Eh?

I remember when I finally broke the language barrier in New Zealand.

It was 2004. I had been living in New Zealand for a year or two.

I was sitting in my new office. A workmate said something, and I didn’t understand him.

I still wasn’t the quickest at deciphering the Kiwi accent.

And it was possible that it was important.

What? I asked.

He didn’t respond.

Eh? I tried again.

And it was magic. He repeated what he said.

For the rest of the day, I kept asking, eh?

Before I knew it, I was putting an eh in most of my sentences. Such a handy little word.

I’ll just bowl over, eh?

Then people started asking if I was Canadian. Just blame Canada.