I don't want to learn Queen's English

The Frederick at the end of my post should have been at the beginning! I am rushing as I have to go to work where I shall seduce the customers with my Scottish version of the Queen's English.

"And wtf. is this thing with homosexuals? Do you have a problem with gay people, Fredrik from Norway?"

No, I don't have a problem with gays. On the contrary, I am proud of being a citizen of a country which was one of the first of the world to legalize civil gay marriages (which in Norway are called "registred partnerships").

But like most men (I suppose), I find it comic/a little bit disgusting when men sound effeminate. I'm not at all a raving mad fundamentalist who wants to kill them because of that, but I find it a bit strange and sad that the English norm used in educating foreigners in English make them sound like upper-class people with homosexual leanings!

Gays are cozy ingredients in a society, as long as they don't behave very "gay" (loose wrists etc.)

It takes a lot of courage to be gay, so I respect gays, especially if they are confident enough in themselves to act normal.

I think some gay people who sound effeminate imitate a speech style which they perceive as feminine, but in reality it would sound affected even for most women (although women do tend to speak with a more "melodic" accent, and change the pitch of their voice more often, especially in Britain, but basically in most parts of the world).

Concerning Queen's English, I think Queen Elizabeth herself does not speak Queen's English any more, actually I read somewhere that at a procession a man shouted something to her in Cockney (I don't remember what, but it definitely included "Bessie"), and when asked by another Royal what he said, she repeated it almost exactly, with considerable amusement. So I think by now she is more in touch with how her subjects actually speak. :-)

Getting back to the original topic, I find it extremely funny when RP-speakers defend their accent as the "true English" when it's such a bizarre, nonsensical dialect. Think about it--r's disappear, the letter "o" is often turned into a weird dipthong, the words "can't" and "cancer" illogically are pronounced with different vowels, etc.

How stereotypical and distorted some views and impressions are....I have never yet met a "limp wristed" gay guy except perhaps drag artists who deliberately flaunt themselves and create the stereotypical viewpoints in the first place.

Edinburgh has a gay Rugby football team that frequently thrashes the living daylights out of many an opposing (straight!) team (in a completely sportsmanlike way, you understand) and let me assure you, there is no inkling of a "limp wrist" among the lot of them! OK? I asume you know what "butch" means over there in Norway?

Easterner:

The Queen is well known for being a really good mimic. I believe in private she often good naturedly takes off some of the people she is forced to meet as part of her official duties by imitating them, always to the great amusement of the people in her company. She is a very human person. She has some pretty weird family members though, and now one of her grandsons is being reminded very sharply of certain aspects of 20th century European history.

I am sick of hearing about Harry and his friggin' Nazi uniform! Has anyone bothered to realize that he was at a costume party where they were supposed to dress in a wrong, politically incorrect or such outfit? I do, on the other hand, think it would be good for him to take a little trip to Auschwitz, though.

Damian:
Yeah, we've heard about "butch" here in Norway too (e.g. tractor lesbians).
That rugby team sounds very interesting, it's a shame we don't have something similar here in Norway.

american nic:
Was the theme of the party "political incorrectness"?

I recently read an article in the Guardian that commented on the very interesting fact that "all" Britons love to hate Germans and call them Nazis at football matches, except the old guys who actually fought the Nazis!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,2763,1202028,00.html

Although we Norwegians have nothing of the over-sized hatred lots of vulgar male Britons feel for Germans (here it is mostly ignorance) it is true here too that the people who have the most friendly disposition towards the Germans are the old war generation! They have no problems going on holiday to Germany although the Nazis suppressed them for five long years and killed and abused some of their relatives. They are much better than the rest of us when it comes to drawing a line between the evil Nazis and the more-or-less innocent German people.

I can't remember the exact theme of the party, but it was along those lines. For the event, his costume was completely appropriate. Obviously the Nazis were BAD BAD BAD, but a single picture shouldn't be taken so seriously.

There's a lot of stereotypoing with British and American accents. Not all people from Georgia will say Y'alll Cuum baak reel soon naoooww yaa heear!
and not all people with a Cockney accent say "oii there! Sweep ya chim'ney guv'na!" Not all Canadians say "ey there Bob, lets go to my hoose and watch sum hockey, eh"

Britishers have such a funny accent!!!Please send our Madonna back to Valley!

<<Please send our Madonna back to Valley!>>

Madonna would not be caught dead in the Valley (unless of course she's shooting a film or laying down tracks). She's more a Beverly Hills/Bel-Air/Holmby Hills/Malibu Colony -type girl -- far from her middle class Detroit roots.

It works

so, Valley is a poor suburb, eh?

<<so, Valley is a poor suburb, eh?>>

No, I didn't say that. There are many high income enclaves in THE Valley, inhabited by doctors, lawyers, actors, models, etc. There are also middle to lower income enclaves like downtown Van Nuys which is basically the barrio.

But there is a stigma attached to the Valley because it is sprawling suburbia on mainly flat land where it is 10 degrees hotter than downtown LA. It is where people move to raise a family and live a quiet, boring, and bourgeois existence. I think the term often used to describe the Valley is "whitebread" even though the the area is racially mixed. But compared to LA proper, the Valley lacks the excitement of city living and is more politically conservative.