sashinka | observation orientated, with a twist of lime | a blog

Language bugbears: II

People who raid other people’s cultural heritage and then wear it like it’s their own. Which obviously I do, too. I’ve lived abroad too long, and often speak an annoying pan-Pacific patois which involves people bringing the check, getting something in a restaurant, talking on my cell-phone (stress on first syllable of two) or on my mobile phone (stress on first syllable of three). I’ll talk about stress – both personal and word-stylee - another time.

White people who talk about bidness. Black people who say “come, come, my man”. And, in unrelated news, white people who braid their hair; I know the truth – black people laugh at them behind their collective backs.

I’m not a cultural separatist, no siree, I just think that you have to be really sure about why your using someone else’s language before you do it.