Tale guide

Are you South African?

It is common cause that the origins of Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans in particular, are readily identifiable from their accents.

Even when schooled in a leading English medium college and brought up in Cape Town, for example, a well-educated and cultured speech will often contain undertones and nuances that point to a presence of Southern Africa in its linguistic genes.

Even though I went to a top English medium school and was brought up in a home in which both my parents were born and raised in England, I speak with a unmistakable and pronounced South African accent which is probably more so by the years I spent in the police where I became reasonably conversant in Afrikaans.

One of the very first things that I encountered this time around, when we arrived in the UK, was that without exception, on every occasion I engaged with someone verbally, the very first question asked would be related to where I hail from.

“Is that a South African accent?” or “Are you from South Africa?” or “I bet you are South African?” are amongst the many introductory remarks I encounter almost daily.

Don’t get me wrong. None of this worries me particularly. It is what it is and in fact I find it quite amusing and often respond with something like “You got it in one!” or “Well done mate!” which response goes down well every time.

Unlike the 60s and 70s when I often felt a degree of animosity and disdain from those we casually met overseas and which, more often than not, was a reaction to the negativity aimed at the Apartheid regime, these days the reaction conveys a degree of admiration and regard as well as, in some cases, sympathy, which seems to arise from a perception of the general deterioration of life of late.

For about ten years during the nineties and early 2000s, I was privileged to represent the former Fidelity Cash Management Services company, at the annual conferences organised by the European Cash Management Companies Association (ESTA) and which were hosted on a revolving basis in different countries around the European Union.

Furthermore, it was also a general practice that one other executive would accompany me to these events.

On the occasion of the conference being hosted by the French members in Nice, it was decided that my colleague,(who I will call Adam for this story), and I, would fly to Paris on the Friday, spend two nights to explore the sights and sounds of the city and then take the train to Nice to join the conference on the Sunday night.

Adam was a gentleman with a great sense of humour and although it never occurred to me at the time, he spoke with what I thought to be refined articulation that did not carry an accent at all, or so it seemed.

What I didn’t know at the outset, was that he was particularly sensitive of his accent and went to some lengths to avoid sounding like a ‘South African’.

So, off we went to Paris and in the space of 24 hours visited the Moulin Rouge, had dinner on a floating restaurant on the Seine and explored the historic district of Montmartre with its street market and local artists.

It was at the latter that we were amusingly accosted by a couple of street artists.

Adam had a habit of carrying a moon bag in which he kept his credit cards and passport. In those days the introduction of moon bags was both new and trendy and sometimes it was perceived to be quite effeminate.

As we wandered the stalls of Montmartre, two young artists suddenly appeared with brushes and easels in hand and approached us. In a strong French accent, they asked of us “Are ‘u on ‘oneymoon?” which raised an embarrassed laugh.

“I’m sure it’s the moon bag!” I concluded aloud.

But I digress.

Once we had unpacked and freshened up on the first evening, we descended to the foyer in the hotel lift in the company of another man who engaged us in conversation.

During the course of the brief encounter in the lift, the gentleman pointedly asked Adam if he was South African.

Afterwards, as we waited for a taxi to take us to our destination, Adam turned on me and with some consternation, asked me “Do I sound South African?”.

“No”, I replied immediately, as I truly didn’t think so. “Not anything like I sound”, I chuckled, not fully understanding the uneasiness he felt at this rather insignificant happenstance.

On Sunday, we boarded the train at Le Garde station and settled in for the ten-hour trip across some of France’s most beautiful winelands and countryside to Nice.

During the trip we visited the dining car and were busy enjoying a beer at the bar when another traveller lent over and asked Adam if he was from South Africa.

It was at this second event that I began to realise how negatively the apparent ease with which our country of origin was so readily identified by strangers was a source of major irritation for Adam.

What aggravated him more was in fact that the questions were constantly being asked of him instead of me, particularly when my accent, in his considered opinion, was so obviously a “Boere accent!”

As luck would have it, the exact same encounter took place once again with a stranger at the conference we met and by then Adam was having a hissy fit and had great difficulty hiding his acute irritation, all of which I found extremely amusing, and that didn’t help very much either.

It was in our itinerary to visit G4S just outside London, as they had offered to show us their new cross pavement cash protection technology.

Once the conference was over, Adam and I flew to London Heathrow and took a hired car to a local hotel just outside the city, in preparation for the following day’s visit to a G4S Cash management branch.

Once we had settled in, we decided to take a drive down a nearby country lane and find a pub where we could try out a typical English draft beer.

It wasn’t long before we entered a lovely Victorian pub and strolled up to an almost empty bar.

Adam ordered two drafts of a local brew from the barman.

As the young chap behind the bar was tapping the first beer into the glass, he looked up at Adam and asked, “So what part of Johannesburg do you come from?”

Thanks for following