So today at lunch, I walked down the hill to the the little University cafeteria where I’ll usually buy a sandwich. BUT since classes are out for Easter, there wasn’t much to choose from. I decided to just buy a banana and go back to my office and eat some ramen.

“Banana” might be the funniest of the British pronunciations. They say it like this: “ba-nah-nah.” I’ve made a point of not adopting British pronunciations or little British phrases since moving here. I don’t say “cheers” or “ta” and since I know that they’ll understand when I say “tomato” I certainly don’t concede and say “to-mah-to.”

SO. I go to the counter and ask for a banana. The woman has no idea what I’m talking about, even though I’m pointing, and so I concede the slightest bit and add an “ah” and she gets it. Great. So I pay my 30p. turn to leave, and the customer behind me, an old British woman who had been standing there the whole time not helping me in my efforts to communicate, looks at me without smiling and says “Ba-nah-nah Rah-mah” before purchasing her cottage pie.