Are you unusually uptight?

[Outdated]

Though I must admit, I do get amused by hearing non-British Europeans who somehow manage to speak English with an American accent. Even those whose nations are so close to Britain. Interesting.

I've also worked with a lot of migrant people that are still learning English and there's a lot of strange different accents with their use of language too, and then you get someone with a heavy Irish or Scottish accent and neither of them can understand each other. I acted as interpreter a lot.

It also makes for confusing conversations sometimes too when you're talking to people in other countries because there's also some words that have different meaning to us than they do to others. Thongs for example, here that means footwear.

 

[Judge]

I've also worked with a lot of migrant people that are still learning English and there's a lot of strange different accents with their use of language too, and then you get someone with a heavy Irish or Scottish accent and neither of them can understand each other. I acted as interpreter a lot.

It also makes for confusing conversations sometimes too when you're talking to people in other countries because there's also some words that have different meaning to us than they do to others. Thongs for example, here that means footwear.

LOL....yeah I know from my relatives who are fluent in Norn Iron that there's just some words not to use with them. For as much slang exists on both sides of the pond, it's still radically different. And seldom easy to understand.

 

[Progster]

We didn't forget. It's quite deliberate.

Actually, American English spelling is sometimes more logical than British spelling. Why should one write "through" and not "thru", for example. Why all those redundant/silent letters in the British spelling? It's just that I'm used to "through" - that's how I learned it and it just seems wrong to write it any other way to me.

 

[Outdated]

Actually, American English spelling is sometimes more logical than British spelling. Why should one write "through" and not "thru", for example. Why all those redundant/silent letters in the British spelling? It's just that I'm used to "through" - that's how I learned it and it just seems wrong to write it any other way to me.

All those words with ough in the spelling are some of the very few words in the English language that come from the original English language. Nearly all of it is from Germanic, Latin and French languages.

 

[Judge]

Actually, American English spelling is sometimes more logical than British spelling. Why should one write "through" and not "thru", for example. Why all those redundant/silent letters in the British spelling? It's just that I'm used to "through" - that's how I learned it and it just seems wrong to write it any other way to me.

Seriously I try not to dwell critically on one nation's version of English over another.

Basically because in my own opinion when you compare it to other languages, you realize just how inconsistent and arbitrary it can be, and how methodical and logical so many other languages are in comparison. Something often lost on Americans as so many don't speak those other languages to discover this.

Sort of analogous to going from Windows to a Mac or Linux....lol. I often feel badly for anyone struggling to learn English, in as much as it can be difficult for us to learn some other language.

Learning English? Now there's something that would make ME uptight...lol. Then again I've never been enthusiastic about learning Irish Gaelic either. Reminds me of my brother having failed Spanish in High School and then boldly taking Russian in college. -"Crash and burn".

 

[Misty Avich]

I laugh at most memes, except the ones about alcohol, as I'm a non-drinker and can't relate to how wonderful being drunk is for most people.

I belong to a Facebook group that has really great memes that would be strictly against the rules here, but I feel like I can be myself there and have a great laugh.

It's not sexual (I'm not into all that), and it's not racist or anything bad like that. It's just for people who have a relaxed view on politics and feel the world is going mad and need a safe place to ramble about it through memes without the risk of offending anyone.

 

[Progster]

Seriously I try not to dwell critically on one nation's version of English over another.

Basically because in my own opinion when you compare it to other languages, you realize just how inconsistent and arbitrary it can be, and how methodical and logical so many other languages are in comparison. Something often lost on Americans as so many don't speak those other languages to discover this.

Sort of analogous to going from Windows to a Mac or Linux....lol. I often feel badly for anyone struggling to learn English, in as much as it can be difficult for us to learn some other language.

Learning English? Now there's something that would make ME uptight...lol. Then again I've never been enthusiastic about learning Irish Gaelic either. Reminds me of my brother having failed Spanish in High School and then boldly taking Russian in college. -"Crash and burn".

I have learned many other languages, I teach English as a foreign language and that's one of the reasons I'm very aware of English spelling and how strange it is that it has silent letters or illogical spelling/pronunciation. Actually, it's the pronunciation that's wrong, rather than the spelling Though it's also true that there are other languages with silent letters and strange (to me) pronunciations of words.

But I still cringe when I see "you" written as "u"