This summer, here in the Palo Alto Unitarian Universalist church, the theme for Sunday school has been “UU World Travelers.” People from the congregation who have been to another country, or lived in another country, come into the Sunday school and share something about that country with the children. The person who was scheduled to lead the UU World Travelers program this Sunday had a last-minute crisis and couldn’t come, so I said I’d lead the program. But what country could I talk about? I haven’t been overseas in thirty years, and the last time I was in Canada was quite a few years ago. But I realized I had lots of photographs and information about New Bedford, so that’s what I did in Sunday school today — told the children about New Bedford.
The best part was teaching the kids how to say “New Bedford” with a New Bedford accent. “Say it like this,” I said to the children, “Nu Befit.”
“New Bedfod,” they replied, raggedly.
“No, more like this,” I said, “Nu befit.”
“Nu Befit,” they said in chorus.
“And these,” I said pointing to a photograph of marine crustaceans with claws, Homerus americanus, “are lobstihs.”
“Lobstihs,” they said, grinning at me.
A little more practice, and I think I could teach them how to speak in Nu Befitese.
So Dan, will you be learning Cali-speak from your congregation? Now THAT would be a weird combination!
http://chanchow.blogspot.com/2006/04/i-talk-like-californian.html
Now, for an encore, you can teach them to think like someone from Nu Beffit.
Last night, I I became reaquainted with a person who went through the Youngstown Unitarian Sunday School with me. He gave me two lines that I’m going to have to think about. “Being a Unitarian in California is redundant.” “The Unitarian Church is one big support group for people who have left other religions.”
Jeremiah @ 1 — You ask if I will be learning “Cali-speak” from my congregation. The answer: probably not. There aren’t that many people in the congregation who are actually from California. The general mode of speech in the congregation, no matter what the ethnic group, is generic college-educated American English; i.e., they all sound like college-educated Midwesterners to my ears. But then, anyone who pronounces their “r”s in that strange middle-American manner that requires you to choke yourself with your tongue in the back of your throat sounds strange to me.