Yes Maybe; No Maybe...

"No maybe," she said. Huh. I'm not familiar with that phrase. One of my students answered my question like that. "No maybe." Honestly, I didn't know what to say. I suppose "No maybe" is better than only a slightly perceptible raising or lowering of the eyebrows or, even worse, the dreaded "I don't know.", but it certainly wasn't the definitive answer I was hoping for. Some days the students can be so frustrating! Of course, now that I mention this, I'm fairly confident I'll be saying it myself soon enough! I already have nearly mastered using only my brow to answer any question, so it's only a matter of time before I sound permanently vague like some of my students!

As with each of our adventures, I'm usually the first to be able to speak in the native accent of the place. Before we moved to northeastern North Dakota, I couldn't even remotely pull off a "Fargo" accent, but within a week, people were accusing me of being a native Dak-OHHHH-tan! Apparently, I'm a master linguist once immersed in a culture! [This doesn't bode well for my long-term substitute teaching position next fall. I'm slated to be the German instructor for six weeks and, as far as I know, I don't have any plans to visit Germany before then! Hopefully Rosetta Stone is as good as advertised!]

Speaking of the movie Fargo, don't even think about mentioning that movie to any of your North Dakota friends or family...they'll get seriously offended. To put it another way, if you want to get a stoic, old Lutheran from Mountain, North Dakota to talk, mention that movie and you'll get an expletive-laced earful about how that movie didn't even take place in Fargo and how no North Dakotans they know even sound like that! Plus, they'll tell you that movie wasn't even funny! Of course, they'll tell you all of this sounding suspiciously like the slightly more well-spoken cousin of the characters in Fargo!

It should also be noted that the movie did, in fact, have most of the nasty winter scenes filmed on roads just outside of Hamilton, North Dakota...I've shared many a drink with the wonderful gentleman that let the film crew store their gear in his Quonset! Hamilton is also known as the location of the annual Pembina County Fair where I saw harness racing for the first time!



Arguably my favorite North Dakota-ism has to be "Oh-fer"! Oh-fer-funny, oh-fer-cute, oh-fer-sweet...pretty much oh-fer-anything! A friend of ours used to say that all the time and at first I couldn't help but snicker every time she said it. But eventually, "oh-fer" became part of my vernacular. I suppose "Yes/No maybe" is just the same as "oh-fer", and eventually hearing a kid answer my query with "No maybe" will be oh-fer-funny!

Hang out with me long enough and I'll start drawing out my vowels and sounding like an extra from Fargo! Pretty soon, I might even start to answer "No maybe" to your questions!