Things Which Are Difficult To Explain

[ReZourceman]

 

No one seems to understand me.

[Ellmeister]

Maybe because half of my hair was blonde. I dyed it again though, should post a new pic soon. (Me.)

 

I can see it now that you've mentioned it and I saw the photo again.

 

I get conflicting opinions on my Essex accent. Some people saw it is strong, some people say you can hardly tell. I am not one of those with a "common" Essex accent, but a few of my double consonants get missed out apparently not that I notice.

 

Also my housemates constantly take the mickey when I say "girls" believe I say "gills" which isn't true :p

[The Bard]

Why do you sound American?

 

I have no answer to this, because I don't know. I can only speculate, and say its because I learnt English when I was 7 years old by watching The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Tru Fax.

 

Why are you such a belligerent hellian?

 

This is an exhausting question, mainly because its near impossible to recount all the myriad ways in which I'm better than you all.

[Diageo]

Why do you sound American?

 

I have no answer to this, because I don't know. I can only speculate, and say its because I learnt English when I was 7 years old by watching The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Tru Fax.

 

Why are you such a belligerent hellian?

 

This is an exhausting question, mainly because its near impossible to recount all the myriad ways in which I'm better than you all.

I get the same, your first question there. Although I think it was Blue's Clues that thought me the language.

[Ashley]

 

Throw into the mix that Ine is Belgium and we have all the colours of the rainbow.

 

You're a sickening Benetton advert is what you are!

 

I can see it now that you've mentioned it and I saw the photo again.

 

I get conflicting opinions on my Essex accent. Some people saw it is strong, some people say you can hardly tell. I am not one of those with a "common" Essex accent, but a few of my double consonants get missed out apparently not that I notice.

 

Also my housemates constantly take the mickey when I say "girls" believe I say "gills" which isn't true :p

 

Quick, say "water"!

[Ashley]

Double post!

 

I often have trouble trying to explain to people I have two different surnames (as in a legal one and one I use). People just never seem to get it. If I was a celebrity it would be fine but noooooo.

 

And one from today - trying to explain my relationship with Jodie. Its a friendship, its definitely not a "its complicated" thing. But the girl next to me at uni just couldn't understand. And I only said I'd seen her in states of undress (she was aware she did modelling, I didn't even mention the much more casual dress code at times) and she found it weird when I said I love her. What's wrong with that? I didn't even tell her half of it. We're just close but not in a relationship. You'd think being 2011 this wouldn't be so weird :p

[Nintendohnut]

"Why do you support Man Utd when you're southern, god you're such a glory hunter"

 

Then I have to explain that I was born in the north and both my parents and all my family are from the north, and that I moved south when I was very young and while it was entirely my decision to support them I liked them because my dad supported them and that's what you do when you're a kid because you're dad is awesome.

 

Then they ask why I don't have a nothern accent. That's a fucker as well. I have to explain that after years of ridicule from people like them I started to adopt a southern 'posh' accent and started pronouncing things WRONG in order to fit in, and that is why I don't sound like Liam Gallagher. Then they'll probably ask another question and my northern side will emerge as I punch them in the gut.

[Charlie]

Pretty much, with a few bells and whistles, for GCSE and below at least. Stupid.

 

I disagree. The majority of young people in the country today don't want to learn a language so teaching them only the main tourism needs of the language is better than teaching them the basics of how to learn the language properly which they'll never need.

 

 

I also regularly get asked why I'm so cool, awesome and good looking. But that's not really hard to explain.

[jayseven]

If you can speak two languages, then there's a fuckload of jobs for you. Here, American Express are looking for bilingual people to do simple call-centre work -- but just by speaking a 2nd language they'll be paid an extra 4k a year! There's a games testing company that needs bilinguals for in-game script proof-reading. Neither job requires any qualification, and both advertise experience in teh field as unnecessary (unlike the regular call-centre type AmEx job - you only need to speak english but unless you have extensive customer service records you're not going to stand out in the crowd of applicants!).

 

The majority of young people are idiots. Learning another language is a loaded skill that unlocks many doors, and even makes travelling less frightening. Learning about the world and the diversity of cultures is important for our society's -- our specie's soul.

 

Go be pretty somewhere else :P

[Aztec Rose]

'So, what have you been doing recently?' Leave me alone please.

[Ashley]

If you can speak two languages, then there's a fuckload of jobs for you. Here, American Express are looking for bilingual people to do simple call-centre work -- but just by speaking a 2nd language they'll be paid an extra 4k a year! There's a games testing company that needs bilinguals for in-game script proof-reading. Neither job requires any qualification, and both advertise experience in teh field as unnecessary (unlike the regular call-centre type AmEx job - you only need to speak english but unless you have extensive customer service records you're not going to stand out in the crowd of applicants!).

 

The majority of young people are idiots. Learning another language is a loaded skill that unlocks many doors, and even makes travelling less frightening. Learning about the world and the diversity of cultures is important for our society's -- our specie's soul.

 

Go be pretty somewhere else :P

 

I think part of the problem is how it is taught (yup, I'm blaming the system!). I remember when I was a nipper I used to get bored in languages because the teacher was droll, the delivery was painful and the actual vocab seemed shit ("The discotheque is the third turning on the left"). Plus we were only given French or German as options. And you begin at what, 11?

 

Now I really want to learn another language.

[Cube]

I think part of the problem is how it is taught (yup, I'm blaming the system!). I remember when I was a nipper I used to get bored in languages because the teacher was droll, the delivery was painful and the actual vocab seemed shit ("The discotheque is the third turning on the left"). Plus we were only given French or German as options. And you begin at what, 11?

 

Now I really want to learn another language.

 

Options? Options?

 

In my school half the school was allocated French, and the other half German.

 

And everyone had to do Welsh.

[Ashley]

Well you're Welsh. Expecting logic was overshooting in itself.

[Cube]

Speaking of the Welsh language, that's another thing I can't explain. It's a dead language. Keeping it alive costs money and does nothing but cause confusion. The way it's taught in schools also puts most students off the language.

 

I can understand a private group/organisation wanting to keep it alive for heritage and all that, but the government doing it is just...rubbish.

[MoogleViper]

Speaking of the Welsh language, that's another thing I can't explain. It's a dead language. Keeping it alive costs money and does nothing but cause confusion. The way it's taught in schools also puts most students off the language.

 

I can understand a private group/organisation wanting to keep it alive for heritage and all that, but the government doing it is just...rubbish.

 

Don't get me started on the Welsh language.

 

The morons are now complaining because Aber Uni's new Vice Chancellor doesn't speak Welsh.

[Supergrunch]

I disagree. The majority of young people in the country today don't want to learn a language so teaching them only the main tourism needs of the language is better than teaching them the basics of how to learn the language properly which they'll never need.

As jayseven has pointed out, languages are useful for getting jobs and so on, and also let you access a whole new body of literature, etc. But these points are largely qualitative and (perhaps) debateable, and not my point. Teaching someone tourist phrases is definitely not the best way to learn a language even for the purposes of being a tourist - if all you want are phrases, then you need a phrasebook, not a GCSE, and you'll end up in trouble if ever someone deviates from the script. Some simple knowledge of the structure of language is infinitely more helpful, even if you just want to ask for two beers. The repetition-based approach that seems to be lurking behind British language teaching is ultimately based on 50-year-old behaviouralist theories that have long since been abandoned.

Edited January 26, 2011 by Supergrunch

[Serebii]

Do progamming languages count? I'm fluent in several of those and they're more logical than most spoken languages

[Ellmeister]

I actually enjoy languages, so I decided to take up my spare 20credits of my 3rd year at Univeristy and do Spanish again!

 

Whilst it won't be at a high enough level to gain a job out of it, if I ever go abroad with KPMG or even for pleasure, hopefully it should help then!

 

I plan to learn more once I have more time in my future job.

 

 

And Charlie, I think most people are actually asking, why are you such a big liar? But you just hear what you want to hear

[Grazza]

I used to want to be a writer or writer/artist, but then I began to develop a fear of encouraging, influencing or generally having an effect on the world. It's not that I'm big-headed enough to presume I'd be successful, but let's face it, that's the aim.

 

Maybe I'm just weird, but I've yet to find anyone who understands where I'm coming from.

[Dannyboy-the-Dane]

I used to want to be a writer or writer/artist, but then I began to develop a fear of encouraging, influencing or generally having an effect on the world. It's not that I'm big-headed enough to presume I'd be successful, but let's face it, that's the aim.

 

Maybe I'm just weird, but I've yet to find anyone who understands where I'm coming from.

 

You're afraid what it might result in, if your influence might lead to something bad?

[EddieColeslaw]

I think part of the problem is how it is taught (yup, I'm blaming the system!). I remember when I was a nipper I used to get bored in languages because the teacher was droll, the delivery was painful and the actual vocab seemed shit ("The discotheque is the third turning on the left"). Plus we were only given French or German as options. And you begin at what, 11?

 

Now I really want to learn another language.

 

You should go for it. If you find a language that you're really motivated to learn and take an intensive course, you can learn much faster than sitting in school learning generic tourist phrases as a bored teenager. The real challenge seems to be maintaining languages learned

 

Do progamming languages count? I'm fluent in several of those and they're more logical than most spoken languages

 

What's the criteria for being considered fluent in a programming language?

[Ganepark32]

I get this a lot: Why do you still buy CDs when you can download stuff for free?

 

It's not that it's difficult to explain, it's more that no one understands. I tell them that I buy CDs because, as weird as it sounds, I like owning the physical product so it can be part of a physical collection and not some piece of data on a harddrive, although admittedly they end up there anyway as backup.

 

Also, trying to explain why I wanted to study Psychology after having previously studied Architectural Technology at college for 2 years, and getting a degree from it, and after having applied to the same Uni to study Architecture and not being accepted. That was a rather awkward moment in the phone interview I had. Still have difficulty explaining why I'm studying it to certain people. Think they just go along with it so I shut up I'd do the same if I had to listen to myself

[Ashley]

You should go for it. If you find a language that you're really motivated to learn and take an intensive course, you can learn much faster than sitting in school learning generic tourist phrases as a bored teenager. The real challenge seems to be maintaining languages learned

 

Oh I am going for it but its just having a set/structured time would help me personally. I'm trying to squeeze it into my life but I sleep for six hours a day, travel for 2, at uni for 9-12 hours, work on this place for about 2 which leaves very little time in the day.

[Serebii]

You should go for it. If you find a language that you're really motivated to learn and take an intensive course, you can learn much faster than sitting in school learning generic tourist phrases as a bored teenager. The real challenge seems to be maintaining languages learned

 

 

 

What's the criteria for being considered fluent in a programming language?

When your mind starts thinking in it, then you're fluent in it.

[Grazza]

You're afraid what it might result in, if your influence might lead to something bad?

 

Yes, on quite a few levels. Let's take the most extreme example - if someone copies a crime or act of violence they've seen in fiction, can we truly say the creator has no responsibility for it? Most people seem to say it's totally the responsibility of the wrongdoer, and make no mistake, I am not the sort of person to blame a computer game for someone's actions. That wouldn't stop me feeling guilty though.

 

Let's say I outline a vague scheme in a comic for a supervillain to destroy something. Obviously I wouldn't make it detailed enough to be useful to terrorists, but if my comic even gave the tiniest spark of inspiration for a real terrorist attack, I'd feel massively guilty. The first thing I decided was not to draw guns, but it's escalated from that.

 

Of course, all this makes me seem highly narcissistic, as though my work would be important enough for someone to copy. The less extreme (but more likely) outcome would be that I may encourage a child to be interested in a genre that is unsuitable for them. Whilst I enjoy a Roger Moore Bond film I don't really approve of how violent many films in that sort of genre are (heck, even one 007 film, Licence to Kill, is way too violent).

 

So the obvious thing would be to make my books really genteel and inoffensive, but then I always bring it back to the violence and the "action" sort of thing, leading me to think I sort of have a split-personality that pulls me both ways (though not in a mental illness way).

 

I probably need a shrink. Thanks for listening though.