I just had this conversation with a faculty member I ran into in the hall:
He starts by saying something I don't quite catch.
"I'm sorry?"
"I said 'hello, StyleyGeek'."
"Oh. Sorry. Hi."
"You're all wrapped up warm."
"It's cold today."
"Cold?"
"I'm expecting so, anyway."
"Really? You're expecting snow?" To someone nearby, "Styley says it's going to snow!"
"No, so. I said 'I expect so'."
"Oh. Right then. How are you today, anyway?"
"Damp." (My hair was still dripping from the rain I had just cycled through).
He gives me a slightly baffled look and, with the air of someone humouring a slightly dangerous psychiatric patient, replies, "Well, I hope you are more 'alive' later."
4 Comments:
yay! You are a psychiatric patient too!
Hilarious exchange. Is he hard of hearing or is it related to what I imagone might be an odd dialect on your part (NZ + german + denmarkian)?
What do you expect if you pronouce As as Es? :) Although, I'd blame him for the snow/so confusion.
I just spent 10 minutes repeating "main menu" until the voice recognition software gave up and transferred me to an operator, so I can commiserate with the accent woes.
Yeah, what Lucy said. I think the "damp"/"dead" confusion was my accent, and the "so"/"snow" problem was him being hard of hearing.
And my accent is odd, but I don't think there's any German or Danish influence. Mostly it's a combination of my NZ background, my mother's British influence when I was a kid (she's lost her English accent now, but it was strong when I was a preschooler), and me having been out of NZ in the last seven years while the NZ accent has been undergoing some pretty rapid change.
So to Australians I sound like your typical NZer, but to NZers I sound a bit strange. They often think I'm British, or even Australian (something the Aussies just can't believe!)
Conversations like that are so funny. I once heard my daughter, when she was about 10, have a conversation with a waitress that went about 4 volleys with neither responding to what the other actually said. My other daughter and I were almost in stitches listening to it.
It just happens sometimes. It's not you.
Talk to me! (You know you want to!)