Wonderbringers Newsletter with Monica Parker
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Hello Wonderseekers!
I took an Uber ride the other day and the gent driving had a deep London accent. Not posh like Hugh Grant or Queen Elizabeth but full of ‘bruv’, 'dem’ and ‘innit’. As I was chatting with him, I learned his day job was as the financial controller for a local council and he was driving an Uber on weekends to defray the costs of a new home he’d just bought.
I will admit that hearing this young guy chat about the finance world with his accent struck me as a contrast, and it made me think of the stereotypes of people with thick Southern US accents (children as young as 10 start to identify Northern accents as sounding ‘smarter’ than Southern). So, I decided to do some research to learn more about his accent, the people who speak it and how it developed.
The accent, spoken by folks like Adele, Stormzy and Daniel Kaluuya, is known as MLE, or Multicultural London English, and if you are a fan of gritty British crime shows, you will have heard it. (There’s that stereotyping again.) It developed in the 1980s when London experienced a huge influx of immigrants from across the world. As young urban Londoners grew up, they had friend groups that were uniquely multicultural, with mates from the Caribbean, West Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and Ireland. Their various languages merged with East London Cockney, and a melange was born. Now, MLE, along with its close cousin Estuary English, is spoken by more than half of 18-33-year-old Londoners.
I love the idea that this young dialect, now a shared language across a variety of races, creeds, and backgrounds, was born of diverse immigrant friend groups. Research shows that having a diverse set of friends helps us be more open, creative, resilient and socially adaptable, and yet the majority of people have homogenous friend groups across race, religion, political ideology, and education level.
If you'd like to increase the diversity of your friend group, not surprisingly, one way to broaden it is with wonder! By seeking novel experiences, you have a greater chance of meeting and bonding with different sorts of people.
How diverse is your friend group? Have you ever even given it much thought?
Some wonderbringers for me this week:
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: Uncommonly lovely invented words for what we feel but cannot name.
The creative spark that comes from encountering unfamiliar ideas: Scientists who relocate more start Nobel research earlier.
Are you an otrovert? Why this personality type could be your greatest gift.
It’s lovely to be back after my little summer break! Welcome to the …berrrr months!
With wonder,
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