Where is my accent from?As a kid, I lived with my parents in Washington, DC

In front of our house at Reservoir Rd.

Motor cars very early became the objects of my strong

fascination...

...but I was too young for getting a driver’s license (even at Washington, D.C.!), so I had to satisfy

my passions using smaller vehicles

I liked daring escapades....

As a typical American kid, I was earning money by mowing neighbors’ lawns...

...and by babysitting. Oh, sorry!! I did not

babysit her, it was she who babysat me!

Sixty years ago, many things in the US were just like they are today. But in certain respects

it was a very different America…

In 1948 my Dad got an appointment in Oslo, Norway:

We boarded a ship. The “passage to Norway” took almost two weeks...

Norway was a real fun! There is only winter over there, one can ski most of the time!

I had a chance to watch the ski-jump contest at the Winter Olympic Games (Oslo, 1952)

Note that the jumper’s position was completely different than it uses to be

today…

I was kidding with the long Norwegian winter… Actually, summers in Norway are mild and pleasant

Norway was fun, and after a while I be-came a fluent Norwegian speaker☺, but my English completely evaporated from my head!☹

After 5 years in Norway, we moved to Poland. After a short time, my Norwegian was gone! ☹ In Poland I lived for almost 30 years, and I got all my education. At high school I started re-learning English. But for an adult it is almost impossible to get rid of a foreign accent! At such age, it is already “firmly embedded” in one’s head. Only children can easily pick up an accent that other people speak with.

All my major journeys:

In Washington area, I lived only some 3 miles from the last home my parents were renting before we left the US – funny, isn’t it?

Here is where I worked for 12 years before I came to OSU: National Institute

of Standards and Technology (NIST), Center for Neutron Research

I still do my research at NIST as an “external collaborator”, and this is one of the instruments I use:

It’s difficult to take a good picture of the NIST reactor because the space around is very tight!