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Sunday, January 16, 2011

What????

The Champion System team is officially a Hong Kong registered team, however, it is very much an international mixture.

There are two Australians, four Hong Kongese (is that even how you say it?), two Estonians, two Germans, two Austrians, and three from Switzerland (of which, two speak French and one speaks Swiss-German).

This mix of nationalities makes for some very interesting conversations with most being able to speak English, but ranging from fluently to very poorly.

This means that conversations rarely happen in pairs. You try to make sure that someone is there to translate or at least assist in the conversation. Otherwise, you quite often reach a language stalemate where neither person really knows what is going on and you both just smile and nod awkwardly.

Eventually, you find yourself speaking in some sort of weird Asian-euro accent using very simple words like you are talking to a six year old and waving your hands around in gestures that possibly make it harder to understand.

When you get home or talk to loved ones on the phone, you forget that they can understand your native tongue and continue with your crazy accent. Not only do you sound like an idiot to them, but you also insult their intelligence by speaking to them in very basic words.

It is a hard habit to break.

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