Sick of ignorant Americans and even some Canadians!
I live in Altantic Canada (Nova Scotia), and it makes me cringe to hear some of the ideas people have about this part of Canada.
I really don't know where some of you get your information. Some people seem to believe that Atlantic Canadians are not only Amish, but speak with a thick accent completely different from other Canadians. We do have a French speaking community, but the rest of the non-French community speak a pretty clear English.
I've never heard a Canadian pronounce "about" as "aboot", nor have I ever known anyone to say "eh".
I work in a call centre, and deal with many Americans. I'd be rich if I got a dollar for every time I heard, "in Nova Scotia do you have electricity, do you have cars, do you have phones? (No, we don't have phones. This is just a dream, I'm not really talking to you right now!)
And some Western Canadians have even been ridiculously ignorant enough to imply that we do not have phones and such. I've seen photos of the area I live in dating back to 1900, and guess what, there were even cars here then!!
These people have obvioulsy never visited Atlantic Canada, and are obviously not the sharpest knives in the drawer. (The average person has an IQ of 100, which isn't very high, so they must fall within this range.)
I've never been to Sweden, nor do I know much about Sweden, but I'm not going to assume that they all prance around in purple jumpsuits and sing Mary Had a Little Lamb all day.
Thank you to those who have half a brain.
<I've never heard a Canadian pronounce "about" as "aboot">
Hmm, I grew up in New England and I've heard it a thousand times. Obviously you've never heard a post-game interview with a hockey player: "We pleed a greet hawkey geem tadee, thot's what it's oll aboot!"
If you call RIM (Research in Motion) tech support in Toronto, you can hear hints of this accent (it depends on the person of course).
well, well, well, in my last trip to the usa, an American asked my if we have refrigerators in Greece. I couldn't stop laughing 3 days after, finally I stopped but I couldn't believe their morbid ignorance.
Another brave American asked me if we still believe in Zeus down there in Greece. Another one asked me what language do you speak in Greece, I said Greek, then he said “but Greek is a dead language “I said no, that's Latin.
I guess the Americans live in a Pepsi bubble on the burgerland
Well, Europeans, realize that your countries are the size of our states. How many of you know things about about all 50 of our states? Dokis, at least the person you were talking to knew a little bit about your history.
Thats not to say that there aren't a lot of ignorant Americans out there, but lets put this in perspective.
Dokis,
Wow, what a BELIEVABLE story!!!
By the way, does Greece have electricity yet?
<<Hmm, I grew up in New England and I've heard it a thousand times. Obviously you've never heard a post-game interview with a hockey player: "We pleed a greet hawkey geem tadee...">>
RE: pleed, greet, geem, tadee...
I would transcribe those vowels (in "played", "great", "game", "today") as [eI] or [ei] whereas in General American as [EI].
RE: pleed, greet, geem, tadee...
I would transcribe those vowels (in "played", "great", "game", "today") as [eI] or [ei], NOT [i:] whereas in General American I hear them pronounced as [EI].
Johnathan wrote: "How many of you know things about about all 50 of our states?"
Quite a lot. And I know just as much about Europe, and more about Asia. Not trying to show off, but only proving that we generally DO know more about you than you know about us =p
At the very least, everyone in Asia and Europe knows that most people in all 50 states have electricity and phones.
...Which, judging from some above posts, is more than we can say about Americans' knowledge of other countries!
(Hey, do they have electricity in West Virginia? Jk jk, of course they do! And we all knew that already.)
Well, we're not sure about parts of Mississippi. ;)
>>Not trying to show off, but only proving that we generally DO know more about you than you know about us =p <<
Yeah that proves it convincingly.
>>At the very least, everyone in Asia and Europe knows that most people in all 50 states have electricity and phones.
(Hey, do they have electricity in West Virginia? Jk jk, of course they do! And we all knew that already.) <<
No, we just got the telegraph last week. But "knowing" is an impressive display of knowledge.
Dokis : « Another one asked me what language do you speak in Greece, I said Greek, then he said “but Greek is a dead language “I said no, that's Latin. »
Contrairement aux apparences, Dokis, la remarque sur le grec — à la fois langue morte et langue vivante — pose la question de la ***DÉNOMINATION** des langues. Il n'est pas certain que ton interlocuteur états-unien l'ait jamais compris, mais il existe un continuum entre le(s) grec(s) antique(s) et le(s) grec(s) moderne(s).
Le même phénomène est présent en latinophonie. La différence avec l'hellénophonie est la césure carolingienne, époque à laquelle de nouveaux noms de langues ont été créés pour des idiomes déjà existants.
Le résultat aujourd'hui est qu'on parle de « langues romanes », de « langues latines », de « langues néolatines », de « portugais + toscan + wallon + piedmontais + castillan + picard + roumain + napolitain + français + galicien + gascon + (etc) » là ou on ***POURRAIT*** parler de latin(s) modernes(s), comme on parle en effet de grec(s) moderne(s) sans préjudice pour le(s) grec(s) ancien(s).
What Greg says makes sense, I guess :p
Latin isn't dead. It's no deader than Chinese. Just as Classical Chinese evolved into the modern varieties of Mandarin, Cantonese, etc... Latin has evolved into French, Spanish, Italian, etc.
So essentially, the Romance Languages are Modern Latin, aren't they? What an intriguing thought!
"Well, Europeans, realize that your countries are the size of our states. How many of you know things about about all 50 of our states? Dokis, at least the person you were talking to knew a little bit about your history. "
Well, realize that YOU Americans have a history of only 400 years! And we have 4000 years of history. You have 3500 years of blank history space in your head. Reason why you can afford to learn the European history, and after all you descend from mainly European emigrants, so it should be your history as well. And please don’t compare the US states with real EU countries that all have distinct culture and distinct language.
You can’t compare Texas with Spain (the discoverers of America) or California with Portugal. France with Louisiana, Holland with NY, Greece with Florida or the UK with New Jersey.
“Well, Europeans, realize that your countries are the size of our states “
Size doesn’t matter after all. Trust me, I am a woman:) Your education and knowledge after all is more important, besides your I.Q should be higher than the I.Q of a vibrator same size.