On any given day, there are several “me’s” crashing into each other, trying to get through each 24-hour period. There’s primarily Mommy-me, Wifey-me, WorkerBee-me, and Always-available-when-teachers-call-me.
There’s also Jamaican-me and American-me, which frequently overlap at any given time.
What frequently happens when I have to switch between dialects, is that my words get lost in translation. At home, I speak with a Jamaican accent and lots of patois. But when I interact with non-Jamaicans, it must be in perfect English. If I get too comfortable speaking to non-Jamaicans, the old patois will burst forth, especially if I’ve just finished speaking to an old friend. The other day at work, for instance, I hung up the phone after speaking to my husband and called out to my cube-mate:
“Oi, Kim How me nuh see de AP accrual inna de munt-en’ close foldah?”
Poor Kim looked at me like I was the craziest person ever. “Cheryll, what was that?” she asked.
That’s when I realized I was still speaking in patois. I laughed and said:
“Sorry, Kim, I just wanted to know if you did the AP accrual.“
Of course, I continue to have momentary lapses from time to time.
~ In response to the Weekly Writing Challenge – tell us about a time when two or more of your “yous” ran into each other.
Categories: DP Challenge, humor, Weekly Writing Challenge, Workplace
I always thought it was just too much Jamaican Rum. 😀
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Nah, man, this happens with or without the rum 🙂
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What a perfectly interesting blog! I was intrigued and entertained from the first glance. I am happy that I stopped by and can’t wait to read more of your fabulous work! Blessings!
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I love the overlap of Jamaican and American in your post. I wish the world all spoke in Patois, I feel we would all be much happier! ;-D
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Very funny! I wish I could do accents, but whenever I speak English I’m having trouble enough covering up my Dutch accent (which sounds truly awful)
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Haha! Practise with TV 🙂
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