A friend and a fellow blogger just posted this brilliant list on how to be a perfect language snob. I just have to share it with everybody because it's too good.
1. Whenever you meet someone from a different country tell them “I like your accent. You don’t speak like other _____________ (fill in country name) that I have met.”As for me, I especially enjoy being told that my accent makes me sound even more exotic and sexy.
2. After meeting someone for the first time, let your idea of a compliment to them be “Oh you speak good English.” For extra points, ask them where they learnt to speak it so well.
3. Whenever someone says to you “I like your accent too”, look insulted and ask in a high voice, “I have an accent? What do you mean I have an accent?” For extra points, be actually insulted by that.
4. Be disgusted by people speaking their local language around you. For extra point, go to them (whether you know them or not) and ask them to speak English instead. After all, they are in America.
4 comments:
After meeting someone for the first time, let your idea of a compliment to them be “Oh you speak good English.”
If only I had a dollar for every time this was said to me.
Now I just reply with 'Thanks, you too'.
Stringer
When I'm especially mean, I reply with a look of very sincere concern, "Oh, don't worry, yours is quite good, too!" People become delightfully bewildered in response.
I speak with an Appalachian accent, which is obvious to many people even though I have not lived in East Tennessee/Southwest Virginia since 1965.
I am indeed a language snob, and I do not do any of those things. I do, however, think that some women who are not native English speakers are rendered more sexy to me by their accents.
I often have the impression that in some circles to speak with an accent is a subversive act.
Ol.
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