Anglosphere
>>I think that it has to do with the German accent which is reminiscent of RP, which makes them seem British or really upper class Americans.<<
It depends; sometimes it does, as in the case of this one coworker of mine who is from Germany, who I originally assumed was an RP-speaking Briton of all things, whereas many other Germans I have known have not spoken English with an accent that sounded anything like any English English variety.
<<I am always mildly irritated when people do not pick up on any of the points that I have raised.>>
Because your posts are filled with fluff so nobody reads them. Cut out the fluff and more people will respond.
OK
Can we equate the Anglosphere with the Sterling area?
or
Can we equate the Anglosphere with countries that drive on 'the same side of the road I do' e.g. Japan, etc.
Do people in antimoon know what 'sterling' is?
sterling
Do people in antimoon know that British people drive on the left side of the road?
'left side of the road'
"Are you hitting on him?"
LOL. No, I'm not hitting on him. An American winks when he's kidding, or when he has to tell an unpleasant truth and wants to soften it.
Or often to signal another individual within the same room without letting the others present onto the fact that they onto something.
***LOL. No, I'm not hitting on him***
Oh Jasper - how could you?! Now I feel so hurt and will probably sulk for the rest of the day...... ;-) (See - I can wink as well!)
I will respond to the Scots people/English people thing as I am now about 75% awake - it's a holiday here in the UK today (we call it the Spring Bank Holiday) which explains my reasons for being back home in Edinburgh again - I did not get to bed until about 3am this morning and I'm heading back there for a wee while yet - I'm off back down to London later this afternoon.
Thanks for what you said about Scots but as ever you can't really generalise about people of whatever nationality - I know of some mean spirited, misery gut Scots and some fantastically friendly, open hearted, generously spirited English people - I have really good English mates, both from uni and from being in London, who are just that and their families are just the same.
By and large Scottish people are quite warm and are probably easier to get to know than English people....on the whole, as I say. As ever, there are always exceptions, but there really is nothing more complex and complicated a creature than a human being is there?
As for English people there is this general, but in my opinion quite misguided, belief that people are less friendly, less warm (as you put it) and more indifferent in the South of England than they are in the North of England, and Londoners are reputed to be the rudest, the least friendly and the most aggressive in the UK. Bearing in mind that London is one huge city, highly complex and cosmopolitan, where the pace of life is quite hectic and many people are under all kinds of pressures much of the time for a whole variety of reasons, then you can understand why they simply don't have the time to be as approachable and as courteous as in other places.
Personally I have met, through my work as well as socially, many really nice, friendly Londoners and you really need to get to know them and like everyone else I reckon they react to the cirumstances of the moment....when relaxed and not under pressure then they are naturally less stressed and therefore more amicable. Isn't that the case everywhere?
If I had a quid for everytime I've heard an American say how friendly and helpful and approachable the average - unarmed! - London policeman is (and - equally unarmed! - Edinburgh policeman as well while we're at it!) then I could have a bloody good night out on the town.
Taking the North v the South thing in England.....I will give two examples here.
The South: Wokingham, Berkshire.....about 25 miles west of London. A mate from uni lives there and I've stayed with him and his parents and sister. I found everyone there very friendly and spontaneous...including people serving you in the shops - almost invariably pleasant.
The North: Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire (not far from Haworth, the home of the 19th century novelist Bronte sisters). Yorkshire people generally are renowned for their bluntness - they really call a spade a spade there and they really tell you to your face what they think of you, be it good or not so good....no "muckin' abaht!" as they say. I spent three years at uni in Leeds, not far distant from Hebden Bridge, so I should know. OK, the male bus conductors and other geezers called me "luv" but that's just the Yorkshire way - nothing whatsoever to do with sexuality at all...not a bit of it....it's just what they say - well, the older ones anyway so I think that is dying out....no male my own age called me "luv" in that casual way.
But in Hebden Bridge I encountered outright rudeness and indifference by people in the shops....mostly older women...who treated me as if I was something nasty stuck to the bottom of their shoe.
I don't watch TV's "American Pop Idol" (or is it "America's Got Talent?) much at all but I have watched Simon Cowell in full flow on that show - he's a Londoner - alongside his three American colleagues he really does seem to be the only one prepared to tell the contestants the cold, hard, bloody truth as he sees it - and then gets booed and jeered by the crowd! Why? Why tell them, like the Americans tend to do for fear of "hurting feelings"! - that they are fantastically wonderful and talented when it's quite clear they are anything but? Cowell seems to be the only one with the balls to tell the truth as he sees it. All Paula Abdul seems to do is to be all sugary sweet to people who are mediocre.
<<watched Simon Cowell in full flow on that show - he's a Londoner - alongside his three American colleagues he really does seem to be the only one prepared to tell the contestants the cold, hard, bloody truth as he sees it - and then gets booed and jeered by the crowd! Why?>>
Nah, he does that because it keeps the ratings up.
<<Do people in antimoon know what 'sterling' is?>>
111/120 = 0.925 Ag?
We, People in Antimoon of course do not Know what 'Sterling' is nor do We Know what is 'Left side of the road'. We also don't Know how to Capitalize Proper Nouns. Thank You Robin Michael for all the Good Work You're doing in Here. God Bless Your Soul.
"alongside his three American colleagues he really does seem to be the only one prepared to tell the contestants the cold, hard, bloody truth as he sees it - and then gets booed and jeered by the crowd! Why? Why tell them, like the Americans tend to do for fear of "hurting feelings"! - that they are fantastically wonderful and talented when it's quite clear they are anything but? "
Damian, Simon Cowell can be downright cruel. It makes many of us uncomfortable to see someone verbally abused.
If someone here has to tell somebody the ugly truth, usually an element of tact is expected. Unfortunately, Simon Cowell is anything but tactful.
Do people in antimoon know what 'sterling' is?
That's something who will be replaced with Euro.
>>Is there any British or Anglo-American influence in Quebec? It sounds like an interesting place to go. Do French people feel right at home when they go to Quebec, in the same way that Canadian Anglophones and Americans feel when visiting the UK or Ireland? How does it seem to people from Britain? Is it more like visiting France, or is it more like visiting Anglo-America but with everyone speaking a foreign language? Which seems more foreign for British people, France or Quebec? <<
The relationship between English and French in Quebec is a little crazy. On one hand there are all the language laws (for instance if you have a sign in English, it has to have French on top and so much bigger). Quebec has a different secondary school system than the rest of Canada (the Anglo Canadian system being very similar to the American system but with a different grading scale*). In Montreal and some other places you can attend an anglophone public school, but at least in Montreal you're only allowed in if both your parents are anglophones. I was surprised to learn when I surveyed my friends that anglophone and francophone school in Montreal didn't even agree on the number of continents**. On the other hand Quebec is surrounded by English and no matter what they like to think about it are influenced by it and there's tons of Franglais floating around. Still for all the English language television that francophones could watch people still often prefer Quebecois dubbing of English TV.
As for the relationship between French French and Quebecois, well that's a bit strained too. I have yet to meet a French person visiting Quebec who didn't say they barely understood most people. What percentage of this is just them being melodramatic I don't know. Quebec is one of those places like Australia (or at least like Australia used to be) where an accent more like the "mother country" is the mark of an educated person. At the same time most French language TV in Quebec is homegrown, especially sitcoms (29 of the 30 most popular show are made in Quebec). For a not very populace place Quebec actually has a very developed film, tv, and music industry mostly producing stuff for just the Quebec market.
*Yes the Ontario secondary school system was changed less than 10 years ago but it was changed.
**1 continent "America" vs 2 continents North and South America. Also recently I was reading some Guardian article that made it seem like the British only consider the US and Canada to be part of North America. Is that true or is it a case of journalists mixing up North America and non Latin America? In school in the US we were always taught that North America includes all of Central America and the Caribbean.
Interesting information. There was a continent debate at one of my schools as well, but it had to do with Europe and Asia. Some of the teachers insisted that Europe and Asia were just one continent which they called "Eurasia". They even marked you down if you said that Europe and Asia were different continents. Other teachers at the same school insisted that they were separate continents. Here there is no question as to how many Americas there are. Although you can refer to them collectivelly as "The Americas", we consider North and South America to be different continents. In my schooling we were taught that there is North America, Central America, and South America. Central America is comprised of the countries south of Mexico that are not part of South America. North America in its narrowest definition includes only the US, Canada, and Mexico. In its expanded definition it could also include Greenland, and islands that are by it. We always consider Mexico as part of North America, but when we say "North America" we may just ignore Mexico. The term often is used as a quick way to refer to the US and Canada together, because often things are the same in those two countries. That doesn't mean that we don't consider Mexico to be a part of North America though. Other terms are Anglo-America, and Latin-America but Quebec is not really part of Anglo-America, so we can't use that term to refer to all of the US and Canada.