welcome to new york

every city has their own jargon nyc included. carbonated beverages are soda not pop , gym shoes are sneakers , people stand on line not in line. frumspeak has a life of its own here. growing up out of town when someone decided to be "frummer" they would affect what i would call a " new york speech impediment" so they would sound more frum. now in nyc its okay , because that's how people here actually speak. out of town...well..its a different story. here instead of eating a meal at someone's house, they eat by their house. this term would always confuse me especially when people would say they were going by so and so's house that day. i wouldnt understand why they were just going to pass by the house instead of actually visit them. another puzzling question i would get was " how long are you here?" at which point i would look at my watch and say "ten minutes, why is this so important?" what they actually meant was how long had i been in ny. who knew? my other favorite is when people say they are looking for a guy who learns. don't they mean a guy who studies as in torah? and the list goes on. actually i probably would be doing myself a favor if i myself affected the new york speech impediment and picked up the jargon instead of adhering to more grammatically correct english. less people would speak to me as if i was BT, because after all, don't all frum jews have ny accents???