I was at work yesterday, chatting with one of my co workers, when he asked me, "So where are you from? You're not from America are you?"
At first I was kind of surprised and offended. 'Where in the hell do you think I am from?' Then again, a lot of people just can't place me ethnically because of my unique "look," so they figure I must be European or something (don't ask me why).
So I decide to give him the benefit of the doubt and cut a wry joke, "Why do you say that? Did my accent give it away?"
In my opinion, I have the most American accent around.
To which he said: "No, it's just the way you talk. The way you use words seems like someone who isn't from America."
Now I was really unsure how to take that. What the hell does that mean?! Is he referring to my penchant for verbosity? Am I uncomfortably stiff and formal in my use of English? Or does he think my use of verbs is somehow awkward and thus speaks of still familiarizing myself with the language? Do I sound like I just got off the boat?
Geez!
We ended up having good conversation about other things, but it also struck ME as odd his choice of the word "America". I mean who calls the U.S. "America" so readily and frequently anyway? What's that about?
No comments:
Post a Comment