I’m very fond of the English language, especially when hearing it from one of the great British actors. My daughter is leaning towards the US, though. Much like I did when I was a teenager. She has watched all her tv-shows with both English sound and text since she was 11, and practices to «be an American» when she thinks I’m not listening. With time, she will learn to appreciate her Scandinavian heritage, I think. She always wants to hear a story. I told her about her great-great grandfather who was among those who volunteered to stand border watch towards Sweden in 1905, and got one of the 28 000 2kr Independence with crossed guns. She liked that, and wanted to see the coin. Progress.
Congratulations!!! As you're clearly well aware, American culture, much like the language, is inexhaustibly varied ...for good and ill!
In the lab where I work, at a major research university with international reach, I am definitely in the minority as a native speaker of English. I am regularly impressed by how my colleagues, in addition to mastering very complex scientific and medical knowledge, also manage to express those concepts in quite good English. True, some are more proficient than others, but all are managing some impressive ability. I've worked with native speakers of Japanese, Mandarin, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Korean, Farsi, Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian, Serbian, Dutch, Portuguese, Thai, and probably some that I'm forgetting, and all of them spoke English better than I spoke their languages. I've also been in the reverse situation while traveling and trying to use my very limited Spanish or Italian (or whatever phrases I could remember of any other language), and understand how frustrating it can be to be unable to express your thoughts to the people around you in anything but "baby-talk", if that. So, thank you to everyone who is struggling with their English- you're probably doing better than you think, and we (speaking on behalf of all Anglophones) appreciate your effort.
I have blessed with having traveled to several countries throughout the world for business. I tried to learn a little history, culture, and pleasantries within their language. I was fascinated that ENGLISH was the Lingua Franca of the Business world. However, it was fun to hear how many were speaking American English vs. English English when I met with folks. Generally, I felt it was 50/50 split. But, was fun to muse.
...As with that much truly great humor (Richard Pryor, Russian jokes from the Soviet era....), part of what makes them so funny is the sheer unblinking Truthfulness of what they're talking about.
LOL, Yakov was AWESOME. I was in my undergrad years with many Russians my age attending school with me. (Cultural exchange programs) They were all hilarious with their jokes and wit!
Just bringing this thread back to page 1, in case any new members want to show us the person behind their moniker. Which is always nice.
I have already introduced myself sometime earlier in this thread, and I would encourage others to do the same. We have a lot of very interesting people here who have yet to say hello and explain themselves a bit. No need to completely blow your cover or commit any security lapses, just a vague story will do.
may as well do a bit of a timeline Grandfather=USN SeaBee.. Electric boat.. metal fabricator (COIN COLLECTOR) Memere' (grandmother) Superwoman... Flapper, Mill worker, bakery owner, seamstress and made the best french meat pie on earth (don't even try to argue lol) Mom Superwoman as well raised 3 hellions and was VP of Statewide Insurance in RI at a time most women still didn't work. Father=US Marine sgt... Federal Products Eng.. (makers of precision measurement devices) Me HS Nerd/computer geek I'm talking punch cards and paper ribbon drives here lol (they will never amount to anything nope nope lol) Associates degree, J&W culinary arts (block island/NH ski seasonal work) USN Desert Storm vet.. BM2 USS Pensacola and BeachMaster Unit 2 Fisherman, squidboat on east coast 3yrs 1 season crab west coast (never again lol) Son born.. Associates degree metal fabrication.. 2yrs semi freelance silver work in RI some small gold.. (More block island/NH ski seasonal work) Associates degree Computer science (Cabletron, NTPSoftware, Sunlight Software) more computer certs then i can count including MSP Cisco Ctron etc etc.. 5yrs CnC coder/eng/machinist/tool room Thompson center Arms. Medicaly retired at 40 VA Disability 10+ years of idiotic quack Drs doing nothing of any real help.. fishing (recreational) and yardwork later we about up to now ... Lots and lots of stuff left out but should explain alot of my oddities And Oh yeah... I paid off every damn one of my student loans by working my arse off doing whatever work i could find! Oops left out coin interests lol Ok I'm a bit of a copper freak, love my large cents and small cent as well as colonial copper.. otherwise a bit of silver a bit of gold.. will complete a 7070 one of these days lol
Since many new members have joined the board since this thread was resurrected (April 2021), why not re-resurrect it
Good idea, hope more CT members will introduce themselves. I just notice the word "supporter" is not there under my avatar. Seems like just a few months ago I crossed Pedro's palm with some argent. I must go check that out. Meanwhile, I am still me, slightly wacko and generally unfailingly polite (on here).
Dummy me, there it is. Almost 100F here today, again. Hoping for a nice rain shower and some cooler winds.