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Pizza with the Brits

November 10th, 2011 at 05:57 am

An old childhood friend of DH's turned up in town, and we all went out for pizza tonight. He had an interesting story: He was born in Tanzania, moved back to the UK when he was a teenager, met his wife in Morocco and now lives in Canada. I feel so boring!

My favorite part of the evening was the waitress' inability to understand a word either of the guys said. Neither of them have particularly thick accents--not heavy Northern or Cockney or Yorkshire---but she just stared at me every time they said anything to her--and needed me to repeat everything they said. We had a lovely dinner and it made up for the wet, horrible, rainy day here.

More on a new financial wrinkle tomorrow.

4 Responses to “Pizza with the Brits”

  1. CB in the City Says:
    1320936713

    That reminds me of my sister's story about traveling around Europe with her husband, who was a Spanish professor, and well-versed in many other languages, too. She said they had no language barrier in any country except for Great Britain, where they couldn't understand what anybody said!

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    1320955875

    Haha, yes, that happens to my husband sometimes too. Especially when he asks for water. He would typically pronounce it kind of like "wo-ah," but over the years he's tried inserting a T sound so it's "wo-tah." People still don't get it. I think I've told him once or twice he should just try to pronounce it like a Minnesotan: "wadder."

    On the other hand, sometimes people are charmed by his accent and he gets special treatment or even good deals! We call that the B.A.D.: British Accent Discount. Big Grin

  3. My English Castle Says:
    1320957430

    I have friends (especially in rural MN) who can't understand a word DH says. It seems unreal to me. Did I just watch too many British films and TV shows growing up? Our friend told us that the Canadians (of all people!) sent his daughter to speech therapy!

    DH drops all those middle-of-the-word Ts as well. And I say "wadder"!

  4. PauletteGoddard Says:
    1321070235

    Canadians sending daughter to speech therapy: no comment. My step-grandmother, from the Liverpool area of England, did not understand us when she immigrated to Canada: we spoke too fast for her.

    I have a rough time with Geordie and East Yorkshire accents.

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