That Amazing Accent

“So where did you get that amazing accent?” I asked

“Oh, it’s not that unusual.” Heidi responded.

“It’s beautiful, but I just can’t place it.” I was dining with Heidi at Reposado, a good mexican restaurant in Palo Alto. This was our 3^rd date, and I am growing to like her more each time I see her.

“Well,” she said. “I was born in Sweden, Stockholm – where my father is from. I lived there until I was 4. Then we moved to Zurich in Switzerland. My family stayed there until I was 8, and we moved to Chicago. We lived there until I was 18 and we moved here to California.”

“So you speak Swedish?”

She ratted off something that sounded foreign. She smiled, “Ya. I also speak German, French, and English. I learned all those before I was 8. Later I learned Italian and Spanish.”

I am in awe. I tried in high school to learn a foreign language and it was way too hard for me. She speaks 6 fluently.

“But I can do a good Chicago accent.” She said.

“No way.”

“Yes.” She smiled, sat up straight, concentrated very hard, cleared her throat and said “There is a jackknifed semi blocking 3 lanes of traffic on I-90 East bound just past O’hare, with huge backup behind it. It’s going to be a hot one here in Chicagoland, highs near the 90s with a light breeze off the lake.” She did it with an amazingly neutral American mid-western accent - just like a newscaster.

I laughed.

“My mother is from Chicago, she forced me learn English without an accent. But it is too hard. It is more natural to have an accent. I guess it’s a mix of Swedish and German.” I later learned that German is the official language of Switzerland. “So where did you grow up? I detect a bit of an accent from you as well” she asked.

“I don’t have an accent.”

“Yes, you do. Very slight, but it is cute.”

“I was raised in Hawaii.”

“No. Were you born there?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you go to school there?”

“University of Hawaii at Manoa.”

“This can’t be. No one can grow up in Hawaii. That’s like being raised in Disneyland.”

“It’s just another state. We have traffic jams, homework, dentists.”

“But it’s paradise. Why did you leave?”

“Well, the cost of living is really high, and the job opportunities are really limited. Higher rent, lower pay. You have to really want to live there to make it work..”

“Is your family still there?”

“Yeah, my parents and sisters live there. So I have a nice place to stay when I visit.”

We talked about travel, and music and a number of other topics. After a wonderful dinner I drove her back to her house. We had a glass of wine sitting outside of her cottage and dangling our feet in her parent’s pool.

At the end of the night I gave her a gentlemanly kiss goodnight, and drove home.