Now that I've gone on and on about the negative and difficult things about being a writer not of the majority culture, I'm ready to tell you the good stuff. One of best things is that I have a wealth of emotions to pull from, mine and others. It helps me to create realistic characters and their reactions.
Someone recently asked me to consider writing about the more difficult things I've experienced, but I'd rather focus of the funny things; like statements having different meanings in different cultures. Someone once said in a group, "That dog is not gonna run." Because I'm of southern extraction I knew what he meant and laughed out loud. Everyone else in the group just stared. I would have thought the context made it clear. I guess not. It took a while to explain. Honestly, their response was funnier than his comment. I think there's a book in there somewhere. If not, there's definitely fun stuff to blog about.
Life can be a living comedy when I choose to see the lighter side. Sometimes it's not so easy to do, but I keep working at it. So today my question is, what double meanings have you run into?
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My wife has a wealth of Southern expressions that I need to think about.
ReplyDelete"He'd gag a maggot on a goat wagon"
"Well, I'll be a suck-egg Jennet"
And of course my father (MHRIP) had yiddish expressions:
"That messhiggina hind is going apipoo!" (The dog is running around like crazy)
"Go kluppen kuppen vent" (Go bang your head on the wall)
My MC in my WIP is from Charlotte, NC. One day I realized she had no Southern accent or expressions, so I've been throwing some in (esp when she's angry/drunk)
Way too funny. I love it. I understood the southern ones right away. They're things I haven't thought of in a while. And remember no southern lady would ever say anything unkind, at least not to their face. And she always wheres a smile. My grandmother would call it a *s__t* eating grin.
ReplyDeleteThe yiddish is awesome. I'll be thinking about those for a while...a long while.
I'd love to read about you MC sounds like old home week