Having been an expat for nearly a decade now I have had long had to deal with the nightmare of being accused of ‘going native’. You have to watch the way you speak, the way you eat, certain dress choices, attitudes or prejudices – any can reveal tell-tale signs that those links to home are becoming ever more tenious and there are plenty ready to point the accusing finger.
But how long as the Guardian’s Matthew Engel been living in the United States? yet he is already claiming to be suffering from the early signs of conversion and in today’s column he comments on War Fever in the US:
Deep down, one may know the cause is ludicrous, but it so dominates the whole of one’s life that after a while the victim gets sucked in and starts thinking these people have a point (I speak as someone who caught himself using the word “gotten” in conversation the other day, which suggests total brainwashing).
I do hope this tendency of Guardian journalists to rapidly adopt American speech mannerisms does not afflict Gary Younge when he starts work in New York soon……….you dig what am saying brother?
