29 March, 2009
The semi-detached mind at loose in the Multiculture
The Polish barmaid (sorry, bar associate) — and yes, the Poles are still here, recession or no, falling exchange rate of the pound against the zloty or no — watched her English colleague feed another £10 note into the fruit machine. She tapped at least half-seriously on the glass of the machine, pointing to a telephone number,
"Here, ring this number and they will help you with your addiction."
At least that's what I eventually decided she'd said. Now, it may say more about me than about the young lady's fairly thick accent that what I actually heard was
"Here, ring this number and they will help you with your erection."
The mind boggled gently for about 10 seconds — after all, we were on the periphery of Soho — while the necessary phonetic and sociolinguistic postprocessing and reluctant reevaluation took place in my ageing brain.
"Here, ring this number and they will help you with your addiction."
At least that's what I eventually decided she'd said. Now, it may say more about me than about the young lady's fairly thick accent that what I actually heard was
"Here, ring this number and they will help you with your erection."
The mind boggled gently for about 10 seconds — after all, we were on the periphery of Soho — while the necessary phonetic and sociolinguistic postprocessing and reluctant reevaluation took place in my ageing brain.
# posted by Edwin Greenwood @ 15:25 
