Funny Things that 'Foreigners' Do -

[bvimatelot]

Good Lord!! Even more thread drift - this time into questionable activities in motor cars - or in David's case - abysmal lack thereof!

Back to "english as she is spoke". I blame the BBC. Ever since they dropped the use of "received English", and started favouring regional accents (why???) the language has become more estuarine oriented, people called "chavs" (still dont know the derivation of that one) have started wearing Burberry....and Questionable People have been allowed to run Her Majesty's Government. 20 years after my "3 year posting" to the Caribbean, I'm still here where at least the language, diction and largely old-fashioned idiom, sits pleasingly on the ear - and the rum sits pleasingly in the gullet! Tony

[Factor]

Originally Posted by jackdale

I used to be involved in motorsport (rallying). There were a number of British cars in competition. That is where I first learned the answer to the great question:

"Why do the British drink warm beer?"
"Lucas refrigeration."

Jack

Ah - Jospeh Lucas - the prince of darkness.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by drew.ward

One of my big ones is the loss of participles (the third form of the verb ie drink, drank, drunk). In many UK dialects they are almost entirely gone in many verbs and in recent years the American press seems to have decided they will steer American speakers in this direction as well. I really hate hearing that someone 'had rose' from sleep (risen), or 'had ate' dinner (eaten), or 'had drank' a beer (drunk).

In Singapore (and many other places) "Drink Driving " is an offense - or offence depending.

I prefer the terms DUI or Drunk Driving.

I manage a large group of expats and locals. Culture Shock is a very real and difficult thing to deal with for some people. I finally decided that a lot of it boils down to common sense.

What is common where you are from may not be common where you are, resulting in many things not making sense.

The important thing is recognizing that you can't change common culture. You are an outsider and you must adapt or you will go crazy. Having lived in Asia for over 25 years I can attest to the futility of trying to change common sense.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by anjou

Italian boys who tried their best to attract her by barking and howling like dogs. .

And Kirstie wasn't attracted to this?

She is too used to the 'boys' at Fashion School.

She needs to walk some plans accross a building site or 2.



Mark

[anjou]

Kirstie is a reserved and well brought up girl, I guess a building site education might make that worse, ........if of course we had a building site which was open and working at the moment, and more importantly, .............the political correct police didnt arrest and charge any leary workers for sexually intimidating or harrasing passers by.
A wolf whistle or playboy type workshop calendar is classed as sexually offensive these days. (not to me of course) vive la difference.

Having said that, she has already found the UK boys her age are rather backward at coming forward. Such has been the trend for 20 or more years in UK, where its now the girls who ask the boys to date and not the traditional way round, so encountering the full on attentions en masse from Latino guys was maybe too much of a shock for Kirstie.

I imagain that if there are any boys in her fashion college, they wouldnt necessarily be interested in girls for reasons other than fashion.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by anjou

the political correct police didnt arrest and charge any leary workers for sexually intimidating .....Having said that, she has already found the UK boys her age are rather backward at coming forward. .

So who has the problem? The males of all the world or her?

[Ocean Girl]

Funny thing I observe is Americans from the South tend to have good eye contact. Meet a real cowboy and he will pin ya with a both eyes (as suppose to just one from a yankee ) I never really notice this tendency until I lived up in the Northwest for a couple years. Maybe its less geographical as it is rural/city?

In all my moving/travels (US) the hardest accent to understand is Cajun, but they are by far the friendliest people you'll ever meet. I delivered a boat from Florida, chuggin down the ICW a tug boat with a Cajun Captain offered to throw us some steaks and shrimp as he passed on my one!

BTW- I can always spot a California b/c they talk very fast, sometimes in short burst, but I'm comparing it to the slow southern drawl I'm used to

Have a great day,
Erika

[anjou]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

So who has the problem? The males of all the world or her?

I wouldnt say there is a problem at all, just pointing out the cultural differences.

If your saying Italian boys are out going and fast compared to brits then maybe brits are fast and out going compared to other more genteel cultural habits and practices.

Its just the way of the world and one of the funny things foreigners do, .........is it not?

[Connemara]

Re: James Garner and Mazda:

There are a lot of little things like that. Canucks say Visa (the charge card) to rhyme with Leeza; Yanks rhyme it with Lisa (as in Minelli).

OTOH, you can get it even within families. I pronounce aunt to rhyme with taunt; my younger brother rhymes it with ant.

Connemara

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by Connemara

Canucks say Visa (the charge card) to rhyme with Leeza; Yanks rhyme it with Lisa (as in Minelli).

I'm not sure what you're trying to point out, but Visa in the US is pronounced VEE zuh, while Liza Minnelli's first name is pronounced LIE (rhymes with eye) zuh. Are you claiming Americans pronounce Visa as VIE zuh to rhyme with LIE zuh? If so, you're incorrect.

TaoJones

[Connemara]

Originally Posted by TaoJones

I'm not sure what you're trying to point out, but Visa in the US is pronounced VEE zuh, while Liza Minnelli's first name is pronounced LIE (rhymes with eye) zuh. Are you claiming Americans pronounce Visa as VIE zuh to rhyme with LIE zuh? If so, you're incorrect.

TaoJones

Not only that, I mis-spelled Liza. I meant just plain old Lisa.

Connemara

[drew.ward]

An interesting pronunciation thing is the American brand of Toilet paper Charmin. In the US we pronounce it 'shar-men' yet elsewhere in the world it's 'char-meen'.

I must say their advertising jingle makes much more sense in Mexico or Germany where it says "Cha-Cha-Cha-Char-meen" than here where it's "Cha-Cha-Cha-Shar-men".

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by Connemara

Not only that, I mis-spelled Liza. I meant just plain old Lisa.

Connemara

Aha . . . so you're not claiming Americans pronounce Visa as VIE zuh to rhyme with Ms. Minnelli's first name, you're claiming that Americans say VEECE uh instead of VEE zuh? I've never heard anyone pronounce it that way, and the voiceover on the Visa commercials certainly says VEE zuh, so I still doubt many Americans (or Canadians, for that matter) say VEECE uh, thought some undoubtedly do.

It makes me think of Belize: I once had a girl who's parents were from Spain, though she was born in the US, who cut my hair. She spoke fluent, beautiful Spanish, and I remember once telling her that I was going down to buh LEEZE, the typical American pronunciation. She asked, "Where?"

I repeated buh LEEZE, and she politely asked me, "Do you mean bell LEECE?" I'm sure I made the standard "tuh MAY toe - tuh MAH toe" joke, but I continued to think how much more pleasant her way of saying it was, and have adopted that pronunciation for myself.

I would be more inclined to believe that most Americans prefer, and use, the hard Z sound, rather than the soft S or C sound, when saying Visa. It is the soft S which would make it rhyme with Lisa (LEE suh), but according to the dictionary, the correct pronunciation is VEE zuh, with the hard Z, which is the only way I've ever heard it pronounced in the US.

TaoJones

[drew.ward]

Actually I've normally encountered 'veessa' for the charge card and both 'veessa' and 'veeza' when referring to the government document.

[trebeyar]

Regarding western US geography I've finally figured out that when Al Roker say's "Out West..." He isn't talking about me but folks I consider as living "Back East..."

I was on a climbing expedition in Ecuador a few years ago and we stayed the night in a beautiful hacienda. We sat for dinner (evening meal) and before anything was served we noticed drinks and popcorn on the table. We began to help ourselves to the drinks and we all started grabbing handfuls of popcorn. For my entire life popcorn is eaten as a snack by hand, most often during movies. The servers brought us soup and seemed confused as to why the popcorn was all gone and brought another bowl. When they saw us grabbing handfuls they let us that it was for putting in the soup! Along with chili's and other various sauces and spices.

We all thought it was pretty funny and from that point on the popcorn lasted till the soup came.