I was struggling to think of something absurd I do on a semi-regular basis. I facetimed sone friends that’ve known me for over a decade to help me figure out and over the course of the conversation it hit me! I sometimes (out of nowhere and with mostly close friends) I will do a very bad foreign accent. Growing up in Dubai, I attended a British curriculum school which was filled with a multitude of nationalities. Everything from the English to Australians to Arabs to Indians. Being surrounded with all these different folks meant that we heard quite a number of accents. Over time we (as in me and 2 of my close friends) picked up some of these little verbal nuances and added it to our vocabulary.

As a result, I use some of these phrases while in casual conversation with those friends from Dubai. We tend to use affirmatives like “alright bruv”, or “luvly” in the worst cockney accent you’ve ever heard. We’ll sometimes code switch to a more south Asian accent when we talk about our families or even if we’re just joking around. We pull out Arabic cuss words to mock one another. I can’t tell you why we end up doing it but it’s almost second nature when speaking to certain people. What’s so interesting to me is that even though this is something that me and my friends have done amongst ourselves. I’ve picked up on this behavior with other members of the south asian community that have grown up in a similar situation (going to an international high school) or at least that’s the only common link I see at the moment

The absurdity here I think lies in the fact that we don’t have any real reason to use these phrases other than to hone a sense of closeness. In a way I feel closer to them when doing so as it brings back a sense of nostalgia and reminds us of our days in school.

That reminds me, I think I’m going to give them a call now