Moving from Trinidad to USA was no easy task for me. I remember crying almost everyday during my first year. I knew 1 or 2 people, the place was huge, McDonald’s food was shit (what the hell was all the hype about), money was all the same colour, Spelman girls were too loud and good Lord, are these people even speaking English (I hate the southern accent)? …and it hadn’t even gotten cold yet cuz I came in August. There was a lot of adjusting to do…and then of course, I’m sure that all of us at some point had to deal with the “do you swing from trees” or something along those lines questions. All of that coupled with the fact that the only experience I’d ever had with America was Disney at a young age didn’t make things easy. I’ve been here 28 years now and after all this time, all the ups and downs, adjusting to the American culture, Trinidad is still my home. I never refer to Atlanta as “home”; I’m a Trini girl thru and thru.
In my opinion, one of the biggest adjustments we have to make is the way we speak and I’m not talking specifically about our accent; it’s the terms we use (hell, u see I’ve had to create a Trini dictionary on this blog cuz so many of the terms we use make sense only to us). Some of us come here and turn into what we refer to as a “fresh water yankee”… in other words they come here and develop a thicker, stronger American accent than people born and bred here. Some just develop a slight twang of sorts, some just conform and start using American terms or pronouncing words how they do and i would say that it’s, for the most part, all in an effort to make life easier for us. At some point, u get tired of not being understood and having to constantly repeat urself (to this day every time I say “the first” of the month, people think I’m saying the fifth). I speak much more slowly than I used to and I pride myself in still having my accent although maybe it’s not as strong as it used to be? I remember one time being so insulted when a cousin’s spouse told me that they didn’t think I was from Trinidad -coulda bitch slap that person right there and then. I always give one of my good friends a hard time when we go out and he asks for “war-derrr” instead of “war-tuh”. One time daddy went to a store to buy AA Duracells and he eventually got tired of not being understood as he was saying “bat-trees” so he asked for a “badder-ree” and he was pointed in the right direction.
I never really appreciated the things we say and how we speak until I left because up till then, everything was just normal. It wasn’t till I left that i realised that the things we say/words and phrases we use are foreign to other people especially here in the US. These days I can honestly say that I LOVE how we speak and all the various terms and expressions we use. Moving around in our daily lives, as we do whatever we do, it’s not easy to spot another Trini but from the time they open their mouth to say something? we know – and it could be the accent or simply something the person says. So one day I went into Shepherd for my therapy and there was a lady sitting there waiting too. She was on the phone, I heard her talking but i paid her no mind…I eh go lie, sometimes I get curious of people’s stories…did they have MS? How long? What was their progression? especially depending on the state of their disability…but that day, I was in my own world. Then I got a call, had my conversation and hung up…And then I heard, “so which part yuh from and how long u dealing with this schuhpid disease?” Wha? You see, “which part” and that pronunciation of the word “stupid” is all us. Where did this person come from? It was the same lady (she’d been behind me the whole time)…hearing her on the phone before, I would have never pegged her as Trinidadian. I smiled…u see it’s always good to discover a “kindred spirit” ..and we exchanged a lil small talk about being diagnosed, not being at home and dealing with our mutual schuhpid disease before Rebecca came to get me.
that’s it today…nothing really ms related. Allyuh have a great week, ah gone so!