Lost in transit

I still have trouble with the difference between Americanisms and Britishisms, and I haven't worked with Brits in about 7 years. Do we (Americans) pronouce the "h" in "herbs"? I always forget. One of us does, the other doesn't.

It must be you, because I don't. Except when it's a man's name.

Great post. I've been in Japan just 2 years, and that same thing's already happening to me. Sometimes I forget whether a word is REAL English, or "Japanese" English, and I find myself speaking utter nonsense to my friends back in America. "The shoe creams at the viking were oishii! I mean delicious! I mean the buffet had really good pastries!" "Is the place where you can get a sandwich a deli, or a delica? I forget." "Is there such a noun as 'gets'?" etc. And I don't even want to talk about metaphors.

Oh but Karla that has advantages the other way - how often have you been stuck for a J word and eventually in desperation tried the english word with a few extra vowels, only to find they know exactly what you mean?!

one problem i have is when i'm speaking a non-english language and start mixing 'em up so that i end up with a czech sentence that has a smattering of spanish and japanese. . . whenever i get that oh-so familiar blank look after saying something i have to stop and figure out if it was my accent, if i was mixing up my words (is it manzana, ringo, or jablko?), or if i just said it wrong. . .

one other thing i remember from when i lived in mexico was when i met this dude who spoke *great* english but i couldn't figure out where he was from. . . when i finally asked him he said, "denver". . .

figured i wasn't all that clear with my question so i then asked, "no, i mean where'd you grow up?". . .

he said, "yeah, denver. . . denver, colorado. . . grew up and went to college there". . .

ended up he was one of those dudes who'd been traveling for so long that he'd lost his american accent and no longer sounded like he was from an english-speaking country. . . i meet people like this every so often and talking to them always trips me out. . .

This is my nightmare, that I now have English like no other Earth being's English. During the day, I edit technical specifications written by foreigners. I speak to no other native speakers of English. We used to have a television, but with just, I think, CNN and the Animal Channel in English, and we haven't had a television at all for a couple of years. I don't know what Buffy the Vampire Slayer sounds like. I have never seen Friends or Everybody Loves Raymond or Six Feet Under or the Sopranos or any of these other things I know only by checking lists like this:
http://www.chez.com/fbibler/tvstats/recent_data/2001-02.html
and wondering how crap they must be. I pretty much haven't seen _anything_ on that list. Maybe 60 Minutes, but back when it was still called LX Minutes. At night, I read poems or Penguins and other books written, most of them, at least 50 years ago, maybe 500 years ago. For news, I download a few articles from the NY Times or the Guardian. And it's been 10 years. I don't know what might be happening to my English, but I'm afraid to think about it. And culturally, I might as well be a Martian studying the Earth with a telescope and a radio and a few old reference books.

my problem tends to be translating things from french back to english too literally. lately, people have been saying things to me, and I've been responding with "it's clear" which just sounds weirder than weird. hmm.

yeah its very difficult for expats if he learn one language then move again to another region with another language. At this moment all the words jumble and fumble in the mind in which words it the correct one to use.