At times in Oxford, I get a little homesick because the constant babble of voices around me contain no familiar accents. As an undergraduate here, my circle of close friends consists almost entirely of British students, with a couple of exceptions; I’m sure this isn’t very different to what many other international students experience.
Walking down the street, whenever I do hear another American voice, whether it’s a tourist (likely), a grad student (slightly less likely, but still possible), an American college junior here on a study abroad year (highly probable) or a full-time undergraduate like myself (rare), my attention is momentarily riveted in the direction of the speaker. And then I’ll continue on my way, off to meet my British-accented friends.
Occasionally, a tutor will begin a lecture and I’ll be caught off-guard by an American accent originating from the podium in an Exam Schools room. And as I’m taking American history as one of my modules this term, it’s been a pleasant surprise to hear several compatriots in those particular lectures.
But over the past few terms, I’ve realized that there is one place I can go where I’m guaranteed to hear other American tongues, and fairly frequently in fact. What is this place, you might ask? Is it the Rothmere American Institute or Vere Harmsworth Library? Or Rhodes House, perhaps?
The answer is: none of the above. The one place I’m guaranteed to hear other Americans is the Oxford Union on a night when an American politician is coming to speak. Throughout my first year, I caught on to this occurrence, which was manifested again in full force this past Tuesday when Senator Jim Risch of Idaho spoke in the Gladstone Room.
After summarizing his political experience for the assembled group of around thirty students, Senator Risch spoke for several minutes on topics ranging from the relationship between the United States and Britain, to the state of the economy, and the future of US politics. Throughout his discourse, I saw other heads in the room nodding in agreement or quietly shaking in dissatisfaction. While it seemed as though the majority of the listeners had some grasp on the senator’s main points, it wasn’t until the time came to take questions from the floor that the full force of the American tongues came to light. One raised hand after another brought a query in a distinctly American accent. The senator himself commented on this, asking jovially after the fourth time this occurred if please, for the next question, a resident of the country we were currently in could take the floor. He was willingly obliged in his request, but afterwards the floor continued to be dominated by American tongues. Oxford itself, at least at undergraduate level, is not much more than ten percent international, and perhaps only ten percent of those students are North American. However, fully two-thirds of the students in that room hailed from across the pond.
And in a way, whilst some may find it amusing, and others may think it sad, it’s nice to be able to count on this sort of occasion. Even on this side of the Atlantic, there’s always a place to go (at least on the subject of politics. On all other accounts, it’s the luck of the draw…)
