Boston English

When I first moved to Chicago, I knew there would be some adjustments. East Coast girl meets Midwest lifestyle-- it just sounds like a match made in Comedy Central heaven. At first I noticed that everyone was a lot nicer, not necessarily always in a rush and said pop when referring to soda. I also had the opportunity to order tater tots with every meal.

However, as I immersed myself deeper in the Midwest culture, I got a little more homesick and a lot prouder of where I’m from (never thought I'd say "I grew up in Worcester, MA" with so much love). It’s also one of the reasons I love my internship so much.

What does that have to do with anything, you may be thinking. Settle down you impatient Massholes (sorry Mom)! For the last two months I have been working around people who have grown up in or around the Chicagoland area and study me like a science experiment when I say a word they don’t recognize.

For example: on my third day, we had a meeting with HR to fill out paperwork. As we entered the office, I realized that I had left my passport on my bureau, and kept apologizing for doing so. It was all well and good, except the three people I was with (my boss, co-intern and HR representative) had no idea what I was talking about. I guess they didn't want to be rude and ask, but eventually had to in order to understand why I didn’t have the proper identification. I explained that my bureau was a dresser, you know, the place where you put clothes in draws (they made fun of that one, too).

Their wide eyes filled with laughter. Then they wanted to know more.

I went down the list: jimmies, frappe, bubbler…pause for 15 minutes as we die of laughter from the word bubbler. At this point, my boss (or “colleague” as she likes to be called) is pulling in opinions from other people in the office just to make sure she isn’t the only one unaware of these words.

Not a day goes by when she doesn’t ask me to say “very berry,” which I apparently pronounce in a funny way.

Yesterday, we were talking about bowling and I asked if there was candlepin bowling here or if it was just big balls.

Crickets.

I look up and my co-intern and boss are staring at me with disbelieving, confused eyes. I think they were initially entertained by my use of the phrase “big balls” but had absolutely no idea what candlepin was until I proved I indeed did not make it up (Wikipedia has had my back on several occasions, like frappe and bubbler).

I secretly love the attention I get for saying these different words and like even more that it makes me different from everyone else. Here, I am a unique individual who says “very berry” and drinks from a bubbler.

Although I never like to be the butt of a joke, I love when they tease me for my East Coast talk. I also know they secretly love the entertainment, too. Last week at work, the interns had to deliver presentations to the President/CEO and other staff. My boss told me I should mention some of the funny words and write them all down on a separate slide at the end of the PowerPoint presentation. I did, and it was a hit, eliciting a few laughs from the room.

I called that slide (shown above) “Boston English,” because, well, that’s what Wikipedia calls it. No really, it exists.

In order to prevent myself from picking up the hard ‘o’ sound Chicagoans make when they speak, I make it a point to say “wicked” as much as I can and embrace my “Boston English” vocabulary on a daily basis. I may or may not even experiment with dropping an ‘r’ or two once in a while, just for fun. I can’t lose my Eastern edge. I’m from Worcester, after all.