Our Brothers Across the Water

Not sure what is meant by this; my earlier post did not contain a joke, 'twas nobbut fact. German students CAN elect to learn/ be examined in American English or the other variety.

English is the business language of the world: no matter how much you mangle it, no matter your accent or your mispronounciation, businesses want your money.

I teach English in the former Eastern Bloc (it's quite lucrative, and property is still cheap) and that's why I looked at this forum. People want to communicate with the ESW (English-Speaking World) like I try to communicate in their difficult language. When I was learning each of my five or so other languages, no matter how I hashed it up they always welcomed my money, and there was no discount for fluency.

My point is: teachers want perfection but students pay for communication. The smart ones then become Wait-Persons and take home quite good English as well as a nest-egg.

Sometimes we over-analyse what we see as problems; one of my teachers called it brushing the bloom off the butterfly.

An example: The curator of an art exhibition went on and on about a painting of three naked black men; two were totally black, the one in the middle had a pink penis. It depicts the sexual emasculation of African-Americans in a predominantly white, patriarchal society; some critics believe that the pink penis reflects the cultural and sociological oppression of gay men in contemporary society.

A Scotsman approached the group and offered to tell the real story. Now why are you more of an expert than the curator?

Because I painted it. In fact there is no African-American or gay image. They're just three Scottish coal-miners; the one in the middle went home for lunch.

Funny story - I'll have to remember that!

Yeah but this is a thread about over-analysis: that's the point of it. Try to find a nit to pick, then pick it. Make fun of the foreigner, that's the way.

Good joke, but a bit adult for me.

When facing a a form in your road chose that which apears the most difficult, because there re NO easy roads.

This means don't pick just any nit - choose a really difficult one.

An elderly man goes into a house-of-cats and tells the Lady he would like a girl for the night. Surprised, she looks at the ancient man and asks how old he is.

"I'm 90 years old," he says.

"90!" replies the woman. "Don't you realize you've had it?"

"Oh, sorry," says the old man. "How much do I owe you?"

Hey, allsixkindsofmusic, (love the name) it is a very bad idea to put your email address on the forum replies unless 1) you break it into non-spider traceable particles, ie. jo en ation @em ail. co m. or 2) you really like getting three hundred spam messages a hour.

Just a head's up and welcome to A2K.


Joe (I like Spam fried with two eggs, but I haven't had it in years) Nation

In British English "practise" is the verb and "practice" the noun. I believe American English uses the -ise form for both.

That holds true for piano-type practices, legal-type practices and habitual-type practices.

Specialty vs. Speciality.............

Do they mean same ??

English, Spam, Music and Philosophy
Hi Joe

Thanks for the heads-up: my mail-servers have good, automatic spam-filters. Polish ham with eggs beats spam every day!!

That name: when I am not debating in my Disco (an English species of 4WD) I am playing All Six Kindsa Good Music: Rock n Roll n Rhythm n Blues n Country n Western. Loudly, so you can understand it better.

A typo in my last post: not "form in the road" but fork as in "at the far fork-you turn left..."

A "shoppee" is a person who has been shopped: slang for reported to the cops. Young man to young lady, "Have you ever been picked up by the fuzz?" "No" gasps the lady with several piercings and a new Brazilian; "but it sounds real kinky...!"

Enjoy the music!

Looked at the English forum and see that people refer to the English as spoken in 'Britannica Encyclopaedia' there are many dialects in the English Language. The English you hear in films and on TV programmes is on the whole the sanitised stuff used in the South of England.

They most certainly would not understand the English spoken in Lancashire, or Yorkshire because these are the dialects that have been used for centuries. they would liken it to a foreign language.

Some of the words are Saxon in origin and still in daily usage. One of my Grandpapa's only spoke in dialect and two of my ancestors were Lancashire dialect poets.

Ewood, you have it backwards. It's always practice over here, whether doctor or piano, doing it or walking into it...

...and, because I started at the beginning today, this was originally a thread about spelling. It just got more complex and interesting as it wended its way here to page seven...