot my debit card. Could not understand a thing the cashier was saying and just wanted to flee.
Most of the time if they don't understand me I'm prepared to keep working at finding the right word or pronouncing things differently.