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I moved house frequently growing up. Never spent more than a year or two in one place. The only other constant I had, is that I was constantly kept after school to pen lines.

It is spell-ED not spel-T 'C-O-L-O-R' there is no 'U' Nora.

Use 'Z' not 'S' and say 'Zee' not 'Zed' Nora.

Say 'between' not 'betwixt' Nora.

Things like that, I've heard my entire life.

I quickly became used to receiving such treatment, what with my being an American born English woman, and all. Mum was a Welshy, you see. One who'd spent a good deal of her life going back and forth betwixt England and Scotland before finally coming to settle down the grand old United States of America.

Oh she abhored being here, mummy did; however, I'll tell you about that another time, readers mine.

English was my fourth language learnt, as my father had insisted that I've the rest of my life to master it. He thought it highly important that I learn the languages from his people in the Baltics.

So it was that I became fluent in the many variants of my native tongue.

When I was finally taught the English language, you can imaging that mummy dearest was more than a wee bit against my becoming any more Americanised than is needed for my survival in this country.

Growing up, moving from town to town as we did, left me open to suffering and abuse from those who should have, at the very least, been my kindly peers, if we were never to be friends.

I was too different to befriend. The uppity Brit, said they, as I was oft ignored. Better though, to be ignored then physically abused.

They tried so often, teachers, fellow students, and co-workers alike, to Americanise me. My English language instructors thought that by giving me a failing mark I would seee the error of my ways.

Often, as I queue up at the grocers with my veg, I am speaking with my father in Serbian, and I am told by some unfortunate or other that I should speak English in HIS country or go back to wherever I've come from. Then when I do switch to English, the accent angers the unfortunate one.

Fools, the lot of them.