Like What!

Like What!

Like what?

Like WHAAAAT!

Y Que!

I overheard some cats talking today when I was waiting for the train today, when it struck me just how thoroughly we are able to communicate without saying much at all. One guy had finished what amounted to a description of his antics on the court and it went something like this:

Yo...I was like, whoomp whoomp, then I said bip bip, and shook homey up, and brothas was like whoa! and i walked off the court LIKE WHAT!

The other cat then started in about his previous evening at the club, and it went like this:

Yo...we was up in the spot last night and I came up big. Baby was like whoa! and I stepped up to spit at her and was like yo! whoompty whoomp, whateva whateva, and fools was hatin' on a brotha, and I was lookin at 'em like what?! But Baby was feelin' me Folks..you feel me? I had her all shook...

Somebody that just rolled in from outta town and happened upon these two characters would be hard pressed to have any clue what it was that they were talkin' about. You could even make the case that both guys were talking about the same thing. Me? Of course I was amused. I always am by such subtleties. I love linguistics. I think that's one of the things that I like about traveling. I really try to pay attention to how people speak in various parts of this country as well as abroad. This can be a good interest to have and can pay dividends professionally sometimes as I may use it to relate to somebody, perhaps using it to initiate some small talk or create some common ground. But, as there always is with me, the flip side is both annoying and amusing as I often catch myself totally not paying attention to what somebody is saying in a meeting because I'm so caught up in trying to identify their accents and/or trying to guess the origin of their names. I even find myself judging a movie by the quality of the accents (DiCaprio and Pitt are very good at this in Blood Diamond for Leo and Snatch with Pitt speaking Pikey and Meet Joe Black with him nailing patois when talking to the Caribbean lady in the hospital) or the casting mishaps that make somebody like Omar Epps or Mekhi Phifer completely not believable as playing L.A. teenagers with their definitely New York City accents.

What I neglected to mention was that there were all kinds of hand gestures and body english and facial expressions that accompanied these little soliloquys. What I also didn't mention was that I would've understood them either way.