Games of Cuts and Bruises

"Haim, bai, please bring maw a cup ah tea," Ma called. (pg. 62)

This particular line struck me because I've always been fascinated by how well colloquial language is written into a story. Although there are many different topics I could cover about this passage from River Crossings, I have chosen this particular line because it helps me to better visualize the world that Professor Gossai grew up in.

The question I always ask myself is: when writing in colloquial speech, am I making my subjects sound uneducated? Am I making them seem bad? Dr. Gossai seems to have gotten over that thought, and I applaud him for it. Without such authenticity in a story, then there's no way anyone could enjoy it as much without the realism of everyday speech.

At first, it was a bit hard to read, but after a while I began to fall into the pattern what he heard as he was growing up. Without such dialogue, I can't really read the story as well, nor can I believe it as much.