Reminds me of this really interesting video on the Mississippi Delta Chinese community – folks who are entirely of Chinese descent but who have thick Southern drawls and names like Gilroy, and still feel like outsiders despite living there their whole lives.
One of the first Irish guys I met in Ireland was the son of French teacher. He had been born while she was working in Africa (I forget which country) and so spoke absolutely fluent French, but with the thickest of African accents. Chatting with him was a delight, but also a constant struggle between my respect for him and complete hilarity.
My native language is Russian and I have met a black woman who speaks Russian better than I do. (I haven’t been there for over thirty years so maybe there are some black people living there now, but I never saw one before coming to the US.) Her parents are diplomats and she is fluent in a couple of other languages too because her family lived in several different countries when she was growing up.
Can you elaborate more on how she used it?
I think she learned it as a kid because it was the language of where she lived, but she didn’t use it much in the USA. The reason we met was actually because she wanted someone she could practice speaking it with.
