Really. I DID go to Yale Med. You just wouldn’t know it by listening to me sometimes. After all, I have been working in a small southern hicktown for over a year now… inadvertently absorbing the southern lingo that all the nurses use.
Two days ago I stood in the middle of the ER, needing to speak to my patient’s nurse, and when I didn’t immediately see her I yelled out, "Where Ms. Tina AT?"
The secretary looked at me in disbelief and started laughing. "WHAT did you just say, doc?" It was only then that I realized how ghetto that sounded. Damn it, I could have saved myself a lot of money in student loans and still sounded as profound. I swear I’ll never let the backassward local colloquialisms rub off anymore.
To add insult to injury, the son of the brain worth a small fortune isn’t doing much better…
He listened to his dad talk on the cell phone to all his homies the whole car-ride back from our Thanksgiving in Connecticut. Apparently he absorbed every word, because 2 days later he came barreling in the bathroom in the morning yelling ‘Hey MaMA!"
I answered "Yes, Cole."
"Hey MaMA!" (making sure I was listening.)
"Yes, Cole," I repeated.
" ‘SUP?!" (Just like Dada’s "What’SUP?" when he talks on the phone.)
So eloquently put. Glad my higher education has allowed me to impart such refinement to my boy.
2 comments:
Don't worry, Sand. After living in the south for nearly 12(!!) years, I've caught myself saying all kinds of things I couldn't believe. On the southern side: reckon, yonder, might-could, fixin', even ain't. On the ghetto side: "How you gonna act like [insert behavior here]?", "Why you gotta hate on me like that?", etc etc.
Embrace the culture you're surrounded by! :)
Y'all hafta watcher language! We live in the South too!
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