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<english is my native language, and i've been learning spanish and french
over the past few years, in addition to a smattering of other languages.
<i've noticed a very interesting thing that i wonder if anyone else can
relate to. i've had a number of french friends, some of whom had only
<rudimentary english, or good english that was thickly accented. over time,
i started to realize that whenever i spoke to french people in english,
<i'd unconsciously start speaking english as if i were a french person
speaking english! i was unconsciously adopting their accent, their
patterns, <their word choices, their syntax. i would find myself making the
same mistakes that they tend to make, but i just let it pass. and why not?
they <could see, if only subconsciously, that i was moving over into their
world, communicating with them in their frame of reference.
My husband tells me that when we go back to my hometown in central
Pennsylvania (which is an old coal mining ethnic region), I adopt the
accent and language of my relatives when speaking with them. I use the same
expressions, cadence and ungrammatical structure and sometimes
mispronounciation. I seem to do it without thinking. I finally realized
that I do it so that I don't make the people that I love feel uncomfortable
and so that I feel like I "fit in". It makes me feel closer to my roots and
warm and fuzzy and I'm smiling now even just thinking about it. As soon as
we're in the car on the way back home, I'm back to speaking correctly
adding all the proper "ings" to the end of my participles.
Liz Goodwin
Technical Writer, Process Instruments
AMETEK, P&AI
liz -dot- goodwin -at- ametek -dot- com
412-826-2427
There are people who reshape the world by force or argument, but the cat
just lies there, dozing; and the world quietly reshapes itself to suit his
comfort and convenience.
--Allen and Ivy Dodd
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