The name, the accent.

I used to be one of those judgemental types that looked down on South Africans who had spent time in America and come home with a new name and a bad accent. 

You know what I'm talking about.  They leave with a good Afrikaans-sounding name like "Gerard" and a couple of months come back and anounce they prefer being called "Jerry".  Not only that, they say it rolling their rrr's and speaking obnoxiously loud.  And you shake your head.  You look down and scratch your nugget and wonder how this person, this perfectly sane human being, managed to be turned into an American idiot in 3 months flat.

Well.  Let me tell you how.

My name is Anel.  It's not a wild stretch of the imagination to get to "anal" and most people do.  Those that don't just have no idea how to pronoune my name over here and when they do it just sounds weird.  I stuck to "Elle" at the Burning Man and since then I've thrown it around a couple of times with great success.  It's a name people like, even take to, and remember easily.  All important things in America.

Then there's the accent.

People, if you don't roll your rrr's in America no one knows what the hell you're saying.  I know this sounds strange.  The Britts also don't roll their rrrr's and one would imagine that Americans understand British?  I don't know what the answer to that question is but I can tell you this.  If I walk into a shop and say:

"Excuse me, can you tell me which way the thea-tah is?"
The dude behind the counter will look at me like I'm an absolute abomination of design.
"The what??"
"The thea-tah, you know.  THEA-TAH."
"... ... ... the what?"
"The theaterrrrr ok I'm looking for the theaterrrr."
"Oh! Yeh the theaterrr is just across the street..."

If you want to be understood in America, start practicing those rrrr's because only the extremely well educated and the linguists will know what the hell you're saying otherwise.

To summarise:
My name is Elle and I lurv the theaterrrr.