Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Things clarify...

I finally got one clue as to something specific that makes me sound foreign: I, like my brother, have picked up the habit of using "yes" and "no" as bare tag questions, unconsciously, and fairly frequently. Examples from today: "You're working until seven, yes?" and "I get my break soon, no?" Apparently this strikes the typical native English earn as quite foreign. Which makes sense, as I picked it up from non-native English speakers. Of various European ethnicities. So that's one symptom down.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That canadian thing was just a jab at Canadians. With a big C. Yeah. Antibiotics makes me crazy in thar.

- Jesse

notroberttowne said...

There might even have been some influence on that from an American who ends a lot of sentences with yeah, yeah?

Anonymous said...

the only thing I can say it is - even when only reading it and not even hearing - hiddeously damn what's the word... 'aanstekelijk'... can't think of the english term after 4 becherovka tonic
look it up in the Dutch - English :)

Dublin tomorrow...

*sorry for abusing your blog*