Kent Obediah Hayton
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Alternate account: Lindsay mcdorough
Kent Obediah Hayton • upvoted 40 items 4 years ago
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Kent Obediah Hayton • commented on 20 posts 6 years ago
Kent Obediah Hayton • upvoted 20 items 4 years ago
They-Didn't-Realize-I-Spoke-Their-Language-Story
Flemish guy here. Working as safari guide in Kruger area, South Africa. One time, my boss asks me to go pick a family of 4 up at the Klaserie reserve gate, do an afternoon game drive with them, and drop them off again afterwards. This was very uncommon; normally we only do game drives with people that book a room in our own lodge on the reserve. So I pick them up, introduce myself and go over the rules, all in English. They reply in English, or at least: the dad does, and normally I can pick up straight away if it's someone from France, Belgium, Holland or Germany. But his English was Oxford English. So I thought; English people. Off we went! 10 minutes into the game drive I hear them speak in Flemish, and not only that, IN MY OWN DIALECT. Side note; every Flemish town has a dialect, we can hear what region/province other Flemish people are from, and if from the same region, we can often even pinpoint the exact little town or community they are from. Oooh I was going to have fun with these folks! Found a few nice animal sightings, spoke English all the time, but then one sentence to the next, switched to their exact dialect. I thought; now they're going to be surprised! But nope... we all kept chatting in Flemish now. Only 20 minutes later, the daughter, maybe 10 years old, goes "wait a minute; he speaks Flemish!" After all had a good laugh, I asked them where they were from. They literally lived one street away from me. It's a small world, folks!This Panda hasn't followed anyone yet
Kent Obediah Hayton • 47 followers