It was our first visit to Canada since our daughter relocated to Fort St Johns some years ago.
Himself (my husband) and I found communicating with the locals who were apparently speaking English, challenging to say the least.
People's smiles told us that they were being friendly when they drawled in long syllables, "Howradooooing?" with that bewildering rising cadence at the end of almost every sentence.
Upon a nudge from our 'dorra' (daughter) we learned that we should answer, "fine thank you." ............'and smile mom, you're looking very tense!'
At the door to the grocery store (supermarket for us In South Africa) while she parked the car and got her toddler sorted
out who was waking from her nap, we set out to help.
We asked the first person, "please, where can we find a trolley?"
We were given a blank stare and a head shake.
Surprise turned to frustration as person after person could not help us find a simple thing like a trolley! As we watched our daughter with the pram coming into sight, we threw up our hands in "we give up" when the final person told us "we don't have any of those here."
No arguing with her tone of finality even though we saw dozens of them in the bowels of the shop (store).
Louise could hardly contain herself she laughed so hard.
"I had the same problem when we first moved here. Oh my, it's like another world inside the grocery store, half the ingredients you want are called something different here..........
They call what we in South Africa call a TROLLEY, a grocery CART ..............actually a "carrrrrrt".................'roll those rrrrrr's.'
Pixabay
I asked the next person I saw where the "carrrrts" were, he gestured in the direction where at last I saw a whole line of interlocked trolleys patiently waiting to be piled high with groceries. Hooray! I was beginning to speak 'Canadian English'!
As an aspiring writer should, I re read the title for this 5 minute rewrite, before posting. Suddenly I had to I wonder why grocery trolleys should have a "Day"?
I must have been thinking "along the lines of every dog has its day."
The light goes on!
Ooooops I think, TROLLEY.............hmmmmm DAY!
Is it possible this grocery carrrrt - called trolley by me, may perhaps be a trolley in the historic sense of what I would call a "tram"? My head begins to ache.
I remember seeing them featured often in pictures of San Francisco..............
Wasn't there a crazy wonderful movie once featuring one in a chase across the town? A vision of a trolley swooping down steep hills lives in the recesses of my memory.
Pixabay
I'm almost worn out with all this thinking in Canadian English.
TROLLEY - a cart? -an historic vehicle?
Can it be?
Who cares? I managed my 5 minute write in, I check my watch, a little over that!
Please forgive me.
Aahahah ... Yeah, a trolley is exactly what you would call a tram in British English.
I can tell you so many stories like that. For example, in the US 20 pronounced as "twony". It is easier to say than "twenty" if you think about it. So once I had to call to England and told a hotel clerk "the room twony five". It took me a couple of repeats until I realized that I am not talking to an American. )))
As they say England and the United States - two countries separated by a common language. )))
Life in SA is similar - we have hilarious stories in the use of the word SERIOUS.
If it is used by a Zulu, A Xhosa, an Afrikaans speaker or in English one can lol and have a lot of fun.
Your story with the twony is very amusing - thank you.
I really enjoyed your last sentence.
You have a lovely sense of humour presented sometimes with the 'stiff upper lip' of a Brit which makes it even funnier.
Thank you!
I hope you will tell these stories. I wonder if you ever met people from the US south, those who speak with so-called "Southern droll." They are something to get used to. A confluence of people from different base languages who are trying to communicate could be very funny. I hope you will tell those stories about Zulu, A Xhosa, an Afrikaans.
I also have a really embarrassing story I got caught in because I didn't know the particular English idiom. Maybe I will tell it one day if I feel more comfortable.
In the meanwhile here is a funny video of a guy who demonstrates 67 accents in English
Some good lol moments - a talented young dude.
Thanks for the video = I will replay it.
To think I was brought up to speak the king's (in those days George the 5th??) English - considered the best......lol.
Oh my we are a pretentiouos lot!
That type of English (king's) is easiest to understand. It's not only because of the way the sentences are constructed and words are chosen. It's also how it is annunciated. I bet you when you speak you pronounce every word clearly and distinctly not like some people speak who sound like they have farina in their month. )))
Also, it has something else in it. As funny as it might seem, it carries an air of rich and powerful landowner... all those Glosters, Kents, Lancasters, Tudors, Stuarts, Windsors and so on...and in as much as a person could believe in democracy and equality of all people, King's English still has that hint of societal superiority. LOL
Here's another short funny language-oriented video. Watch it - you won't regret
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Much appreciated - thank you.
I much enjoyed reading your story @justjoy, language is a beautiful thing that can many times be very confusing, it's awesome.
This post is AWESOME!
It has therefore got a manual 100% upvote from @thisisawesome, for the Awesome Daily Upvotes in category Freewrite, I give out 1 such vote in that category per day, plus 3 more in other categories, and your post will also be featured in todays Awesome Daily report for more visibility.
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Absolutely agree
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Thank you for reading and posting. I checked you out Irisworld and like what I read.
How would I go about joining actifit?
I exercise quite a lot but do not belong to a gym. Does that matter?
You can even just walk. Walking is also a sort of sport. So you can do whatever you want and when you post your daily report in actifit, you can choose there what kind of sport did you do. But your daily steps should be no less than 5k, so you will get an upvot from Actifit
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