British English

[GM1985]

He totally butchers every one. lol

Yeah unfortunately, I can't tell lol. You'd think he would make sure he could do accurate accents if he is going to post a video on the web

[belamo]

[belamo]

Does everybody understand everything that she is singing?

[Keelandson]

Does everybody understand everything that she is singing?

Not a clue, but it was made in 1929, so it's Middle English.

[pat grimshaw]

loveland... lists of lovers

[borg69unimatrix]

Does everybody understand everything that she is singing?

I couldn't understand one word... if you call that singing.

To me, it sounded like a cat in heat being fucked by a monkey.

[belamo]

To me, it sounded like a cat in heat being fucked by a monkey.

That's exactly how English sounds to Spaniards... although it's true that it applies more to BBC or genteel British English than to other varieties.

[belamo]

^I've wondered about that, belamo.

While we accept the fact that Spanish sounds harsh to English-speakers, what must English sound like to Spanish-speaking people?

Probably not too pleasant, to say the least.

Oh, like there were some standard sort of English and the accent of virtually every single English-speaker didn't sound harsh to their neighbo(u)r...



even sixty years after the fall of The Empire... things continue the same either side of the Pond.

[Keelandson]

even sixty years after the fall of The Empire... things continue the same either side of the Pond.

Next world language up to bat — Mandarin.

[belamo]

Next world language up to bat — Mandarin.

Bah... putonghua will never become 普通 話: globally, it will remain 不懂話 or, rather, 不聽話

But thirty years from now, this list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ative_speakers will be very much like this one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...lation_in_1900 today

[pat grimshaw]

I will be dead soon.

[belamo]

I will be dead soon.

Where are you going? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_...ture_and_story

BTW, I know I asked it and received an answer in some previous thread, but nobody said anything about 00:18-00:19 in Donohoe's clip above.

[pat grimshaw]

No, I'm a Protestant who'll be turning to dust 'on the Mountain on the island on the far side of the world' but I'd love you to guide me through 'the depths, the undergloom, the seven terraces and the nine celestial spheres'.

[belamo]

I doubt it, Keelandson; Mandarin's too difficult. (I for one would be delighted, though, because Mandarin's delightfully complex.)

No it's not. It's not intrinsically complex, it's just as strange to Westerners as Spanish or Arabic or Hungarian or Farsi is to the Chinese themselves, but that is the sort of stupid myths that makes nations feel idiotically special and proud of themselves, ignoring the right reasons and way of being proud of themselves.
It's like when women feel the need to BELIEVE that they are more attractive and intelligent by nature, and that they somehow actually rule the world by "influence", so that they can endure being effectively screwed by men who opiate them with that blinding belief.

[belamo]

No, I'm a Protestant who'll be turning to dust 'on the Mountain on the island on the far side of the world' but I'd love you to guide me through 'the depths, the undergloom, the seven terraces and the nine celestial spheres'.

[GM1985]

Where are you going? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_...ture_and_story

BTW, I know I asked it and received an answer in some previous thread, but nobody said anything about 00:18-00:19 in Donohoe's clip above.

If you're talking about the first thing she said, it was "I can't either, although I'm terribly, terribly proud..."

[belamo]

I don't know, Belamy.

I remember reading about the man who'd taught himself to speak the most amount of languages in the world, who confidently asserted that Mandarin Chinese was the hardest. It's tonal; many Americans, including myself, cannot even hear all of the tones. Moveover, it uses an extremely complex pictographical system for writing, that even the most optimistic professors assert takes three years even for minimal fluency.

To be fair, the grammar is extremely easy.

I'm going to go off on a tangent right now. Please indulge me.

I've heard that a new system of teaching languages involves listening to 1000 hours of the target language, before being allowed to speak a single word. This method, which is currently only used to speak Thai, is supposed to help an adult student reach near-native fluency. I believe it's called Automated Language Learning.

It'd be interesting to try this method with Mandarin Chinese. I believe it'd probably be the single most effective method.

At any rate...back to the topic...

Ziad Fazah, I know about him, and he's not the real proficient polyglot he aparently claimed to be (remember that show in Argentina, and how he needs to review the grammar of the languages before being tested in a show): if you were really that gifted and proficient you bet you would be doing something useful with all that knowledge.
He said that it was the most difficult for him, for the reasons explained above... remember he supposedly "learnt" most of all those languages when he was about 14. I could say that the most difficult one to learn for me was German because it was actually the first language that I learnt which was not some dialect of Latin, or half a dialect of Latin and half a kid's game, like English, even though I started learning it almost ten years before Chinese. I wonder what language would consider the biggest Chinese polyglot in the world as the most difficult to learn.
You start communicating in "Mandarin" more easily and speedily than in German, because Chinese grammar (in all its dialects) is even more simple than English grammar. They also say English has "lost of exceptions" in its grammar and you don't hear say "oh English is such a difficult language (well, except among Spaniards: it's the official national pending coursework), not to speak of all that stupid complication of sounds, vowels and what not that are responsible for all English speakers creating a dialect of their own: granted, it's not as crucial to understanding as Chinese tones but, still, it's much simple and easier to speak decent Chinese than accpetable English.

[belamo]

If you're talking about the first thing she said, it was "I can't either, although I'm terribly, terribly proud..."

No, I meant what the tidy Dumbledore said to her that made her half retch, half laugh.

[asadoyayunta]

No, I meant what the tidy Dumbledore said to her that made her half retch, half laugh.

"Yet going back to Mrs Robinson, a glimpse of a nude woman for 25 seconds and it's front page news"

they had presumably been talking about the stage production of The Graduate in which, I think, Jerry Hall appeared naked on stage.

[belamo]

"Yet going back to Mrs Robinson, a glimpse of a nude woman for 25 seconds and it's front page news"

they had presumably been talking about the stage production of The Graduate in which, I think, Jerry Hall appeared naked on stage.

But how can be a glimpse 25 seconds long? Even ironically said, it doesn't make sense to me. See how a foreigner can never be quite sure that he is hearing right?

[belamo]

That phrase doesn't appear in the lyrics available online: "He's no puss","he's no poo"?

[star-warrior]

He's no fool?

[belamo]

He's no fool?

That should be it, but it just seemed to me as stupid as the options I gave above Very fitting in the whole lyrics, but still...

[star-warrior]

That should be it, but it just seemed to me as stupid as the options I gave above Very fitting in the whole lyrics, but still...

I like how your mind went to 'poo'.

[belamo]

I like how your mind went to 'poo'.

Using my poor and slightly prejudiced knowledge of the Anglo language and fetishes
Give me a [ph'], give me a [ouo], give me British: poo.

[pat grimshaw]

most of the contestants in the Eurovision contest are singing in English !

[asadoyayunta]

That phrase doesn't appear in the lyrics available online: "He's no puss","he's no poo"?

Don't see what this has to do with British English, since that is Dionne Warwick singing.

[EwanSF]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h3j44ckt-E[/ame]

[Keelandson]

^^^ Ach, jings! Only Oor Wullie would understand it.

[belamo]

Don't see what this has to do with British English, since that is Dionne Warwick singing.

Nothing, I simply use this thread to ask for help when there is some section of English speech that I can't understand
But if that's not enough for you, you can always think of how British 007 is, although there are chances that you won't accept that either

[Keelandson]

But if that's not enough for you, you can always think of how British 007 is, although there are chances that you won't accept that either

Ah. yes, do your duty: Lie back, close your eyes and think of England.

[belamo]

Ah. yes, do your duty: Lie back, close your eyes and think of England.

[GM1985]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h3j44ckt-E

This is the funniest thing I've seen in ages XD "It's not my fault you're a rug muncher" XD

[belamo]

cf. #139

[pat grimshaw]

^
who's that guy in the front row?

[belamo]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-t...ords/prat.html
http://www.merriam-webster.com/top-t...ockalorum.html

[godson112]

Oh god are we that hard to understand?

Is that why you kicked Cheryl Cole off X Factor?

[star-warrior]

Oh god are we that hard to understand?

Is that why you kicked Cheryl Cole off X Factor?

Interviews with americans which appeared on the BBC tv news about this all said that they found it hard because they had to 'concentrate' to understand the jist of what she was saying...

Go america!

[EwanSF]

This is the funniest thing I've seen in ages XD "It's not my fault you're a rug muncher" XD

The whole fuckin series is a belter, but that ones the best. "Meanwhile, In Dundee...."

[GM1985]

The whole fuckin series is a belter, but that ones the best. "Meanwhile, In Dundee...."

I know, I sat and watched all of them the day I saw that one. The party planning one was funny XD

[belamo]

Anybody understands what Lupe is saying in 4:31-35?

[unloadonme]

Anybody understands what Lupe is saying in 4:31-35?

With that amount of screeching, it must be Scottish.

[GM1985]

With that amount of screeching, it must be Scottish.

Certainly not any Scottish accent I've ever heard.

[LilBit]

It sounded similar to Yosemite Sam's gibberish. I wouldn't be surprised if she were just yelling nonsense words so that the film wouldn't be censored for profanity.

[belamo]

It sounded similar to Yosemite Sam's gibberish. I wouldn't be surprised if she were just yelling nonsense words so that the film wouldn't be censored for profanity.

Someone has commented that she actually had said "son of *****" in that movie, and I wanted to know whether it was in that scene and whether it was true.

[belamo]

Last mumbling in this one is WHAT!?

[pat grimshaw]

The church is strict. You'll have to release me.

[belamo]

The church is strict. You'll have to release me.

Not that one, silly, the one below. What you hear while watching Hugh Grant's monkey face. And I'm not sure it's "strict" what Scudds says in the other, but it doesn't matter.

[GM1985]

Not that one, silly, the one below. What you hear while watching Hugh Grant's monkey face. And I'm not sure it's "strict" what Scudds says in the other, but it doesn't matter.

Pretty sure it's "How've you been lad?"

[belamo]

Pretty sure it's "How've you been lad?"

Oh, thank you! So that's why it sounded to me something like: "mOmmmmmmmEdwArD?"