Thursday, March 22, 2012

can I just call you bob?

Accent wise I am horrible. When Heather & I travelled South America I learnt a little spanish before hand. I had the brain to remember the words but speaking it I was horrible. Heather could never remember anything so it was up to me. So I would be sitting there chatting in broken Spanish trying to get my point across whilst the locals stared at me blankly.

Heather understanding what I was saying chimes in with a much more recognisable accent so together with my brains and her elequence we mastered the language. Well not quite but we put in a fair effort.

I had a french surfer whose name was Clement but with a french accent more like "Clamont" I just called him Clem. He was cool with that. I don't care what you call me, as long as you call me ;)

Had a meeting at work today with the people who provide our citrix database that our banking system runs off. The chick was up from somewhere south. She starts talking about out in the communities. Ahh.. how do you pronounce it milagabimbi milagomba..maligamba..

You mean Milingimbi? (pronounced Mil-in-gim-bi)

Yea thats it. She smiled.

It never occured to me how easy it was for me to pronounce indigenous names and how hard it was for other people to get their tongues around. Another southerner who is our business development manager has us all in fits of laughter.

"So I'm heading out to Naguka tomorrow"

Spelt Ngukurr pronounced Nukarr

We wont go into how he pronounces Gapuwiyak or Galiwinku.

I guess it puts into prespective how when you grow up around certain sounds how much more fluid it is.

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