Saturday, February 14, 2009

Different ways of saying it

When I was in school, I was taught to speak and write the oxford? English, When I went to University Malaya for my first degree, we talked in Malaysian English and our written scripts were in English. I survived. I went to England for my first post graduate and discovered that the English people did not speak the way I was taught at school. I had a hard time comprehending the South Eastern Londoners speak. It was at Shoreditch that I first learnt that I could not make myself understood ( I did my first 6 months attachment) at that town.

Now living in the US, I had to adjust again. My first experience with American language was in Honolulu. Everyone at my place of work complimented me for my flawless English accent??. I thought I was speaking in just plain English (the way we speak, with no accent). Then i began to notice that the American speak differently, even the sentences are spoken with a different intonation. They pronounce words differently. The most common difference is the vowel A and O. The word bath becomes beth, the name Donna becomes Daana, dancing become dencing .etc.etc.

I live in the south central of the country and our accent here is way different than those living in the north. The people here called the northerners the Yankees. The people here have their own vocabularies that i have yet to master. It is hard to understand when they speak with each other. Of course, we know that standing in line means queuing up; the shopping cart is a trolley; the elevator is the lift; the drive through is the take away etc. etc.

7 comments:

MA said...

Aikk..? boleh main tulis sekerat-sekerat saja ke? Hehe...

Kak Ezza@makcik Blogger said...

yelah kak...

tulis sekerat je ni ...alahai!!!

Nek Rock said...

hahahaha kak sal kasi kita suspen..lalalala

Zue Murphy said...

I get that a lot. My co worker never like the way I speak with the queen english. I had to adjust and speak the way American would say it.

Mama Huptihup said...

Kak Sal,

i like the southern accent..berlagu2 depa bercakap kan..very nice...teringat dulu i ada pen pal dr missisippi..we were both 15 :D

a.setar said...

Kak Sal,

I could not agree more. I myself, when I first got here (Boston) and even now, have to repeat several times to make myself understood. I'm very lucky to have American and British housemates. Learned a lot from them.

Mutiara said...

Hi a.setar
I think you are from Alor Setar and thank you for visiting.