[GH85Carrera]

As a kid we were living in Hawaii. I became very proficient at communication with the local kids that spoke pidgin English. I could speak it fairly well in Jr. High School.

Then we were reassigned to Montgomery, AL. I was sent to a school that was 75% black, and the language of southern drawl, and ebonics. My first day, a kid that sat behind me asked me a question and I had no idea whatsoever what he was asking. He asked three times, and I finally told him that I just moved to town, and came from Hawaii, and I could not understand him, and to please speak clearly. The kid sitting next to us translated he wanted to borrow a pencil. Of course "borrow" really meant, give him a pencil as I was never getting it back. I used only a mechanical pencil, so I had to tell him I just have the one and could not help him.

The classmates saw I wore a watch and "axed" me a question all the time, "what time it is?". I learned to understand a lot of the ebonics, but never could understand it all. I was friends with one kid that taught me a lot of the phrases and how to understand him and his buddies.

We made that very same move from Hawaii to Montgomery twice. The first time I was in 3rd grade I think. The first day of class the teacher, a white lady, with the very thick southern accent, gave us a pop spelling test. I made a zero. Not one answer was right. I simply could not understand the teacher. She sent me home with a note and it said she is afraid I was retarded. My parents went to speak to her and my dad kept asking her to repeat herself. He finally said, Miss, I am having a real hard time understanding you. My son has no chance with you and an oral spelling test. Mom and dad talked to the principal and they moved me to a different teacher that could speak English without a horrible accent.

It has already been pointed out, English is a living language, and changes constantly. If some teenager was transported to the 1920s they would have a hard time understanding the language, and an ever harder time expressing himself. 100 years has changed the language a lot.