English as a Foreign Language (II)

Further to my post the other day about the difficulty in understanding the likes of Kenny Dalglish (http://capeldunn.blogspot.com/2011/02/english-as-foreign-language.html), I am reminded of my time as an EFL teacher when my students often used to tell me that they could always understood foreigners when they spoke English but not the English themselves. I would explain that this was because foreigners, plus George Bush father and son and Henry Kissinger, actually spoke English as a foreign language, failing to respect the pronunciation, intonation and above all accentuation patterns that are the glory of our language.

But I never dreamt the day would come when I, too, failed to understand my own language spoken by I suppose one should call them natives!