Cry Out: The Language Barrier

Cry Out: the Language Barrier

I try not to talk too much about the work here...but today, at the job, I found myself educated in the vernacular.

I recently hired a gentleman who hailed originally from Albany, New York. Nice enough fellow...moved down here due to a family circumstance, and he found employment with yours, truly.

I'm a fan of accents. I don't know why...I just like the idea that one word will sound differently coming from one person's mouth or another's. Moreover, I am a fan of my friend's New York accent. He came in afraid that he'd get made fun of, but being a college town, we've got kids from Maine, Ohio and New York wearing their accents like badges. More than that, two of our department managers are from Michigan and Maryland....the last one with mid-atlantic accent so prominent it sounds like its embedded itself in his chest....

Well, my new friend is not a fan of accents, and after today's lesson, I can see where he's coming from.

I'm doing my job, which today consisted mainly of fighting with the world, and letting everything I touch turn to crap. In the midst of doing so, he comes to me. I see him coming to me, a look of frustration practically buzzing off his face.

"Where is the Cry Out?"

"Where is the what?"

Occasionally, his accent will create a barrier. It is generally quickly overcome.

"The Cry Out."

After a second's thought which first yields a brand of paint, I admit: "I don't know what that is, brother...."

He asks me to come with him, and he takes me to the customer.

And sure enough, she asks for "Cry Out."

"Cry Out?" I ask...not getting it at first. After a second it kicks in.

"Let's go over here and see if this is what you're looking for.

And I take her to the Sour Cry Out.

Or, as I've always pronounced it, despite being born and raised in Appalachia...

Sauerkraut.

"That's It!" she says, somehow managing to wedge extra syllables into those words, too...

I went back to my New York friend, and told him not to worry. I've been here all my life, and that one threw me for a friggin' loop.

To which he replies..."Woi you peepul kint just tawk nommil, I'll nevah know...."