English versus English

EstuaryBoy said:
Will

Will we ever see the likes of it again? I somehow doubt it :-(
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<wiping the tears of laughter> Thanks EB, that was great, speaking as one who lived in Sarf Effrika for many years..
Unfortunately, many of the barbs will by now pass unnoticed by those who did not experience the days of PW Botha (Breytenbach? Who was that??
I would love to see Spitting Images do the current situation in the US (or for that matter the UK!), but I suspect it would result in a instant declaration of war :-)
 
You think there are problems UK to US English.

Had a evening at the same table as a French Frenchman and a Canadian French woman. They started the evening trying to use French, seems the French French has been developing since the 1700's but Canadian French has stuck to its 17th Century roots unchanged. So they gave up trying to use French and instead used English, well US English and UK English, and that worked so they stuck to English for the rest of the evening.
 
Personally I think English is fascinating. I frequently see people from two or more different countries, none of which speak English as their first language, using English to communicate, and quite effectively too.

None native English speakers often use a more understandable English, using less complex words, less slang, etc.

Another interesting thing about English is its very wide tolerance. People can speak really bad English, but generally still be understood quite well. Some languages have tiny tolerances. Danish, for example, is hilarious to a none Dane, I have been in conversations where Danes genuinely haven’t understood me when I’ve tried to pronounce town names, even after a dozen different attempts, then when they finally understand me and say “oh, you mean ...”! and I simply cannot tell the difference in their pronunciation vs mine, but to them I was utterly incomprehensible!
 
SteveBorland said:
<wiping the tears of laughter> Thanks EB, that was great, speaking as one who lived in Sarf Effrika for many years..
Unfortunately, many of the barbs will by now pass unnoticed by those who did not experience the days of PW Botha (Breytenbach? Who was that??
I would love to see Spitting Images do the current situation in the US (or for that matter the UK!), but I suspect it would result in a instant declaration of war :-)
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Thanks to Gadge for posting the clip, sadly that Brit sense of humour will be rounded up, de-clawed and put in a box somewhere marked: 'Do Not Open' and buried in landfill somewhere.
Unlike some, us Brits are happy to take it on the chin re: humour, but only if it IS funny or has a basis in truth..
As an aside, I'd love to go second hand car shopping in South Africa, their Ford models had some great engine options compared to our (UK) home market offerings... (and 'proper' RHD too!)
 
Fast Eddie said:
Another interesting thing about English is its very wide tolerance. People can speak really bad English, but generally still be understood quite well. Some languages have tiny tolerances. Danish, for example, is hilarious to a none Dane, I have been in conversations where Danes genuinely haven’t understood me when I’ve tried to pronounce town names, even after a dozen different attempts, then when they finally understand me and say “oh, you mean ...”! and I simply cannot tell the difference in their pronunciation vs mine, but to them I was utterly incomprehensible!
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Ah, that is something I can recognise. When learning Danish, trying to get an understandable pronunciation of the 3 extra letters (Æ. Ø and Å) is somewhat complicated, since even after having lived here since the mid -80's they still sound identical to me. The R sound is also challenging - my wife still teases me about this :)
On the other hand, I just ask her to say thistle..... revenge is sweet!

Danes are much better now at understanding non-Danish Danish than they were in 1987, but they do tend to switch over to English at the slightest excuse, which can make learning Danish difficult.

Oddly enough, we have often experienced a waiter giving my wife a menu in Danish and me an English one, even though they I have not said a word and have never been there before.
I of course put this down to my southern African charm :)
 
I once stayed at a Bed & Breakfast on Eleuthera (Bahamas) where a Cockney Brit, and a guy from Alabama were also staying.
Each evening, we would dine together and talk about the day's events regarding our work.

The Brit would tell us about his work, and the Alabaman would ask me "Would y'all tell me what he's talkin" about?"
The Alabaman would tell us about his work, and the Brit would ask me "Wot 'e say?"
Since I was there looking for submarines, I could not say anything about my work.

Slick
 
I worked at the Mercedes factory in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

I was waiting in the security hut one morning waiting for my ‘host’ to come and collect me. Another visitor was there doing the same.

The visitor spoke to me, I was ‘miles away’ thinking about motorbikes probably so didn‘t hear what he said, my brain kicked into autopilot and thought, we’re at Mercedes and this guy isn’t speaking English, so I automatically responded:

‘Sprechen Sie Englisch Bitte’...

The guy looked at me bemused and replied:

‘Waddya all saaaay’...

He was a local Alabaman, but this English guy didn’t even detect he was speaking English to me ...!
 
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kommando said:
You think there are problems UK to US English.

Had a evening at the same table as a French Frenchman and a Canadian French woman. They started the evening trying to use French, seems the French French has been developing since the 1700's but Canadian French has stuck to its 17th Century roots unchanged. So they gave up trying to use French and instead used English, well US English and UK English, and that worked so they stuck to English for the rest of the evening.
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This also happened with English, so some current US words are older English, and the UK has since changed... see Bill Bryson book on language.
 
First time I went down south and not very far down at that I was in Louisville Ky. I asked for a map at the petrol station and the fellow said " You-all waantah Kane-tuc maap or a Loo-vil maap?" I had no idea what he said. But then he asked
"You-all wan me to check under da hoood?" Again clueless. He was asking to check my oil. That would be "earl".
I wonder what the local accents were in the days before movies and telly. Must have been quite something.
 
Fast Eddie said:
I worked at the Mercedes factory in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

I was waiting in the security hut one morning waiting for my ‘host’ to come and collect me. Another visitor was there doing the same.

The visitor spoke to me, I was ‘miles away’ thinking about motorbikes probably so didn‘t hear what he said, my brain kicked into autopilot and though, we’re at Mercedes and this guy isn’t speaking English, so I automatically responded:

‘Sprechen Sie Englisch Bitte’...

The guy looked at me bemused and replied:

‘Waddya all saaaay’...

He was a local Alabaman, but this English guy didn’t even detect he was speaking English to me ...!
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I have relatives in Alabama. Same thing happens to me.
 
Don't feel bad because when I was young I could hardly understand some of my father's relations in southern Louisiana..... bunch of them stumbled with the language and kept drifting off into frog which he understood but never spoke.
 
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