At 3.30am on Thursday morning 17th June, my wife and I brought our 12 year old daughter to the airport to meet the rest of her 18-strong school group.

Next stop New York !

It’s a school media-studies based visit (though the parents are paying !)and during the week they’ll be in the Big Apple, they’ll be soaking up the atmosphere of the City That Never Sleeps, seeing many of the famous sights, eating the food and visiting NBC and ABC studios to see how news is made and broadcast to the nation. It’s all really exciting and she’ll be back home in time for our next family Steak Night Wednesday ! It’s good that she has a British passport as that’s made entry really straightforward with no need for submitting to the US Embassy here for a visa beforehand.

I’ve asked her to listen to New York accents whenever she can. I know it’s said to be slowly disappearing, but think it’s magic to hear a traditional New York accent in full-flight. I love it ! Can anyone here offer some authentic phonetic New York phrases I can try on her when she returns ?