Problems and answers
An American friend of mine called Peter, who I met when he was living in London as a student, told me had found prices in an Arabic speaking country were higher for Americans. So when he and another American friend went shopping on holiday they adopted English accents and claimed to be British, from a fictitious town outside London to avoid too much discussion.
After making successful, reasonably priced purchases they went into a café next door. They decided that in case some shop staff were eating in the cafe, or it was owned by the same family as the shop, they should keep up the accents. They got talking to some friendly expat Londoners.
My friends drove off and their car broke down. The real Londoners drove past later and stopped and invited the fake English couple to stay the night until the car could be fixed.
Whilst it was lovely to be given free accommodation by the generous new friends, the phoney Londoners found it a strain to remember to keep up the fake accents and invent new stories about the fake city near London.
Finally the car was fixed. They promised to keep in touch. Asked for their address, the moment of truth had come. Peter confessed that the two lads were not really Londoners. Fortunately, their hosts laughed and replied, "We knew that. Surely you didn't think those phoney accents fooled us!"
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker
Please bookmark and share links to your favourite stories.
An American friend of mine called Peter, who I met when he was living in London as a student, told me had found prices in an Arabic speaking country were higher for Americans. So when he and another American friend went shopping on holiday they adopted English accents and claimed to be British, from a fictitious town outside London to avoid too much discussion.
After making successful, reasonably priced purchases they went into a café next door. They decided that in case some shop staff were eating in the cafe, or it was owned by the same family as the shop, they should keep up the accents. They got talking to some friendly expat Londoners.
My friends drove off and their car broke down. The real Londoners drove past later and stopped and invited the fake English couple to stay the night until the car could be fixed.
Whilst it was lovely to be given free accommodation by the generous new friends, the phoney Londoners found it a strain to remember to keep up the fake accents and invent new stories about the fake city near London.
Finally the car was fixed. They promised to keep in touch. Asked for their address, the moment of truth had come. Peter confessed that the two lads were not really Londoners. Fortunately, their hosts laughed and replied, "We knew that. Surely you didn't think those phoney accents fooled us!"
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker
Please bookmark and share links to your favourite stories.
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