Friday, April 13, 2012

Married to a Foreigner

People always say to me “oh don’t you just want to listen to him talk all day?!” I just smile and remember when I was in a trance from his accent. Of course it was very charming in the beginning of the relationship but after a while it has become normal to me. It’s just Tom’s voice just like my mom has a certain recognizable voice and so on and so forth. Occasionally he will say something odd and I suddenly remember he does have an accent! In the beginning it was quite fun because he was a novelty every restaurant and store that we were in. Every time without fail he gets the typical questions “Where are you from?” or “Are you from London?” I now know never to ask someone from another country any of these questions knowing how truly annoying it is to most of them. This is my all-time favorite experience with Tom’s accent. We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant near our home here in Beaumont. We had just been seated and our waiter comes to ask for our drink order. The conversation goes as follows between Tom and our waiter.

Waiter-“what would you like to drink?”

Tom-“Two waters please”

Waiter-“A what?”

Tom- (a bit slower) “ Two waters please”

Waiter- “We don’t have that here”

Tom-“ you don’t have any water?”

Waiter- “No”.

I’m just sitting back trying so hard not to laugh so I finally pipe up and ask the waiter for two waters. He replies “okay be right back.” For those of you who have not heard Tom talk it is not the typical London or as they call it “posh” English accent. Tom is from Doncaster, England which is in South Yorkshire. A completely different area and accent than London. So when Tom says the word water it comes out more like wa-uh. I really don’t even know how to write it like he says it but that is my best try. NOBODY at any restaurant can get it right the first time without saying what? Or Sorry can you repeat that? It has become quite a joke in our family when we go out to dinner and we all watch him order his drink. It happens every time. I finally decided to post this after he was harassed last night at chick-fil-a. They made him say harry potter, bloody Mary and other English things. It definitely keeps me laughing.

My next post will be about our awesome trip to New Orleans!!!

2 comments:

  1. One of our favorite movies..I won't say which one because you may then think less of me...has a scene where a guy from London is determined to move to the US because he thinks all the girls will be in love with him there. He does and ends up in Wisconsin. He is at a bar with three pretty girls and they are all asking him to say different words, from straw to bottle, etc. They go through the list oohing and ahhing over every word that he says with his accent. They finally tell him to say table and he does which sounds the exact same. Very disappointed they say, "Oh, we say that too."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ever since we met Tom, my kids have not been able to say better without saying "be-uh". It drives me crazy, but I can definitely see how if you moved to a foreign country, you would probably start talking like them.

    P.S. Jake says hi!

    ReplyDelete