http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:56:29 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/07/13/150024.php#comment-734693 I have cousins in both England and Ireland. On one trip to the UK, I met up with a couple of English cousins for a night out in London, who were giggling at my accent from the outset. Meanwhile, I was unable to decipher a single word they were saying. Amazingly, the drunker we got, the easier it became to understand each other. In the US, meanwhile, given that the Aussie accent is a mixture of Irish and convict cockney (plus 200 years) while the Boston accent is a mixture of Irish and American settler English (plus 200 years), I was asked numerous times in other parts of the US if I came from Boston - mainly when I pronounced the words "kaaah" (car) and "beeyah" (beer). Usually "beeyah". 734693@blogcritics.org Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:56:29 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/07/13/150024.php#comment-734678 My apologies - that was your cousin Mei I was talking about.... 734678@blogcritics.org Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:03:58 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2008/07/13/150024.php#comment-734677 Interesting read, Joane. Thinking about it, I had to wonder if my family in America will regard us in the same light in coming years. Your daughter sounds a lot like my younger son, straining for independence. Your young Japanese cousin Miho, seems like my older son, who does not. But both our sons are more independent than the average American kid of the same age.... Israeli culture breeds a toughness that can very disconcerting to Americans. Come to think of it, it's my sister's birthday today. She is how old? Seventy-eight. A long distance call to Brooklyn. 734677@blogcritics.org Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:02:34 EDT