Desperate Serbwife

I talk the telephone with you

My entire life I have been quite susceptible to picking up on other people's accents or phraseology. If I travel to Texas I will begin to talk with a drawl, and after speaking with my British friends I will begin to say things like "did you snog that fit bird last night?" When I lived in Argentina, this was quite a handy skill to have because it allowed me to pick up Cordobes Spanish very quickly and my vocabulary and accent become very local. I am hoping that eventually the same thing will happen with my Serbian. But, as I currently spend my days speaking in English - mainly to people that speak English as a second language - I have found myself picking up their almost-but-not-quite-perfect English phraseology.

I have begun using only the present tense, dropping my articles, and even pronouncing things incorrectly in order to feel better understood. Just today I found myself saying:

"Today you practice Serbian with me, yes?"

and

"Yes, me too am upset with Madonna." (upset=obsessed, but with Serbian-accented English, the word "obsessed" sounds much more like "upset").

I have even brought this problem home. The other day, Mike asked me to show him how to set the washing machine to the delicate cycle, and I said to him, "I come, I show you."

So when I get eventually get home, and you ask me how I liked Serbia, please don't be surprised if I respond, "Yes, I likes its."

posted by Brooke @ 1:32 PM