George Griffin
Staff Writer
What do I say: Hello or Bonjour?
This is a troublesome question for an English boy who spent most of his life in Paris. I was born in Buckinghamshire, and after living 4 years in England, my father’s job prompted us to move to Paris. Now, at the age of four, I only knew three words in the French language: yes, no and cheese. After 11 years my vocabulary has broadened, and I speak the language fluently; however, now my father’s job has forced us to move to the US. It’s been about a month now and I am still getting used to the change of culture, food and people; my experiences so far have been riveting to say the least.
I’ve had some interesting interactions with the people of Pennsylvania so far. A few weeks ago upon entering the Giant supermarket, an eight-year-old boy came up to me and asked if I’d met the Queen, after a small chuckle I promptly answered no to which he said my accent was “rad”. (BTW: for this article, I will be putting the periods and commas outside the quote marks like we do in England where we invented the language.)
Being a European I had never had a homecoming dance, so when I went in September I had an amazing time. I met a load of my current friends there and their reactions to my accent were not what I was expecting. Some people didn’t believe I was English and thought it was a prank, but most people just screamed, a long, loud scream. I was also quite surprised when talking to a friend a few days ago and finding out the house I will move into is next to the street where a murder happened last summer. Great, I thought, things just get more exciting here in the States with every passing minute.
It was quite difficult for me to move to a new country. I had to leave behind most of my life. However, I was excited to see how an American high school really worked. The school systems across the Atlantic are quite different from they are here, and the only experience I had had with high school was when my sisters forced me to watch “Mean Girls” every weekend. I had only known the stereotypes and cliches of cheesy film and TV. But I am impressed with what New Hope has shown me and am excited for the future to unfold.
During my time here I have also noticed the language differences. It’s odd but there is actually a difference between British English and American English. There are differences like; colour, aluminium and aeroplane, for these you have simply dropped some of the vowels. There are pronunciation differences like zebra, pronounced as your “zee” and my “zed” which is precisely why I won’t go to an American zoo. Frankly, I feel as if the Americans decided to change the English language just to annoy the British when they come overseas purely as revenge for the mess we caused in the Revolutionary War. And don’t even get me started on metric vs imperial.
All in all I have had an amusing time here in New Hope and I am excited to have actually bought a house a couple days ago. I knew this town would be the perfect place as soon as I saw it, I mean who doesn’t want to live in a place that shares the name of the greatest Star Wars movie? Who knows what the future will hold for me here. All I know is that I think I might actually like it.
