1
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The newspapers say that, he’s famous.

2
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So now people treat you like you’re
famous, they say the weirdest things to you.

3
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Strangest thing people would say to me, “Trevor! Trevor!”

4
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“Well-done on everything hey. Congrats! Congrats!”

5
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“But, even though you are going to America”

6
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“Don’t forget us alright? Don’t you forget us.”

7
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Like, “I don’t even know who you are.”

8
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People would say the weirdest things to me. You
know the number one thing people have said to me?

9
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It’s not good luck. It’s “Hey Trevor”

10
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“Good luck over there, but whatever you do.”

11
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“Don’t forget your accent, alright?”

12
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“Yes please. Don’t pull a Charlize on us, okay?”

13
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“You keep your accent, make us proud.”

14
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Everyone said that. “Treva bro!” Treva Noah!”

15
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Hey, mom’s child. You are making us proud.”

16
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“You do us proud, but can I ask you a favor?”

17
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“Don’t lose your accent, okay? Don’t lose your accent.”

18
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“Yes. When you come back from the States,
you mustn’t come back talking funny.”

19
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“Please Brother. If you lose
your accent, don’t come back.”

20
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“Did you just threaten me?”

21
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What does that mean? If you lose your accent?

22
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How do you lose your accent? People make it sound
like you’re going to be walking down the street

23
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And then just out of the blue, you'll be like,

24
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*Searching his pockets*

25
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“My accent!”

26
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“I lost my accent!”

27
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“Where the hell is my… Oh!”

28
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“Oh, Hello. No! That’s
not my accent!”

29
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How are you going to lose your accent?

30
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I was stressed now.

31
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Because I don’t want South Africans
to think I am not South African.

32
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I don’t want them to think I have
forgotten something, this is my home.

33
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Now I am stressed coming home.

34
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I am in the plane, flying back to Johannesburg.

35
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And the whole time I'm just thinking, “don’t lose
you accent Trevor, don’t lose your accent”

36
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“Ac-accent, Accent, Ac-accent”

37
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“Is that how I say accent? Accent, accent, excent, excent”

38
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“axe end, ecsent, accent.”

39
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“accent, ac-accent.”

40
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By the time I landed at O.R Tambo I was losing my mind.

41
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I like walked into arrivals, the
woman was there at customs.

42
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“Welcome back to South Africa Sir.”

43
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I was like, “Yes, I’m back!”

44
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“Same old Treva!”

45
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“Nothing changed.”

46
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People are crazy.

47
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Cause I love accents. I really love accents.

48
00:02:17,230 --> 00:02:20,390
I love learning languages and so
obviously accents or byproduct of that

49
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I’ve learned over time

50
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That even you can't learn a
language, an accent is a great

51
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way to communicate with
somebody in your own language

52
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whilst trying to bridge the gap

53
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you learned somebody's accent, you communicate more effectively

54
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the thing is though, you have to
learn the accents on the right way

55
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if you are going to speak to someone in
the accent and you do in the wrong way

56
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you might come across as racist

57
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you have to be very careful about this.

58
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White people in South Africa often fall into this trap.

59
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It happens at petrol stations quite a bit.

60
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you see people driving in with their
friends, talking normally in the car.

61
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“So, I mean. If we get all the numbers together... marketing should be behind this

62
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” it should be a breeze, HR has
stepped up and it's going to be."

63
00:02:58,950 --> 00:03:02,060
"It's going to be a great year and look we
try and make sure. Oh, sorry. Hold on."

64
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*electric window winding down*

65
00:03:03,940 --> 00:03:05,510
"Hello Baba!"

66
00:03:06,750 --> 00:03:08,880
"Hey, shap, shap man!"

67
00:03:08,950 --> 00:03:11,770
"Please fill up the tank, hey?"

68
00:03:11,830 --> 00:03:14,620
"95, Unleaded. Yea!"

69
00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:17,290
"Also check ama tires, Hey?"

70
00:03:17,370 --> 00:03:20,080
"Pressure. Pumpy, pumpy! Not to much hey?"

71
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"two point two, okay?"

72
00:03:22,120 --> 00:03:25,020
"Yea, good jobie. Shap , shap."

73
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"Dankie boss."

74
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Don't do that.

75
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He is a grown man, he has been
pumping petrol his entire life.

76
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He knows what you need.

77
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Just talk to him like a normal human being.

78
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That's the thing people don't understand

79
00:03:43,860 --> 00:03:46,020
Speak to him like a normal human being.

80
00:03:46,190 --> 00:03:49,030
I used to get so angry whenever I see
white people changing their accent

81
00:03:49,050 --> 00:03:51,080
when they talk to black people.
I get so angry.

82
00:03:51,340 --> 00:03:54,510
I was like,"are all white people racist? is
that what it is? Are all of them racist?"

83
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and then I leaned. Life taught me not to be so quick to judge.

84
00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:01,520
I learned a valuable lesson. I was
driving to Gold Reef City one day.

85
00:04:02,070 --> 00:04:03,320
Into the backstage area.

86
00:04:03,660 --> 00:04:05,470
and the security guard came out
to the boom, and he was like,

87
00:04:05,500 --> 00:04:07,350
"Hi, how are you. Is
your name on the list?"

88
00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:09,670
I said, "Yes, how are you Baba?
My name is Trevor."

89
00:04:09,730 --> 00:04:12,710
He's like, "Okay. Trebal, Trebal, Trebal."

90
00:04:12,730 --> 00:04:14,120
I said, "No, no. Trevor."

91
00:04:14,150 --> 00:04:18,320
He's like, " Oh, sorry. Cheval, Cheval, Cheval, Cheval."

92
00:04:18,370 --> 00:04:19,930
I said, "No, Trevor."

93
00:04:20,330 --> 00:04:21,330
"Cheva."

94
00:04:22,250 --> 00:04:23,120
"Trevor."

95
00:04:23,540 --> 00:04:24,510
"Chelva"

96
00:04:25,900 --> 00:04:26,770
"Trevor"

97
00:04:27,470 --> 00:04:28,490
"Chelva"

98
00:04:30,340 --> 00:04:31,400
"Trevor"

99
00:04:32,110 --> 00:04:33,180
"Chelval"

100
00:04:34,910 --> 00:04:36,720
"Trevor"
"Chelva"

101
00:04:36,870 --> 00:04:40,930
"Trevor" "Cavel, Cav, Chavil,
Chavel,Chalvin, Chavel"

102
00:04:40,950 --> 00:04:42,980
"Trevor"
"Chalvil, Chalvil"

103
00:04:43,060 --> 00:04:44,500
"Trevor"
"Calvil, Chalvil"

104
00:04:44,540 --> 00:04:46,950
and now my friend who is just
irritated leans over and his like,

105
00:04:46,980 --> 00:04:48,810
"Hey, Papa. His Treva!"

106
00:04:50,020 --> 00:04:53,330
He was like, "Oh, Treva!"

107
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"Why you don't talk properly?"

108
00:04:59,950 --> 00:05:03,780
And then I understood, I finally understood.
What white people have been trying to do.

109
00:05:04,550 --> 00:05:07,730
I see you are trying to communicate more
effectively, you are trying to engage somebody.

110
00:05:07,750 --> 00:05:09,410
But understand this, understand this.

111
00:05:09,910 --> 00:05:12,250
When speaking to someone in an accent,
the number one rule to understand is

112
00:05:12,280 --> 00:05:14,830
an accent is not a
measurement of intelligence.

113
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An accent is just somebody speaking your
language, with the rules of theirs.

114
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That is all an accent is.
So don't speak

115
00:05:21,390 --> 00:05:23,270
down to them, don’t patronize them.

116
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Speak to them the way you would speak to yourself.

117
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Just try and learn their accent,
that's all it is. Just an accent.

118
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and I learn them. I spend all
my time learning accents. I try.

119
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I try, I love it.

120
00:05:36,470 --> 00:05:38,500
I learn in restaurants,
that's a safe place to start.

121
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You learn, you read of the menu. You
try to pronounce the words correctly.

122
00:05:42,430 --> 00:05:45,070
I was inspired by French restaurants.
Funny enough.

123
00:05:45,320 --> 00:05:48,290
Whenever I go to a French
restaurant I am always fascinated.

124
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By the fact that people ordered food in an
French accent. I never understood why.

125
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Because they don’t do it in any other restaurants,
only in French restaurants do people walk in.

126
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and then change their
accent when they order.

127
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They come in talking normally. "you know it's
a wonderful, you really going to enjoy this."

128
00:06:02,580 --> 00:06:06,740
"It's so beautiful, stunning. You have to have
the desert. Oh, good evening, how are you Sir?"

129
00:06:06,850 --> 00:06:09,250
"Yes, we will have a bottle of
water for the table please and a"

130
00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:13,080
"Let's start of with a, can we
get the Savegnon Blanc please?"

131
00:06:13,520 --> 00:06:17,330
"and we definitely for mains
gonna have the Filet minion."

132
00:06:17,890 --> 00:06:21,860
"and for dessert we gonna
go with the creme brule."

133
00:06:22,140 --> 00:06:24,530
"Thank you very much. Oh, you gonna love it."

134
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Like, why are you doing that? I
never understood. I was like why?

135
00:06:27,310 --> 00:06:29,630
Because it's not like the French
are going to return the favour.

136
00:06:30,300 --> 00:06:33,770
There's no French people sitting in our restaurants
in South Africa looking at the menu like,

137
00:06:35,830 --> 00:06:39,210
"Uh, so for the table we can order"

138
00:06:39,700 --> 00:06:42,550
"some starter portion, we
share something. Okay?"

139
00:06:42,960 --> 00:06:45,020
"Uh, could we please have, uh"

140
00:06:45,160 --> 00:06:48,350
"one serving of the boerewors."

141
00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:54,500
that's not gonna happen.