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I sure do know cockney... I lived near Liverpool st. station and Bethnel Green in London and later in Brixton which is also in London. I met a lot of people who spoke Cockney and I just thought it was the London dialect at first.

When I first went to London I experienced culture shock. (I had arrived after living for 6 years in Tokyo and was a real Tokyoite.) I was taken aback by the way some people spoke and I had never heard anything like Cockney before. I thought they sounded like they came right out of Oliver Twist and... people still say "bloody" and speak like that? and when people would say something normal followed by "innit"... I was really confused. I assumed innit meant "isn't it" and so he or she must be asking me a question... but I wasn't sure what the question was and they would just continue talking and not wait for a response so I just left it. There was a lot of slang that I thought was funny. What's a Mars bars shop? Don't get me started on British Rap... There are few who can pull it off.

I also remember how a few people in London would just talk and talk and even ask you how you are and say hi, but not wait for your answer and then they would just walk away. In my experience, when someone asks how you are or says hi, you should then wait for the answer. Only a few people did that though.

In the end, I grew to love Cockney, it became quaint and hearing it reminds me of my time in London. It's a part of the London culture.

Some things I take away from my time in London and miss are:

Friends (esp. Rupert), mince pies, Tesco's (they have really good tiramisù), Liberty department store, the basement of Selfridges where all the food is, Virgin active, public transportation, pasties, Lush, and the salary (it sucks in Italy)

In Conclusion, I love London and thank you for the memories.
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