Can't get away from the Irish or Dick Van Dyke

I have a theory that the Irish always show up first amongst immigrants and set up bar. This theory came to me in Osh, Kyrgyzstan where I saw O'Malley's pub. I mean, seriously, Osh? You just can't get away from the Irish.

It came back to me yesterday when we were looking for a flat. One of the units was being repaired and the workman was from Dublin (oh, ye know Ireland?), Cork (oh, you've been to Cork?), Youghal (oh, you know people from Youghal?), outside of Youghal (pronounced y'all).

But I have to admit, there's something comforting about the accent.

We're still struggling with hearing American accents and thinking, "Wow, there are a lot of Americans here." The American accent (and of course I'm generalizing here, ignoring the Southern, Boston and New York accents) is not particularly melodious. Sadly, possessed of one myself, I have to admit that it does sound like a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

But at least it's usually saying something nice.

And so, long live the Irish. Because they have an accent that's easy on the ears and they usually are saying something nice. (Of course they're probably being sarcastic, but we've entered the no irony zone, so I can no longer recognize it.)

But our oldest, he's now between accents. He's started pronouncing water with an emphasis on the "er" so that Americans can understand him. But if he gets angry (he's 3, he does that a lot), he reverts to an English accent. "I will not!" Sounding like Harry Potter.

At least his accent is somewhat posh. My English accent still sounds like Dike Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. Though people in California get offended when you call them "gov'nor". But heck, they elected Herr Schwarzeneiger twice, they can't get too embarrassed by him.