Very interesting thread, Vika!

Don't feel you're alone in sometimes not being able to understand what's going on around you....! I have had that in my own country (as you point out, Belorussian parents sometimes can't understand their teenagers, etc.), and especially in the type of situation you mention: on the subway, or on some form of public transit, listening for your station stop and wondering what the hell the conductor is saying....??!

I think this kind of thing happens in any crossover between languages. If any of our French Canucks are reading this (or should that be "French Canuck" - are there more than belM?!), they might get a giggle out of an experience I had in Montreal. Ah...Montreal. Such a lovely city. And I was there with mon amour (whom I fired after the weekend, for unrelated reasons - unrelated to the weekend, I mean!)....

We went to a restaurant for dinner, and the maitre d' asked me in French, "Fumer?" "Smoking?" I replied, "Non." Then he asked something like "Combien?" "For how many?" to which I replied, "Deux." "Two." And suddenly we were speaking English: he said, "Follow me, please." I said, "How did you know I'm an English-speaker?" He said, "It was the way you said, 'Two'." I asked, "Well, how should I have said it?" I still can't get over his reply: "It's 'der'," he said.

I guess he was confused by my beautiful accent....!

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.