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Speaking of accents, NYU Dean John Sexton likes to test peoples’ NYC bona fides by getting them to say cawfee. I told him real NYers don’t say cawfee at all. They just say “reguluh” “black” or “two sugars.” The word cawfee is entirely superfluous and busy NYers don’t have time to say it.
I picked up a lot of things when I lived in Hong Kong, but never an accent.
“One of the only things I hate more than National Public Radio are Americans with affected British accents. Like Madonna, for example. Turns out Bill Bryson, who was on NPR this morning, has an affected British accent. I felt so betrayed. Not Bill Bryson! Noooooo! I felt like Ceasar as Brutus pulled out his dagger.”
As a card-carrying liberal, I naturally love National Public Radio. But I digress … since I actually want to weigh in on the accent comment. While I agree that affected British accents are pretentious and annoying, I think we should give both Bryson — and yes, even Madonna — the benefit of the doubt. It’s actually quite natural to pick up the accent of the place where you are living, and it’s not always deliberate. I came back after a year in Denmark with a bit of a Danish accent when I spoke English, though of course I eventually lost it. And many Brits who live in the States eventually start to take on a more Americanized accent. They might still sound British to us, but they probably sound fairly American when they go back to the U.K.
And think about it: how often do we praise Americans with strong regional accents (usually Southern accents) who have “lost” their accents? When someone from Alabama loses her drawl and speaks standard-newscaster American English, we don’t typically consider that person to have an affected accent.
Yeah, m4l. You’re a fair weather fan. I was a Cub’s fan for 15 years!!!!!! I’d still be one today (over Mets & Yankees) were it not for my new-found Philly home!!!!!!
Rob just doesn’t know how to fully appreciate the finer things in life, like $30.00 a scoop ice cream served by moonfaces. : P
Yes Etson, Bill Bryson has a legitimate excuse. Unlike Madonna, who bought an English country estate and started talking in a fake accent as soon as her bags were unpacked.
Do you get guff from your people about accent creep?
I used to have a kind of funny northern New England thing going on (eg I used to say “rum” instead of “room” and “brum” instead of “broom”) but I’ve gotten rid of it.
Slopefarm is right, M4L. Being a true fan means staying with your team through the good times AND bad. You’re a bit too eager to jump off the bandwagon.
“now that I’m old and grouchy”
NOW, PB???
“no one charged 20 dollars per scoop back then!”
But, *rob*! $20.00 per scoop ice cream is just soooooo much better, especially if it’s organic.