ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE
HAT sentence often caught the eye of the traveller in France, 60 years ago-it was placed in the shop windows in the villages to encourage the foreign passer-by to enter and not to be misunderstood, though I had great difficulty in persuading one damsel that I wanted, not a pair of elastic-sided boots, but a pair of shoelaces. I think soon interpreters will be wanted here, if our educationists do not pay more attention to the vowel sounds, I was standing in a small mixed store the other day, marvelling at the price of everything when a _ good-looking bright boy of about twelve years’ went up to the assistant and said,
"Have you any toys?" "Yes," she replied, "What age?" "A toy for father,’ was the reply, and I thought poor father must be an imbecile, but the boy looks all right. The assistant meantime looking very surprised began taking down mechanical toys, but the boy said, "I want a neck toy." Then it dawned on her-but not on me-and much embarrassed she said as she put a box of ties in front of him, "I’m sorry. I thought you said a toy." "So I did,’ he answered, "I said a neck toy!"
L. A.
Inman
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19460329.2.21.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 353, 29 March 1946, Page 10
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211ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 353, 29 March 1946, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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