You can hear it to my accent when I talk... I'm an Englishman in Noo -yaaaaawk

Hello Reader!!

Today's my last post from France, I think, because the Easter holidays are coming to an end, and it's time for me to head back to Graz. But before that, I want to write a post about... About... (suspense!!) About all the accents I've heard in my English speaking past. I owe this idea to my sister, once again! I'll try to find the next theme myself... But accents, they are such a passionating theme, I can't stop talking about them. So thanks!

I guess I'll try a little list of my favourites, I hope you'll like it.

Well my first encounter with funny accents has to be my trip to Australia, where I had to change planes in Hong Kong. There, a first difficulty laid in the fact that I couldn't understand the accent of the stewardess, because Chinese is really really hard, so I got a panick attack, and landed in a strange subway, cruising through the airport, with no idea whatsoever where I was going, or if I was going to end up in downtown Hong Kong. (Now that would have been a lot of fun). But that was OK, panick attacks mostly are, because somebody always ends up pitying you, and it's easy to get help. Even though you're a little gooey. Anyway. The bad part was my arrival in Sydney when the Cathay Pacific stewardess said something in the on-board radio, which I didn't understand at all. Then they came and sprayed the aeration system with some kind of stuff, and it didn't take me long to figure out that they had warned us against breathing too deep and opening our eyes. It took a little longer for the swelling to go away.

Then, second, comes the Pakistani accent of my Pakistani roommates in Dublin. I had a very culturally mixed bunch of roomates, 3 Pakistanis, 2 Polish and 1 Slovaque roommates (plus a tiny Pakistani-Polish little baby). I won't talk long about my flat-sharing conditions in Dublin, because I always get nervous and sweaty when I do, but they all spoke very good English, espacially the Pakistanis who are very fluent. I liked talking to them because they have exactly the same accent as in the Bollywood movies, which I love, and I could fancy I was actually having a chat with Shahrukh Khan. The main problem resided in the written version of their accent, because that got much, much more complicated. "Claire, can I purpose you?" read the message on my mobile phone. I don't know, Raees. I don't know what you mean by purposing me. I hope it's not rude. I'll say no, so as not to take any risk. But it's easy to make fun, so I guess I'll make the third object on my list...

My silly french accent. I don't know why exactly, but I have enormous problems with the word "water". Somehow, people never EVER understand me when I say "water". Which is why I always order vodka instead. "Woe-tah"? "What-air" as we'd say in French? I don't know. And also I have big big problems with the word "squirrel". I used to say "rural squirrel" three times in a row to train, but it actually was completely useless, insofar as if you say it three times wrong, it won't help at all. Other words like that are "hierarchy", or "thoroughly" but then again, I don't use those very often.

Fourth would be the mistery accent of my brother. He lives in Oklahoma city, and has lived there for three years now I think, and I still never heard him speak English in a real conversation. I'd love to know whether he has a big French accent or none at all, but I guess the chances are high that I'll never know, because he obviously speaks French to me.

Of course, the Irish accent is very popular with me. They have such a nice way to talk, it always sounds less mean than it really is. All I can say with a very bad fake Irish accent are awful swearwords, somehow. I wish I could have gotten a hint of real irish accent while I was in Dublin, but as I said, my roommates were not exactly Irish, so I did not. Too bad. But I can still say Eejit!! Eeeeeejit!! I like saying that. But I don't say it too often either, because I'm very well behaved.

Anyway. This post is getting longer and longer, and less and less interesting, so I guess I'll just stop there. The next one will be about JWI, which I have nearly finished (hurrah!! hurrah!!) ...

Oh, yeah, by the way, I don't know if anyone amongst you know the new series called Dr House, but it's really really great, and if you have a chance to, check it out! It's very funny! A little hard to understand because of all the terrible technical terms, but that's not so important really, unless you study medicine. I now officially need to call the "post ending" hotline, because I don't have a conclusion. Well, I guess "good-bye" will do!! I'll soon be back from Graz! Au revoir et à bientôt!