Acclimatisation

I find it fascinating how we as humans adapt to our surroundings. It may not be great changes we make, but it's the little things that really make the biggest impact. IMHO I believe people tend to try to fit into any new environment or situation they encounter. It may or may not be conscious but it happens regardless of whether you want it to or not.

Take for instance a new couple; they tend to use the same phrases, have the same attitudes to things and adopt the same mannerisms only after a couple of weeks. And when you enter a new country, or return to an old one, you look for ways to match your current way of thinking and being to that of those around you. Your accent alters, your key phrases change, your view of the world shifts to match that of your companions.

I'm living in Melton at the moment, a suburb of Melbourne that, let's face it, isn't in the highest socio-economic bracket. The amount of coarse slang and twanging Australian accents I hear at the local shops is quite amazing, or was to me, when I first moved there. I've noticed lately that I've stopped noticing. It no longer hurts my ears to hear the words 'gunna' or 'camon' or 'peul' and I don't really notice when a string of profanities hits my ear unless it's a really impressive explosion.

And today, I used the word 'darl' without consciousness of the fact, until five minutes afterwards, when I couldn't help laughing at myself. I hated being called 'love' in England, and here I am saying pretty much the same thing in pretty much the same situation that 'love' is used in the UK.

This ought to be interesting when I return to the UK. You'll gunna really heat moi accent boi then.