The Evolution of My English

Zambian English has many subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, differences from Canadian English. The longer I'm here I increasingly take on characteristics of speech that will be very unusual upon my return home. For example:

1. I am now trained to commence every conversation with a "How are you?" and to answer reflexively "I am fine." I am thrown for a loop if this is not how a conversation starts and it takes me a little while to regain my footing.

2. I repeat words a lot. For example: "Do it fast fast" "yes yes yes" "thank you thank you" etc. My host dad and the headmaster at Chimwemwe do this and I presume that that is where I picked it up.

3. "staying within" (not going far), "this side" (here), "that side" (there) - I think I've commented on these before

4. "I am asking for a..." I have only done this a few times now but it is a slippery slope. Instead of saying "May I please have a..." people use "I am asking for a..." I thought that that was really strange at first, but I find myself doing it occasionally.

5. I am getting better at speaking really slowly - especially in class. That took some work.

6. When doing internet lessons I would be spelling out a website address and when I side "o, r, g" I found that students were hearing "o, i, g". So I've adapted the pronounciation of r to more like "ara".

7. I've picked up a little bit of an accent sometimes, especially when speaking with Zambians. Fortunately, I still have some skills to turn it on and off, but these gradually are fading little by little.

So there you have it. Just think, I still have five more months to lose all sense of what Canadian English is about.