Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Culture assimilation

I thought I was English, heck, I KNOW I'm English, but really, what does it take to assimilate culture?

I'm not talking about high brow culture here, but the culture of everyday - the hello, the good morning, the how are you.

I'm confused to a marginal degree. This confusion is not a bad thing, it's just a mild interest in trying to figure my place in the scheme of this everyday culture.

I've been a white boy in Africa so long, it's all over me like a pair of kaffir takkies.

It seems that my English "front" is slipping somewhat, deep seated africanisms squeeze out without warning - out of the great blue yonder, dripping into my conversational tone.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not hiding anything, rather trying to layer more of the Engelsman over the Pommie, it's a natural enough thing, considering I am actually a pommie.

The guys at work know I'm pretty much a Souf Fafrican, if not by birth, by assimilation, but they also know me as a Brummie - my roots are here too.

If they notice the odd slang word in a sentence, the ones which are born of habit, they pay no mind.

I've been here six months and still catch myself saying "ya" or "fully" and a hundred other little slangisms which I've soaked in over the years.

Other times, I naturally come across as the perfect English gentleman.
The cultural magpie? The mimick?

Certainly I have a portion of that ability, to lay on attitudes for the moment, to play up to situations - but this africanism is bugging me.

My accent is all over the place not really knowing where to settle, yet it's not a conscious decision either way, rather, it fits the moment.

Since I arrived, I've pronounced Berkshire as Barkshire which is the correct way - I didn't even think about it, but now I'm slipping into the africanism for no reason I can fathom.

I keep saying "berk" and not "bark"

Perhaps, over time, the accent will settle, but I think the odd slang words will be around forever.

What does irk me, is that in any culture, there are just so many "in jokes" and these are often seasonal - they may be around for six months, or a year or even 10 years. A silly South African example is "And anuffer fing Darren" - I often find myself a bit lost, because I'm missing all those connections here, that "every day culture"

Hmmm, could be worse, I could be living in France ...