This “Boston as a Second Language” series is killing killing us over here at the Hansen House. It’s been quiet since Hubby’s shoulder surgery last Wednesday, so we get our entertainment where we can.
I can’t decide if my favorite is Kahkeez or Waddahbubblah. I’ll let y’all decide for yourselves:
Kahkeez (You put your kahkeez in your kahkeez.)
(Can you even imagine going into a language class like this??)
Waddahbubblah (When you’re pahched, you take a sip from the waddahbubblah.)
This guy, who looks like he sleeps in his car and lives on meatball sandwiches, is slaying me. I watched like ten of these episodes with Hubby while he’s been down on the couch. (Just keep scrolling down the left side of the site, and you’ll see them.)
Which one is YOUR favorite? Do any of your friends and family talk “Boston?” Enquiring minds love to know these things here at More Cowbell!
Jenny
Jenny Hansen's Blog 
Those are hilarious! I’m sending this to my friends who are about to go to Boston. Too much. 🙂
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It sounds like they’re going to need it, just to understand the natives. 🙂
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Well, shee-it (from my Texan as a second language lessons, courtesy of Gloria Richards’ hubby) Ah went to Bahston last fall, spent a lot of time drinking in bahs.
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I would totally dig a Boston Bah Hop with you and the Fab-O Gloria. Now I want to know why no one gave me Texas as a second language lessons while I was at DFWCon!!!
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I got my Texan lessons in Gloria’s kitchen.
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Oh, Lordy-lordy-lordy! What was your favorite Texan-ism?
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These are “wickad” hilarious!!! Is this really a show? Never heard of it but I’ve got to see it now! One of my best friends is from the Boston area and as much as she tries, she cannot lose the accent. 🙂 ps. hope your husband is recovering nicely from his surgery.
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Thanks, on the Hubs well-wishes. He’s recovering “stubbornly”…I don’t know if I can give him “nice” yet. He insists on doing everything one-handed, whether he needs to or not.
Example: I wouldn’t recommend putting a toddler into a 5-point carseat harness with one hand. Maybe it’s just me.
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Born and raised Masshole here. Let me just impart this about Boston accent: Unless you’re from the area, it can’t be imitated. I cringe every time I see a movie that is supposed to be set in Boston. For example, Diane Lane in A Perfect Storm…awful, just awful!!!! The Departed – as accomplished as Jack Nicholson is, he earned a D- with his attempt. Even Matt Damon, from Cambridge, MA (right next to Boston…look on a map), was terrible. In fact, he was worse than Nicholson!!!! Boston accent is best left to the professionals.
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Masshole?!! That’s completely funny to me this morning.
I was wondering what you were going to say about those accents. I don’t think anyone gets it right. And it’s funny because, whenever my British friends hear an American do Brit-speak, they think we sound like Dick Van Dyke (I’m assuming from Mary Poppins). Boston-speak must be the same.
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Love the Brits and their awesome accent!!!
Drive anywhere in Boston and you’ll understand where the term “Masshole” takes root. I have used swear combinations that don’t typically exist in the pantheon of modern day cursing. I once had a cabbie take a left turn in front of me when he was to the right of my car. After averting certain death for me and my three passengers, I let loose with a tirade that would rival Ralphie’s dad fixing the furnace in A Christmas Story. And pedestrians have enormous cajones. They will cross a street (not in a cross walk, mind you) when you have a green light. When you don’t stop, they start cursing you. I have never wanted to beat the snot out of a pedestrian so badly as the knucklehead who was half way in the crosswalk on my green light during rush hour near Boston Common. He was completely indignant that I took my green light.
But as for the accent, Hollywood just needs to stop trying to replicate it. I’m not even kidding. if you want to hear a true dismantling of the English language though, tune into Boston sports talk radio. At least half of the callers sound like they dropped out of fourth grade….
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WOW! I hadn’t comprehended the full crazy of Boston driving until now! That’s nuts, Steve. Absolutely nuts.
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If you can drive in Boston, you can drive anywhere.
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Steve…try driving on the eastern half of Michigan…over by Detroit and Southfield. They could probably give Boston drivers a run for their money. Murfreesboro, Tennessee has its fair share of crazy drivers, too. When my siblings and I went down for my dad’s funeral in 2003, my sister and her family were rear ended – at a red light – the first morning we were there. She and her son spent hours in the emergency room. The next day, my daughter and I were dead center in the middle of a horrible accident…with the two vehicles behind us, and the two vehicles ahead of us badly damaged. We weren’t touched (proof that miracles happen, lol).
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Author S.A. Hussey, who is my dear friend and critique partner, is from Boston, and she sent me the links to these a couple of weeks ago, obviously in the vain hope that if I watch them, I’ll stop asking her to say “pahk the cah in the yahd” every time we’re on the phone. So in response, I sent her the link for Sh*t Southern Women Say, hoping she’ll stop laughing hysterically every time I say I’m “fixin” to do something. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUFL2GT1-2g
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Juli, I make all my New Yorker gal-pals say “sauce” (sawce) so I totally get your relationship with S.A. Hussey.
My fave part of your Sh*t Southern Women Say link? “Does this pistol come in paaaiink?” (That would be pink to those of us in the rest of the country.) LOL.
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LMAO. Have you seen The Heat? Sandra Bullock’s character trying to understand the Boston accent had me in stitches in this scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzNw4YWvJ3k
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I need to see The Heat, Emma! I just watched like 3 of the YouTube videos from the movie. 🙂 Thank you!!
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Oh. My. God. Is this too funny! Dem Bah-ston chowdah -heads had me laughing my butt off.
Then again, my New Yawk accent when I say caw-fee, mirrah, hammah, is pretty bad too. Oh, I used to live on Lawn Guyland too!
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I adore the whole “buttah”/”muthah”/”mirrah” part of New York-speak. I make my girlfriends say stuff for me all the time. I especially love to hear how you say my homeplace: “Arr-ange County.” Seriously, orange with two As rocks!! As does caw-fee and sawce.
You’re making me miss my gal-pals, Phil!
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I’m surprised I can speak English. Back in my youth my father went for medical treatment to Bahstan and I was turned loose. I spent time wandering the streets (I was about 10 or 11) and going to Sox games. I live in Connecticut, 110 miles away and I am amazed that proper English emigrants after a bunch of years could do that to the Mother Tongue. If you really want a linguistic trip head Downeast to Maine, especially Bahngar.
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Oh my God, Tom! You got to really immerse yourself in Boston as a Second Language. Sox games as a 10-11 year old boy sound like a little slice of heaven.
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Aww man, that brings back good memories. Born and raised in Minnesota, but moved to Rhode Island beginning of my Junior year in High School.
I had no idea what anyone was saying for awhile, and the funny part was there were at least 4 distinct accents in the state (which if you drive in any direction for 45 minutes you’re either in a different state or in the ocean. A girl in East Greenwich told me her high school had a really good “bean”–bean?
She was saying band.
I miss it wicked bad, though.
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Ack, meant to say, hope your husband is doing way better soon!
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He is, Amy…just stubborn about taking it easy. I don’t know ANYONE else in the house like that… *whistles*
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Yep, I love their use of wicked. I’d totally go to a “bah” and just listen to everyone for a while, grinning like a fool. 🙂
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He, he, he Jenny. Bostonese is a whole language unto itself. lol. And where does that accent come from? It doesn’t sound like it’s influenced by the Irish. Or any other nationality. I’m from Cali so I’m sure I have my own accent. For sure dudette! Oh, please say hello to hubby and tell him we hope that he is on the mend and is much better. 🙂
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Yep, we do have an accent here…”Like, ohmigod!!!”
Hubby reads the blog so he will SEE your well wishes. 🙂
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Since your hubby reads the blog, let me say this… My mother had rotator cuff surgery twice. She had it the second time because shewouldn’t follow the doctor’s orders the first time. Didn’t do it the second time either, and has been in pain every day since. Now she’s too scared to have it again. So, hubby, unless you have a great love for the Ice Man, surgery in general, and oodles of pain, you might want to behave. Yes, I’m a nag. But I’ve seen enough of this in my family. One of my aunts had it a couple of years ago. My baby brother had it, too…and totally ‘got’ why some people might O.D. on pills to get some relief. And he’s never been wimpy about pain either. That was a year or so before my mom’s second surgery, after they started inserting catheter things with pain meds shoulders. She said the pain was nowhere near as bad with it as it had been without. Anyway, nag over. Just know that if you don’t take it easy, you might be having a repeat.
That said…the videos are hilarious! I loved the way Roy Schieder mimicked east coast accents in Jaws. If I ever visit Boston, I’ll be sure to buy a translation book to take with me. 🙂
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