miércoles, 30 de abril de 2008

English.

Okay, I can´t stand it anymore. I have to tell you: I miss my language. We don´t think about it, we don´t realize it, but we have a sound, us Californians. Us chill SoCalers who take the five to Wahoo´s to have tacos and, you know, stick a skater sticker on the back of the toilet.

I thought that I would leave my language behind when I came to Argentina. My plan was: forget English. Learn Spanish. Become Argentinian (never leave). So I buried my language and decided that it was gone.

That plan lasted maybe 4 days. Then I was aching to speak English. I felt a weird emptiness that made me want to retreat to my bedroom away from the rolling burbles of Argentine Spanish. A dialect that, really, puts so many "j" sounds into everything, they might as well admit that they´re Spanish bastards of French parents and just move on.

I don´t think I ever valued the ability to express myself before. Forget any talent, just ability. When you have a great joke to say, when you´re gonna pee your pants just thinking about how funny you are, having to spend 10 minutes explaining your slang can be almost physically painful. And I make up so many slang words of my own that are, occasionally, a far cry from common slang to begin with ...

I don´t even have a "normal" English accent here, because everybody in Latin America is taught British English, not American English. They all pronouce their t´s with proper puffs and painstakingly remember the h´s in where and there. Their English sounds like England, France and Spain had one hell of a love child. (Possibly named Fabio.)

I, on the other hand, lazily slice off the end of every other word. My t´s, they have marvelled, come out as d´s, n´s, and u´s ... if they survive to make any sound at all. "Economy of sound" one Mendocino English student painstakingly pronounced to me. I miss my economy of sound.

2 comentarios:

Ankoku dijo...

Lol, wanna-be british people ftl. Lazy Americans ftw, btw sorry to have not said anything before (I rarely paided attention to anyone since I reciently moved to Vegas) but I hope you're having fun down there and aren't missing America (and our crappy form of the English language) that much :P

~ Anthony

Anónimo dijo...

Awww. Honey! I'm having the exact opposite effect in DC. NOBODY has the word "like" in between every other word, and I couldn't love it more! My roomie is the only one keeping that tradition alive, but it will be gone soon (or I'll just keep listening to every other word!) Miss you, you fabulous hiking, spanish-french-speaking whore.