Never really thought much about spoken communication but recently I’ve noticed a lot of change in the way I speak. You’d think that after so many years I would have settled into a regular speech pattern but apparently not so. There are a few accents which are particularly infectious (think Singlish and Pommy) and while some might think I’m deliberately mocking them the truth is I can’t help but to assimilate to whichever accent is dominate in a conversation. The realisation came today from 2 two hour training sessions with a bunch of Australian key users. Hearing myself speak “Australian” again after months of Fobglish, Frenglish and general generic mish mash, it was really quite refreshing. I suppose underneath it all we just try our best to get the underlying message across. When in Rome, speak as the Romans do!

Another bonus is the unavoidable but welcoming enforced use of Cantonese. For nearly one year I didn’t have to use it and it was getting to the stage where I had trouble forming sentences. Verbal diarrhoea is bad but verbal constipation is really freakin’ annoying! Cantonese is such a colourful, expressive language despite the horrid noisy tonal sounds and the ever evolving colloquialisms are really quite a lot of fun.

The ultimate aim though on this adventure is to pick up Mandarin and now French. Along with Japanese, if I can hold a decent conversation in all five languages I’d be stoked and ready to become an international man of mystery! One can hope.