Say What?

Cod Pieces?

Language is a funny thing. Even when you speak the same tongue, it can still be very difficult to understand what someone's saying. Maybe it's word choice, or accent, or cadence, or simply what isn't being said.

I admit I struggled a little bit with language when I first arrived here. Not that I found my new countryfolk hard to understand, but I don't have the greatest hearing in the world to begin with. Let me rephrase: when there's a lot of background noise, I have a very hard time picking out an individual voice, even if that person is sitting right next to me. I often have to turn my head so I can make out what a person is saying if I'm in a pub or a restaurant.

Lately though I noticed I've been doing it less, especially when I'm listening to Brits speak. I know my hearing hasn't improved at all (what?) so I can only assume I'm getting more used to listening to British voices. The funny thing is they don't seem any more or less clear to me per se but I certainly ask them to repeat themselves less, and I find myself smiling and nodding a lot less as well.

Oddly enough I've noticed that I've started to pick up a couple of Brit-isms, mostly in my word choices (a fine example being "I've"). But my good old Yankee accent is completely intact. I was in New York less time than I've been here and managed to pick up more of a New York sounding accent (for a time, anyway, but don't ask me to say "dog" without saying it "dauwg" if I'm not paying attention) than I sound anything resembling British. Which is good because I don't want to be Madonna.

It's one of the less-noticeable things about living here but I admit that it does make me feel like a bit less of an outsider, likely because it makes me feel a little less self-conscious. Honestly I haven't had the feeling of "hey, I'm an American!" here in quite a while. After a while you begin to feel as though you belong and not asking people to repeat themselves every three sentences certainly helps.

A German Diversion

Bier ist Gut

It was kind of last-minute, but my company ended up sending me to Germany during the first part of this week for a Digital conference, which turned out to be really kickass. But the best part was - it was in Germany! I got to practice my German a little, which I would wager I still know just as much of as I did the last time I was there, and was actually complimented - twice - on speaking German by the locals. I guess they're used to people speaking English and not even trying, so I'm glad I at least made the effort. Only a couple of times could I not at least make myself understood and I asked before switching to English anyway. Kinda cool.

Hamburg was unseasonably warm, and I spent most of Sunday afternoon wandering around without a jacket and enjoying the awesome weather. Sunday evening landed us in a restaurant where I enjoyed the above beer, which was like every good Bock/Amber I've ever had all rolled into one. And compared to London prices, unbelievably cheap. I can't wait to go to Prague in two weeks!

I didn't get to see a whole lot more since I was in a conference room most of the time, but we did manage to hit a club on the 20th floor of a building by the harbor which afforded some awesome views of the Elbe river, the ships, all veiled by a cool winter fog. Flickr stream here.