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What do you think of Michael Phelps' accent?
<<Damian must suffer from an insuperiority complex>>
Luckily, you came and gave everyone the opportunity to feel an *uninferiority complex about their command of the English language. Even Damian must feel better thanks to you.
In my job as a journalist, which hasn't been too long in existence so far, I have learned to harden myself against the world and to the slings and arrows of outrageous comments and insults hurled in my direction, and you can always bet your sweet life that someone will always misinterpret what you have said, or take points totally an completely out of context.
As I say I haven't been in my job all that long and I learn something new every day and already I have met people from practically all parts of this planet we all inhabit, not only through my job but also on a casual basis in a city which sees an enormous number of foreign visitors , especially at this time of the year in which the city centre is literally is a veritable hotchpotch of foreign languages as well as one of every kind of English Language accent. You soon learn that words and phrases and modes of expression in English can mean different things in different parts of the English speaking world (which is what we are all involved with in this section of the Antimoon Forum. I think we have covered this issue at length in this Forum anyway. I have actually heard Americans refer to The Mall - as described in my earlier post - as The Mawl (but in a clearly defined American accent) and I know for a fact that that is the way they refer to a shopping centre. over there. Shopping Centres is what we call the American Mall no matter how huge they are, and the UK has some pretty enormous shopping centres, all under one cover as in America - eg Bluewater, Brent Cross, and here in Edinburgh - South Gyle, among the thousands of others across the UK. We never call them Shopping Malls, or if we do, it's pretty much the exception. I wasn't really aware that Americans (as when referring to the National Mall in Washington) also pronounced "Mall" the way Londoners pronounce the name of that London thoroughfare (as in the word "pal") the scene of yesterday's bash for the London takeover of the Olympics flag pre 2012, at which MR Phelps was present (sorry I missed out his title, and no way have I disrespected this guy in my posts). Whan I said he was not "my cup of tea" I simply meant that from what little I have seen and heard of him I would not really relish a whole evening with him over a dinner table. It may well be that I am doing the guy an enormous injustice and it may well be that having spent a whole evening chatting with Michael over a dinner table I would find him one of the most irresistible of guys I had ever met before in my entire life so far.......and I've encountered a fair wee number of those so far already..... Michael did America proud at Beijing - a fantastic achievement, as I think I clearly said before - nobody can deny that. Maybe my phraseology was misinterpreted..... As for my perecived "insecurity over my own nation's heritage" - far from it. No way am I insecure in that direction in any shape or form at all - be it Scotland on its own, or the United Kingdom in it's entirety. OK - we're banging on about Michael Phelps and his Olympic honours. Overall, Great Britain came fourth in the Gold Medal table (the highest of any European country) and when you consider that our population is a mere 61 millions, each of the three nations ahead of us all have populations well into the hundreds of millions. Pro rata per head of population our GM score of 19 was pretty good going, so no - no insecurity over my country's Olympics performance, and taking into account the very interesting and fulfilling experience I had in accompanying a group of Swedish students last year along the Roman Antonine Wall (the building of which commenced in the year 142AD across the belt of Central Scotland) no insecurity of my country's heritage either. None at all! And that's just one example.
On second thoughts - if Michael Phelps DID prove irrestisble to me in the long run I would certainly have become tone deaf to his accent and verbal delivery beforehand that's for sure! They do say love is blind - it would have to be deaf as well sometimes...... ;-) Now if he spoke in the softly gentle Highlands accent of Argyll or Sutherland or Wester Ross or, even more magically, the Western Isles themselves, that would be a totally dfferent matter altogether.........
<<Overall, Great Britain came fourth in the Gold Medal table (the highest of any European country) >>
Damian in Edinburgh, you shamelessly ignorant nerd! Isn't Russia an European country?
I mean what is your area of journalism? ie, are you a sports journalist, foreign correspondent, etc.
***Isn't Russia an European country?***
No. The extreme western part of this vast country is technically known as European Russia, as this region is characteristically similar to most of the countries of Eastern Europe, but most of Russia is anything but European - in fact, the extreme eastern part of Russia is little more than a stone's throw from the shores of Alaska, USA - about as far from urope as it's possible to get. So European Russia is most assuredly not, although its capital city, Moscow, is quite clearly European (Eastern) in character. One thing is guaranteed and set in concrete - Russia will never be contained within the EU. Current events on the southern fringes of Mother Russia bear testimony to that.
<<I wasn't really aware that Americans (as when referring to the National Mall in Washington) also pronounced "Mall" the way Londoners pronounce the name of that London thoroughfare (as in the word "pal")>>
Americans NEVER pronounce mall to rhyme with pal. It's always "mawl", as you put it. No matter what the meaning. "Mal" is only short for Malcolm here! <<I have actually heard Americans refer to The Mall - as described in my earlier post - as The Mawl (but in a clearly defined American accent) and I know for a fact that that is the way they refer to a shopping centre. over there. >> Indeed we do refer to large shopping centers as "malls". But we also use the term to refer to tree-lined avenues or promenades, as in the Washington Mall. In fact, the shopping-center term is derived from that one, as shopping malls (to give their full and proper name), always have a central walkway lined on both sides with stores. Mall is far more commonly applied to the shopping variety than the open-air avenue, though -- that is becoming more and more of an archaic usage. The term "shopping center" is also in common use in the US, but we rarely apply it to shopping malls -- instead, it is usually applied to strip malls (now we're making this good and confusing!), which are plazas of connecting shores that run around two or three sides of a central parking lot, one side of which is bordered by a street. We make a distinction between the two types of shopping centers -- basically malls are much bigger than shopping centers and have a characteristic floorplan.
<<No. The extreme western part of this vast country is technically known as European Russia, as this region is characteristically similar to most of the countries of Eastern Europe, but most of Russia is anything but European - in fact, the extreme eastern part of Russia is little more than a stone's throw from the shores of Alaska, USA - about as far from urope as it's possible to get. So European Russia is most assuredly not, although its capital city, Moscow, is quite clearly European (Eastern) in character.
One thing is guaranteed and set in concrete - Russia will never be contained within the EU. Current events on the southern fringes of Mother Russia bear testimony to that. >> You will find that about 9/10 people in the Russian team are from European Russia. So subtract 3 medals and Russia still beats the UK.
All taken, Russia is still the most powerful European nation in Europe.
My keyboard seems to have a major problem with the word "PERCEIVE", and all its grammatical forms.
Just to demonstrate my ability to spell this word correctly I will repeat it: PERCEIVE. Most of my posting in this Forum is done at a speed of a fair wee rate of knots per second, and with time pressures pressing down on me, and I don't have my spellcheck/grammar check facilities on tap to help me. But we shouldn't really have those to hand in this Forum should we? In an English Language Forum we, as native speakers especially, should all be spot on perfect anyway - shouldn't we? ;-) |