On the recent Saturday I went with my girlfriend to her bank, to deal with bank stuff. The only branch open on a Saturday is on the north side of town, so we took a taxi.
She and I were chatting in the back seat, as you might expect. I don’t speak anywhere near enough Bulgarian yet to have a conversation in that language, so we spoke in English.
When we got out of the taxi the man driving asked her if I was an American – I know enough Bulgarian to understand that. But I didn’t understand the rest. Zlatina translated for me – he was basically saying he enjoyed my American accent, that understanding British people speaking English was difficult for him.
I’ve heard this before, from other Bulgarians. As there are a lot of Brits here in Bulgaria, one would think the people should be used to “British English.” I have a very flat un-accented english, growing up as a military brat and living much of my adult life in California. Is this what it is? I have no problem understanding the english spoken by British people, but of course I lived there for some time when I was a boy.
Anyway, it’s a curious thing that I would hear this ‘compliment’ from so many Bulgarians. That’s all, just curious.
That is interesting, but you sound more like the people “on tv”… Maybe that helps?
I dunno, Kevin, do they have American television shows over there?
[Translate]
They do have American shows, I’ve seen them on television when I stayed at hotels before. I don’t remember any in particular … some of them are overdubbed, some of them have Bulgarian subtitles.
They have Spanish and Italian soap operas too
[Translate]