As I mentioned before, there has been talk of packing up the family and moving to the States. There are a lot of stumbling blocks in our way, not to mention my lack of knowledge of most things American. The lines have been blurred and I am not sure if I can go back. Take for example:
*In the US, you order a Big Mac meal but here we order a Big Mac set. I have made the set mistake one two many times in the States.
*I have the tendency to put native speakers to sleep with my slow speech and careful annunciation. Blame years of teaching English to non-native speakers.
*Word- simple, English words- escape me sometimes. Vacuum- who forgets a word like vacuum?
*Hubs is always half-joking that he needs to buy me some books so I can study English.
*My conversational abilities in Japanese and English are the same- basic conversations I can handle, but throw in a few big words and you lose me.
My list could go on and on, but my brain hurts from all this English (said tongue-in-cheek of course. The real reason is is that it is almost time for another episode of Felicity.)
7 comments:
Looks like you've been having a lot of fun...I've just been catching up on your blog as I've had a few puter issues lately!!
:-D
my in-laws spent 30 years in south america - and my ex grew up there. when they came back to the states they had always lost a lot of their english, but they gained it back soon enough. gaining back your english will be easier than adding to your knowledge of japanese. my in-laws also had difficult times adjusting when they did come back to the states for periods of time - their image was always of what it was the last time they were here. but it's like going back to your hometown where you graduated from high school - it will never be the same - time keeps moving and life keeps changing. when you come back you'll have an adjustment period, and then you'll blend in and feel "back home" :)
Any change is hard .... but I think going home is like riding a bike ... once you get back on it all comes back to you!
LOL! I can really sympathise with you here.And what about spelling.....Don't get me started on that;-)
"I have the tendency to put native speakers to sleep with my slow speech and careful enunciation. Blame years of teaching English to non-native speakers."
This is me too, when I go back for a visit! My sister can't get over how s-l-o-w-l-y I speak for the first couple of days!
And then it takes a day or two to really slow down again when I come back!
Yeah! Speaking too slowly back in England, then coming home and gabbling at my husband who has no clue what I am saying for the first three days back....
Or standing in line at the bank in England, plotting how I am going to get across what transaction I want to do, then getting to the head of the line and feeling the sheer relief when the teller speaks to me in English!
Can't speak proper English, can't speak proper Japanese these days....
Holy cow, I didn't know!!! A possible move back to the US! That sounds great! You'll adjust back to the states, just fine! You'll certainly be missed over here in Japan though, girly!!! Ha ha ha! : )
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