The other day I had to call Cannes, France, to confirm a hotel reservation for one of my bosses, as he has a conference there the middle of March (yeah, tough life, the company sending him to the South of France for a conference. I am still trying to convince him he needs me there to carry his bags).
I find there is nothing more awkward then dialling another country, hearing their opening spiel in their language and having to ask them if they speak English. But I do not speak French. I can read it a bit and say a few words, but at the speed a native goes? Not gonna happen. Luckily both of the people I spoke to at the hotel did speak English and I confirmed the reservation with no problems.
But it got me thinking. Do I speak English? Or do I speak American?
I actually speak a combination of both. My mother and sister-in-law have both pointed this out to me. I say lorry, not truck. I say lift, not elevator. But I still call it a sidewalk, not the pavement. Pavement is what you drive on.
I’ve also picked up a little bit of an accent, but not too much of one. One of the other English things I say is ‘sorry’ rather than ‘excuse me’ when I nearly bump into someone. And I say it with a bit of a lilt.
And there are difference in expression that get me in trouble or make me blush. ‘You blew me off’ has a totally different meaning here (figure it out, you’re all intelligent people!). And one day the following conversation happened at work:
Boss is patting all of the papers on his desk, obviously looking for something.
Robyn: What did you lose?
Boss: My rubber.
Robyn: ::blushing furiously:: I have more in the supply cupboard, do you need one?
Boss: FOUND IT!
Co-Worker: We do have more rubbers?
Robyn: ::still blushing:: Yes, do you need one?
CEO: You really shouldn’t ask Robyn for a rubber.
Co-worker: Yeah, because I am sure she keeps condoms in the supply cover.
Robyn: ::Flees to get Co-worker an ERASER!!!::
And I really don’t embarrass easily. But that got me.
The other thing that gets me on occasion is pronunciation. I was taking minutes in a meeting not too long ago and I could not figure out what a ‘clark of works’ was. So we finish the meeting and I say to my boss “A what of works?!”
“Clark.”
“Clark?”
“Yes, c-l-e-r-k, clark.”
“Ooooh, CLERK!” You would have thought I’d have figured that one out by the context, but the pronunciation was so different, I just couldn’t get my head around it!
And when my mother, or sister-in-law, point out what I’ve said is English, rather than American, I point out to them that I live here now. I need to speak the language.