i`ve changed the built in dictionary on my machine to us english in order to indoctrinate myself to some extent. i touch type, yes i do. my mother though i should learn a useful skill as i sat around her office in my wayward youth.
so i`m un-learning how to spell. it`s strange to replace all my `s` with `z` and dropping my `u`. the english language is a strange thing. there is a meme, which i obviously can`t put my hand on at the moment, about how difficult the english language is to learn. apparently second only to mandarin.
there are subtle differences in how i speak, the things i say and how i say them. i`ve learned to speak slower to be understood, trinidadians have a reputation for fast talking, not in a schemish way, well that too, but the cadence of our speech makes it almost impossible for outsiders to understand us once we get going.
when i was in fl last time, a friend came to visit and gave me a hard time when i was ordering something at the supermarket. a couple months later when she came home, she was still doing it. not the rent-an-accent that some long-term residents adopt, but a slower, more nuanced pronunciation.
classical english public school system with a caribbean flavor as vic calls it.
i think i`ve mastered the voice, traveling so much in the last four year and ensuring that i`m understood. what i need to reacclimatize myself to is really the written word. in typing this alone, i`ve had to backtrack at least five times. every `s` i change to a `z` and every `u` i drop is making me cringe. i need to get past the cringe factor and for it to feel natural.
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queen’s english, spelling
