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Jay and Yvette took the prescribed 12-week foreign language course when they were selected to work overseas. Fortunately, they worked for a company that had no problems with employing couples. Jay and Yvette were graphic artist professionals and were tapped for heading up the creative department of a new branch office the company was opening in Malaysia. They were excited about the opportunity and jumped into the experience fully embracing the adventure. The couple plunged headlong into the language skills development course and were fairly proficient when time came for the move overseas. Now jay is one of those fearless fellows who always engages people around him constantly seeking to learn from others. Yvette is a little more reserved, taking a clearly academic approach toward learning. Jay said he sought out the first native he found at the new Malaysian office who spoke enough English, not to communicate in that language, but enlist this person as his new language tutor. Yvette bought the latest language CDs and translator devices to gain a level of comfort and support she felt she needed when heading out into the world beyond the office. Nine years later, the Malaysian assignment was coming to an end and Jay and Yvette were heading home to Florida in the good ole U.S. of A. Of course many situational challenges presented themselves when returning to the States, but Jay experienced an overwhelming reaction to having to speak English on a constant daily basis. His English had a decidedly Malaysian slant to it. The pitch, the intonation, the cadence and syllable stress took on a Malaysian flavor that, he said, put a good deal of people at odds with him when he first returned. Although within the confines of their own life together while working and living in Malaysia Jay and Yvette conversed in English, she said that there did come a time when they would converse in their adopted tongue when there were no natives around. Yvette was the more fortunate of the two since her background was Cuban. Her parents had emigrated from that Caribbean island country to the freedom shores of Florida where she grew up in a multi-lingual atmosphere. But, her spoken English, early on in her life, took on some of the tones and cadence of the Spanish spoken at home. She knew what Jay was experiencing, but she also knew that his blond hair and light complexion would never convince anyone listening to him that he was a native Malaysian. She knew this “anomaly” would disappear soon – and it did.

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