No more talking South African?

I'm back in the familiar environment of my Milton Keynes home and being reflective of the speed at which one is able to 'adjust' to a different country and culture. I can hardly believe I spent the past four weeks in Cape Town and keep wondering if it was merely a figment of my imagination. I suffered with the long journey back – I know I'm probably just whingeing, because in reality it wasn't THAT bad – total travelling time from door to door was just under 22 hours – but I was really out of it on Monday. Tuesday brought along my physiotherapy session which basically ended in me being 'kicked out of the programme' – I no longer have the deferred pain down my arms, the 4 treatment sessions allowed has been fulfilled and therefore the 'problem' has been solved, never mind that my back is as hard as a plank and that there has been marginal improvement in the flexibility of my spine since my first appointment. I've resolved to sort out my back problems by myself – it's not going to get any better by itself and it will continue to cause me problems because the nature of what I do forces me to sit at a desk hunched over for hours on end... "big sigh" So its up to me to make it better right?

Physical problems aside, what does it mean to be back in MK?

Well for one thing lots of time to work – no excuses not to work, clearly demonstrated by the fact that I am sitting at my desk at 11:50pm and thinking nothing much of it. But of course I also lose the balance and vibrancy of my existence in Cape Town. I realised while in Cape Town, talking about my study experiences in the UK, that I've given the 'context' here too much power over the process – basically I suppressed my own personality, needs and ways of being to accommodate the context and I need to wrestle that back into the picture. I also realised that I need to build up my confidence around asserting what I know and own my knowledge – it's what the writing people talk about when they refer to the development of the authorial voice in student writing – the increasing reliance on your own voice to articulate an argument rather than on the literature or the experts. So will this voice talk South African? Already I can feel my accent taking on the familiar 'British' note as the people around me ask me to repeat what I have just said. It was easier to be heard in Cape Town where we share so many common assumptions about our context and being 100% precise and logical is not the only goal of the conversation – shared meaning and understanding is constantly negotiated and facilitated by both speakers. Maybe the key is find a way for the South African talk to become infused and part of my 'British' speak. Translating the confidence I gain from being in the SA context by raising the currency of my SA talk in my UK environment in some way. Well it's a thought!