Do you speak English?

At church tonight I sat next to a man from Colombia (South America) that is married to a British woman. He has been living in Brussels for the past six years and is about to move to Washington, D.C. for his wife's job. He was just there recently to pick out an apartment and attempt to get things settled and is back in Brussels for a few weeks to over see the move. I was asking him about his thoughts on D.C. and how his visit was there when he brought up an interesting point. He basically said that he had thought he would be fine moving to the States because he speaks English. However, on this past visit, he was shocked by what horrible and unintelligible English so many people speak. Now we know he speaks Spanish, so I don't think he was referring to anyone that only speaks a little English or that has learned it as a second language and speaks with a heavy accent. He said that he had to ask a woman on the phone to repeat herself three times and then he finally handed the phone to his wife to see if she could understand what was being said. They finally figured out that the woman on the other end was just saying, "How can I help you?"

I can fully attest that in each of the times I have been back to visit the States since being here, I am always shocked at how poorly and mumbled some people speak. Over here I am used to listening to people speak when English is not their first language and they might have a heavy accent. However, the "English" that I hear in the States is nothing like that. It is mumbled and slurred and sentences are not said in the proper form. I can't imagine what it must be like for someone to have spent years learning English, just to go to the States and not be able to understand what Americans are saying.

Click here for an example.

PS--I found this video clip when I was surfing the web. When I just watched it again, I noticed that the phone number is for an Atlanta church. A perfect example of what I hear when I go home to Atlanta. Even funnier is that the pastor's name is Tony Smith -- my dad's name!