Why We're Not Talkin'

[Wilfrid]

So I blame y’all for this. With my cocktail I am right now reading a poetry collection from 2010 by Terrance Hayes (prompted by the interview in the new Paris Review). I am reading it aloud, and although I am not impersonating Hayes I am certainly not reading it in one of my British voices.

Then remembering this conversation I decided to read one of the poems as King Charles (after all these years I can mimic Charles). The result was quite wonderfully absurd (“I can record the rumors and raucous rhythms” - the letter “r” strangles Charlie).

So thanks for this silliness.

[Anthony Bonner]

My wife absolutely roasts me for lisping when speaking Spanish in Spain.

[Wilfrid]

Haha. Yes I remember trying it but I gave that up; it’s hilarious to Dominicans and Catalunyans so Madrid can suck it up.

[Wilfrid]

I must have told this story before. Lost once in the vast outdoor space of Fira Barcelona, I saw a guy sucking up leaves and asked, in Spanish, where my Sala was. He answered briskly in Catalan. Seeing me confused he solicitously inquired, “Ah, Castellano?”

No, I said, Espanol de Nueva York 🤷‍♂️

[hollywood]

4 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

I wonder if French people sitting in a café in Paris discussing movies switch to an American accent when saying something like, "ma comédie musicale préférée est Singing in the Rain."

Or they could say Les Parapluies de Cherbourg.

[Sneakeater]

They don't think that.

[voyager]

1 hour ago, Anthony Bonner said:

My wife absolutely roasts me for lisping when speaking Spanish in Spain.

My Spanish teacher was Castilian.   They lisp.

[Sneakeater]

Mine too.  When I'm in Mexico and South America, they can't stop laughing.

ETA -- Oh, I see @Wilfrid already pointed that out.

[Wilfrid]

It was such a liberation to stop lisping. Castilian versus countless millions of Hispanic speakers around the world. Thtuff that.

I also don’t do hocht Deutsch.

[Sneakeater]

But my teacher, the formidable La Theñora Pereth, wouldn't approve.

[Wilfrid]

Thank gott my German teacher was Schwabisch.

[Wilfrid]

I should ask my daughter whether she ever heard lisping taught in her Spanish classes at school. My guess would be no. We worked hard at keeping her out of Spanish classes because what a waste of time, sometimes successfully.

[hollywood]

4 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

They don't think that.

The French have their own way of thinking.

[Sneakeater]

There's a reason Jacques Demy cast Gene Kelly in his follow-up musical.

[Orik]