| Comment | Partly that people don't always understand me (usually specific words, I'm pretty easy to understand overall) so I often have to either do convoluted explanations or limit my vocabulary to get my point across. This makes my English appear worse than it is and I'm even a little worried about it affecting my career.
Secondly, I find it frustrating that I pass as a local only as long as I keep my mouth shut. I know I'll probably never sound 100% Scottish/having a perfect regional Scottish accent, but I'd like to reach a point where people don't play the guessing game as to which European country I'm from every time I meet somebody new (hint: Your first 3 guesses will be wrong after which I'll interrupt and tell you as you'll never figure it out otherwise). It might be a bit naïve to aim for this change but I moved abroad the first time at 16 and find it frustrating that 15 years later my nationality is still the first question people ask me - often long before even asking about my name. While Scotland is pretty good at making me feel welcome, and people generally are curious and mean well, asking about my nationality off the bat is a way of "othering" me. |
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