Friday 5 February 2010

With Natives

We're at a party, it's a small place filled with people. When you want to talk you need to speak out load otherwise the person whom you're talking to wouldn't hear you but this does not make you feel you're loud because "there" you are not. You talk and you know the lady that you're talking to is British, a charming warm lady. You're enjoying the talk. Then she asks if you've studied or lived in an English speaking country before, you say no and then she starts giving compliments on your accent and English. Now, you feel aware of the fact that the place is getting quiet. Now, you feel a new awareness; you're focused on not making any grammatical mistakes. You wish she did not mention that.

We're at a party. A boyfriend of a new friend just got introduced to you. You know he's a Greek and recently arrived from USA. The place is not crowded or loud. You start to have a conversation with his girlfriend, the talk reaches to some interesting points. The Greek boyfriend is mostly listening, they decide to take the rest of the talk to her place next time. Next time arrives and you meet them in a small dinner of 4. You realize the boyfriend is in fact a Greek-American born in the US. Now you're too aware of the fact that he is a native speaker. You secretly wish he was only a Greek.

4 comments:

Daisy said...

I guess you can look at the glass half full too.
- You have no idea when some Anglophones secretly wish they could speak another language as well as you speak English.
- If someone tries to learn Farsi, I'll admire them for it, let alone when they actually speak Farsi.

Behdokht said...

I feel like I'm having a language exam in front of these native speakers, similar to the feeling that I have when I take any other exams and am supposed to deliver the stuff that I learned to teachers who gave the lessons but in this case in a much less serious scale :D But you're totally right daisy jan.

nykegodess said...

LMAO. I get that all the time! After that the conversation goes downhill because I am paying too much attention to my grammar.

It is good to know someone else "gets" it.

Like your blog :D

2020 said...

Haven't seen a blog post in a while. Hope you are okay, and somewhere peaceful.