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 Sun Mar 30, 2008 12:46 pm What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| Quote: | I read though the letter and there's one thing that I think is worth our attention:
Quote:
Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels (look up "vocabulary"). Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.
It's about time many people broadened their vocabulary |
And did you not wonder what those twenty-seven words were? 
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Daemon99
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| Sun Mar 30, 2008 13:06 pm What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| daemon99 wrote: | By the way, have you guys read John Cleese's Letter to America? (google it)
I found it real funny. But then, I ain't no American  |
I'd seen that letter before (I received it as a forwarded email). I thought it was funny too. Of course, since I'm not a fan of George Bush, I was able to get past the first paragraph in a good mood. And looking up the word 'revocation' at onelook.com will provide you with an interesting little tidbit of information: You will find that none of the dictionaries listed in onelook's search results is British. (An indication, perhaps, that it is tough to find a Brit who is aware that this word even exists?)
I do see Jamie's point, though. The letter is full of stereotypes about the US that people who have never been to the US often believe to be the gospel truth. If I wrote something saying that all Germans wear Lederhosen and odd little hats with feathers in them, that wouldn't be very different. That would simply be a wild exaggeration.
Part of what I found funny about the letter is that the Brit who wrote it seemed to be poking fun at Britain too. I mean, don't you think it's at least a little bit ironic that a Brit would go to the trouble of complaining about the variant spelling of the word doughnut ('donut')? Doughnut is originally an American word, not a British one. So, why should the British give a hoot how we spell it? Instead of stealing our words and then complaining about the spelling, they should either invent their own words or just accept our spelling(s) if they can't think of a word of their own. 
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Yankee
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Lost_Soul
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| Sun Mar 30, 2008 14:16 pm What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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Hi Alex
Well, the top 27 most commonly used words in English (according to Wikipedia) are these:
the
be
to
of
and
a
in
that
have
I
it
for
not
on
with
he
as
you
do
at
this
but
his
by
from
they
we
Do you suppose those were the 27 words they meant? |
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Yankee
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Lost_Soul
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| Sun Mar 30, 2008 15:27 pm What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| daemon99 wrote: | | Quote: | | I found the letter in the "Urban Legends" section of About.com. Evidently, John Cleese didn't write it. |
Forget about John Cleese or the anonymous author, aren't there some American TV shows that try to make American people look stupid? |
There are American TV shows that, for shock value, show outrageously stupid individuals, so that Americans can either laugh or get disgusted and say to themselves, "Look at how stupid those people are." They're are not made so that people in Great Britain or India will look at the shows and generalize that ignorance and bad behavior to the entire American nation.
Think about it: If Americans in general were that ignorant, there wouldn't be any humor, shock value or titillation for the American audience in seeing that. It would be like having a TV show in India that shows people who can't read. Millions of people in India can't read, so there wouldn't be anything surprising or funny about it.
| daemon99 wrote: | I've seen The Tonight Show with Jay Leno , in which he asks people some really basic questions, so easy to answer, and they apparently fail to answer them.
For example, a couple of days ago, he asked, 'The ____ shall inherit the earth' and most of them couldn't answer. There are many such questions. I thought it was all made-up, just to make the show funny, but Jay says it's all real and none of it is cooked up. (I don't know if he's telling the truth) |
Again, think about it: That show is for Americans, not for foreigners. The reason Americans find it entertaining is that almost all of them know the answers to the questions. Besides that, the people asking the question know how to find the type of person who won't know the answer, and then they edit out the people who did know the answer.
Foreigners love that kind of show as long as the ignoramuses are American. However, I know of at least one country -- which prides itself on its excellent educational system and the intellectual superiority of its population -- where a TV network decided to produce the same kind of show using people from their own nation. There was a lot of hysterical outrage, claims that the show "wasn't fair", and other sorts of strident objections.
| daemon99 wrote: | | And why is there normally a British judge in shows related to singing/dance competitions? I sometimes watch American Idol and it seems Simon (an English guy) is the only judge who makes the final decision. There's a smilar show called Britain's Got Talent and they don't have any American judge in it. |
One reason is that many people flock from Britain to the US to work in the entertainment industry, but there's not much flow going in the opposite direction. So, in American idol, that Simon guy probably just happened to be one of the more qualified people in Los Angeles who they could pick up. He was so entertaining to the viewers that after that it became a formula to include a British guy on the panel.
Notice something else: Until 20 or 30 years ago, the Voice of God in American movies usually had a British accent. Not always, but usually. Now the Voice of God is almost always the black actor James Earl Jones, or another black actor who talks just like him. Why did God go from being British to being black? I have no idea.
| daemon99 wrote: | | But I read somewhere that American TV shows are more popular in England than British TV shows are in the US. |
In the first place, no country other than India, and maybe Hong Kong, has the massive nonstop TV production industry that the US has, so there are simply more American shows, bad or good. Secondly, British comedies are usually full of humor that Americans don't understand. For example, a lot of British comedy involves people trying to be polite in situations where we wouldn't see any reason to be polite. When they watch these shows, Americans don't understand what's going on, so they don't see the humor. British comedies also contain a lot of 1950s-style humor that Americans find so old that they don't think it's funny anymore -- most notably, men dressed up like women, or various things dropping down women's cleavage. The only British shows that really go over big in the US, other than an occasional spy series, are those grandiose, government-funded dramas set in Victorian England. |
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Jamie (K)
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| Sun Mar 30, 2008 16:45 pm What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| Quote: | | However, I know of at least one country -- which prides itself on its excellent educational system and the intellectual superiority of its population -- where a TV network decided to produce the same kind of show using people from their own nation. There was a lot of hysterical outrage, claims that the show "wasn't fair", and other sorts of strident objections. |
May I know the name of the show you are referring to?
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Daemon99
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| Sun Mar 30, 2008 16:52 pm What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| daemon99 wrote: | | Quote: | | However, I know of at least one country -- which prides itself on its excellent educational system and the intellectual superiority of its population -- where a TV network decided to produce the same kind of show using people from their own nation. There was a lot of hysterical outrage, claims that the show "wasn't fair", and other sorts of strident objections. |
May I know the name of the show you are referring to? |
It's called "Nikdo není dokonalý". |
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Jamie (K)
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| Sun Mar 30, 2008 22:33 pm What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| Quote: | | If, for example, a guy is a Marxist very committed to fighting for "the liberation of the working people", and he talks about it a lot, there's nothing odd about this (other than the fact that he's stupid enough to be a Marxist). |
Really? Who would be suited to fighting for "the liberation of the working people" then?
| Quote: | | You fit into this category. |
Hm, now what category do you fit into? Troll?
Your last paragraph is not reall worth the pixels it is written on. Your need to simplify a complex situation revelas a simple mind in itself. Try your trolling on others, mate. |
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Molly
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| Sun Mar 30, 2008 22:36 pm What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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Secondly, British comedies are usually full of humor that Americans don't understand.
Indeed. Just see what happened to The Office when it went Stateside. My Gawd! |
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Molly
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| Sun Mar 30, 2008 23:26 pm What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| Molly wrote: | | Quote: | | If, for example, a guy is a Marxist very committed to fighting for "the liberation of the working people", and he talks about it a lot, there's nothing odd about this (other than the fact that he's stupid enough to be a Marxist). |
Really? Who would be suited to fighting for "the liberation of the working people" then? |
Which "working people" do you want to liberate the Marxist way then?
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 Ralf
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| Sun Mar 30, 2008 23:29 pm What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| Molly wrote: | Secondly, British comedies are usually full of humor that Americans don't understand.
Indeed. Just see what happened to The Office when it went Stateside. My Gawd! |
You're jumping to conclusions again. I find the English Office funnier as well, but there are cultural dimensions, too. Imagine a sitcom from India making it big in Britain. Not really.
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Ralf
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| Mon Mar 31, 2008 7:08 am What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| Ralf wrote: | | You're jumping to conclusions again. I find the English Office funnier as well, but there are cultural dimensions, too. Imagine a sitcom from India making it big in Britain. Not really. |
What are you talking about, Ralf? I agreed with Jamie when he said this "British comedies are usually full of humor that Americans don't understand.". Now how is that "jumping to conclusions"? |
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Molly
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| Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:20 am What mistakes do people in your country think are correct? |
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| I'm American, and I get the English version of "The Office". I find it quite humorous. I'm not alone. Please don't make generalizations, of any type. It’s almost always incorrect, wrong and not factual. "Us" & "Them", "Left" & "Right", "Red & Blue". This type of labeling breeds ignorance, distrust, and prejudice. Russians aren't like this, Indians, aren't like that, Blacks aren't like this, Farmers aren't like that. It makes everything nice a neat and easy when people can be classified, sorted and shelved, but think where that leads, and think how that prevents your mind from creating new synapses to learn more and enrich itself. Just be careful, not just here, but in all facets of life. We all know or have known some elderly relatives and friends, ones who are so ingrained in the prejudices about life that they are unable to change. This is not a natural result of old age; it is however, a natural result of failing to open one's mind up to the ever changing carousel that is life. |
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Nomisyar
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| Do you enjoy watching NBA? | Are you using Internet forums in your native language? |
