Improve Your English: English in Everyday Life

The Us
e of L
anguage
: Par
t II
107
speaks very good American English, as for the standard 
of Maryland, even he could be distinguished that he’s not 
from Florida, so I-I defi nitely notice this. But, of course, 
I’ve not traveled so much so I can’t say 
for sure
.
INTERVIEWER:
What about, I mean, when you lived in New 
York or in other places—do you, do you have a hard time 
understanding accents or . . . ?
MAN:
Uh, no. I never had a problem to understand what 
they’re saying, but 
by and large
, there’s some kind of 
people, when they speak, they neither speak English nor 
they speak, I mean, I don’t know if it’s a diff erent kind 
of language altogether. Th
ey are not pronouncing the 
words should be pronounced, so half of the time, it’s like 
a 
rap
, you have to try to understand the song, so when I 
was in-in-in, uh, in America, uh, in New York, I-I ha—, I 
had a hard time trying to follow. I mean, it’s like, uh, you 
heard something, you have a pic—, like you have a picture 
memory, and then you try to fi gure out, “Oh, he meant, 
oh yeah, he said that.” So, you can’t, I’m, I was not very 
responsive, saying, “Oh, you’re saying this” or “I’m saying 
this.” So it’s like, uh, “OK, he said that, yeah,” eventually. 
You know, like when my boss, who was an American, 
he asked me, I said, “Uh, about that travel agent”—uh, 
because you’re a wholesaler, about that travel agent—he 
said, “What about it?” “What about it?” is a very rude 
word in India. I mean, if I say “What about it?” that 
means I am saying, “What the hell you talking about?” 
You know, but what he meant was, “Tell me quickly what 
happened,” OK, so that he can give a decision, so he was 
pretty normal. But I thought, “Why did he say that? I was 
only thinking about him.” Th
en over a period of time, I 
realized he always says that, “What about it?” So, yeah, 
New York is too fast.
Uh, when they are learning English, I think the hard-
est part is, uh, I think everybody is confused whether 

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