I Should Probably Introduce Myself... Right?
I often get asked about my funny accent. You guys can't hear it by reading my blog posts but I'll try and set the scene, and with it hopefully you learn a little more about me.
For the majority of my life I grew up in the City of Sails aka Auckland, New Zealand. Due to the region in Auckland that I grew up in, sometimes my English is not on point *insert crying laugh emoji*.
During year 8 my family moved to Aitutaki, a beautiful island belonging to the Cook Islands, to build our family home. Here almost everyone speaks English. However, in year 8 I was surrounded by kids speaking Cook Island, often switching back and forth mid sentence during conversation. Now there is nothing wrong with that. Today, I long to be able to speak the language of my grandparents but for my accent this meant that by my 13th year I sounded mainly Kiwi with fresh (or fob) slang.
Moving on to year 9 and a new country. Canada. My mum is from Canada. I always got teased about the way I said "what". Picture your typical American Barbie saying "what" on TV whilst chewing gum. Well thats how the kids would tease me. Sure some of them where trying to make fun of me but I've always been a proud Canadian so that didn't bother me. However, in Canada I was the furthest thing small town British Columbia (B.C.) had considered as 'Canadian'. The following are a few words that often had heads turning accompanied with a confused look:
KIWI vs CANUCK
Rubbish bin -- Trash can
Rubber -- Eraser
Jumper -- Sweater
Boot -- Trunk (of a car)
Jandals -- Flip flops
Hot Chips -- French fries
Tomato sauce -- Ketchup (okay these are slightly different in taste but are condiments nonetheless)
Aye -- Eh? (Side note, Kiwis say eh more than Canadians do)
Almost seven years later, a month teaching English in Thailand, my Kiwi accent was almost fully Canadian. I still pronounced 'mum' with the U instead of an O. 'Can't' still got the double takes as people misheard it as well, Im sure you can figure that out. I still used Kiwi words and phrases but for the most part my accent was Canadian. Then I decided to move back to New Zealand in 2013 to study. Here I got a lot of questions about where was from. The conversations went as follows:
Person: "Where are you from?" OR "Are you from the South Island?"
Me: "Im actually Canadian."
Person: "But you look Maori!"
Me: "Well I'm half Canadian, half Cook Island. I went to high school in Canada"
*This is the point where I get a lot of nods and smiles followed by:
Person: "Thats an out-of-it mix"
Three years back in New Zealand I still get asked these questions. To Canadians my accent is far from Canadian, to New Zealanders I sound Kiwi but with a funny twang (Hence the Miss Canada nick-name). So in my 21 years I've landed somewhere in the middle. A funny sounding Canadian/Kuki/Kiwi with a desire to explore the world, its pantry and not die in debt.
So there it is, the story of my accent. The story of me. Hopefully you learnt something new and even if you didn't, hopefully you enjoyed the bad quality photos along the way.
Ps. You found Lydia xx
