Surprise! I'm an American!
The oddest thing has been happening in Northampton. At least three times now, when I've been walking around the town, people have asked me where I'm from, and then been surprised when the answer was "America." One person even put it, "You seem to have a little bit of an accent. Where are you from?" and then on hearing the answer said, "oh, America, now is it? Really!"
Now, believe me. I know you can't hear me (this is the first time I've wished I had one of those nifty pieces of software which would enable you to do so), but I don't have a little bit of an accent. I have an AMERICAN accent. REALLY American. It's so American, it's not even easily placed. It's Texas Gulf mixed with New Mexican mixed with San Francisco mixed with Pittsburgh, with an overlay of having an ear for languages and picking things up here and there. In fact, most of what I do in England when explaining where I'm from involves telling people all these various flavors, cause if they know America, they're trying to place the accent, and they're having trouble.
I wondered if maybe Northampton just has a method of being polite which involves not overtly assuming people are Americans, on account of Americans are notoriously -- well -- American, and you wouldn't want to assume that. You know, cause it would be rude.
But no. They're honestly surprised. Indeed, at the restaurant the other night, the waiter was clearly transported by my credit card. "This is American," he said, sounding much like the Grail had just gone by. Made me nervous. Give that back.
Understand, this has never happened to me before in England. The English are very familiar with Americans. Americans came over in WWII and messed up the social structure (and took bunches of English girls home with them); they visit the place in droves, sometimes with lots of money and sometimes, as now with that whole dollar/pound hoo-hah going on, less; they show up on the TV every other minute, in "Friends" and "Will and Grace" and movies every night, and even, God help us, that thing wherein Paris and Nicole drive around the States, wreaking havoc, which I saw the other day. On channel 4.
So it can't be possible that Northamptoners aren't familiar with American accents, which are ubiquitous.
Apparently, they're unfamiliar with Americans in the flesh.
True, true, I haven't seen any tourists around here. (Though I didn't see any tourists in Wisbech last year, either, and they didn't seem surprised to see me. Wisbechians aren't the sort of people who would want you to think you'd taken them by surprise, I think.) I figure that the problem is that Americans simply do not visit Northampton, except maybe to eat lunch on the way to Princess Diana's.
Help me out here. All you Americans who've seen Northampton, raise your hands, please.
This morning, I'm going out to surprise the natives some more, by walking out to see the ruined abbey I didn't see yesterday when I went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre instead and got -- oh, excellent treat! -- to watch the bell ringers practicing the changes.
They were surprised to see me, by the way.
Now, believe me. I know you can't hear me (this is the first time I've wished I had one of those nifty pieces of software which would enable you to do so), but I don't have a little bit of an accent. I have an AMERICAN accent. REALLY American. It's so American, it's not even easily placed. It's Texas Gulf mixed with New Mexican mixed with San Francisco mixed with Pittsburgh, with an overlay of having an ear for languages and picking things up here and there. In fact, most of what I do in England when explaining where I'm from involves telling people all these various flavors, cause if they know America, they're trying to place the accent, and they're having trouble.
I wondered if maybe Northampton just has a method of being polite which involves not overtly assuming people are Americans, on account of Americans are notoriously -- well -- American, and you wouldn't want to assume that. You know, cause it would be rude.
But no. They're honestly surprised. Indeed, at the restaurant the other night, the waiter was clearly transported by my credit card. "This is American," he said, sounding much like the Grail had just gone by. Made me nervous. Give that back.
Understand, this has never happened to me before in England. The English are very familiar with Americans. Americans came over in WWII and messed up the social structure (and took bunches of English girls home with them); they visit the place in droves, sometimes with lots of money and sometimes, as now with that whole dollar/pound hoo-hah going on, less; they show up on the TV every other minute, in "Friends" and "Will and Grace" and movies every night, and even, God help us, that thing wherein Paris and Nicole drive around the States, wreaking havoc, which I saw the other day. On channel 4.
So it can't be possible that Northamptoners aren't familiar with American accents, which are ubiquitous.
Apparently, they're unfamiliar with Americans in the flesh.
True, true, I haven't seen any tourists around here. (Though I didn't see any tourists in Wisbech last year, either, and they didn't seem surprised to see me. Wisbechians aren't the sort of people who would want you to think you'd taken them by surprise, I think.) I figure that the problem is that Americans simply do not visit Northampton, except maybe to eat lunch on the way to Princess Diana's.
Help me out here. All you Americans who've seen Northampton, raise your hands, please.
This morning, I'm going out to surprise the natives some more, by walking out to see the ruined abbey I didn't see yesterday when I went to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre instead and got -- oh, excellent treat! -- to watch the bell ringers practicing the changes.
They were surprised to see me, by the way.
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