i’d never been “foreign” until i moved to america. it’s a strange concept really. i’ll never forget the first time i visited athens, ga… i joked with a guy in a bar that i was enjoying my time in the US… apart from all the weird accents… i thought i’d made it clear enough that i wasn’t serious. but apparently i hadn’t. “accent?!” the guy shouted back at me. “accent?!”… “you’re the one with the accent! i don’t have no accent!”
it was then i first became aware that i was indeed a “foreigner” here. i was “other”. this guy seemed to think (quite seriously) that he spoke “normally”. that he had no accent whatsoever… i was the one pronouncing things strangely. he spoke, apparently, the way one was meant to speak. in hindsight, i wished i’d gently suggested to him that actually all of us have accents. and all of us are “foreigners”… somewhere.
a brief video blog then! for the edification of the body. and the cleansing of the soul:
America. For This I Am Truly Sorry.
