twisted accent

Before the dawn of a free market economy we were purely Sri Lankan in thought, word and deed. We are now a scattered lot each having a blended flavour with some place where some of us have chosen to call home. This blending has certainly added some colour and fusion to our society where otherwise it was a boring aspect of having to deal with the mostly like minded people. The other day at the famous mega complex in the heart of Colombo, I found an assorted range. Based on my own observations, I have concluded that in reality it takes only a couple of weeks stay in Europe or anywhere in the North America to develop a very real European or American accent of speech. I consider myself an average speaker of English with a typical Sri Lankan accent. Frankly I could not quite comprehend as to what was being said by these newly returned vacationers. It seemed to me that every trace of the local accent had vanished and a severe effort was deliberately taken to speak in this manner. Meeting the same cluster in a local store later on, what was more saddening was in the process of polishing off their local accent, they had also forgotten how to deal and bond with the vendors in getting the best deal. The vendor not wasting any time in letting his selling skills go waste, confirmed sales at double price, assuming they were non-locals. Of course, he was only sticking to the customary practice of selling double fold to non-locals.