4 hours ago, LHookins said:

The bee image in the urinal was to, um, improve aim. 😄 

Hook

Don't lick the urinal cakes! 🙄

1 hour ago, birdguy said:

The wing commander admonished the squadron commanders to tell their fighter pilots to stand a little closer, that they weren't as well endowed as they thought they were. 

I once saw signs in the Men's room hanging over the urinals:

WE AIM TO PLEASE;

YOU AIM TOO PLEASE!

5 hours ago, Chock said:

However, to many Americans, fake cockney is one of two acceptable accents for Brits. You can either be a salt of the Earth working class type of the kind Dick Van Dyke is (badly) trying to emulate in Mary Poppins, i.e. 'Cor bleedin' bloymey Guv'nor, I ain't not never dun nuffin, so I haint!'

Here is something that has puzzled me for years. Why is it that all but one of the "cartoon owls" used in commercials have a fake English accent? Is this supposed to make them sound wiser?

The one exception is a "owl" for a chain of vision clinics, who speaks with a typical Midwestern American accent.

1 hour ago, n4gix said:

Here is something that has puzzled me for years. Why is it that all but one of the "cartoon owls" used in commercials have a fake English accent? Is this supposed to make them sound wiser?

One small company I worked for looked for and found a receptionist who had a British accent, to make the company sound higher class.  She was from East Anglia.

Hook

On 8/8/2020 at 2:02 AM, G-RFRY said:

but struggle with some northern tongue "put lod in pot" around the Darwin area.   

Darwen  That's why you struggled, I think, expecting an Australian accent.

I only speak English, but I have been known to talk BS now and again

A friend flew from Sydney to Los Angeles. He took a taxi from LAX to his hotel. Just to make a little conversation the the taxi driver asked him where he was from. My friend told him he was from Australia and this was his first trip to the USA. He was congratulated by the driver on being able to speak "pretty good" English seeing as how he had only been in the country for a few hours. True story..........Doug

It's embarrassing to listen to many English people that don't even speak their own language properly. One example might be to pronounce "something" with a K on the end so as to sound like "some-think".

Edited August 10, 20205 yr by SteveW

1 hour ago, SteveW said:

It's embarrassing to listen to many English people that don't speak even speak their own language properly

Or write it!

Dave.

Typos like that are not embarrassing. However perhaps I hit a nerve then Dave - hopefully you don't pronounce the invisible K?

...Back on the spirit of the discussion I was referring to certain traits of the English language being misleading. My example was the mistake of interpreting "something" pronounced with an ending K as "some people think" rather than actually interpreting as "some entity". Whereas in some areas of the UK we might hear sounding a G on the end which is more to do with localisation dialect. I notice well educated people pronouncing that invisible K even though it is not spelled that way. Regarding typos, editing and not realising some words have not been selected fully with poorly aimed mouse dragging and dropping, my guilt is not reading back thoroughly which is a mistake I make all the time in casual forum posts. I have written that 1000 times which I hope will compensate for the unintended error.

During my schooldays I often went abroad and spoke with German, French, Dutch and Italian people and managed to learn a little of those languages. I have no real recollection of that little bit of language now. I stayed with a Dutch couple for fishing trips in the Italian lakes and never got to grips with their language although they spoke English superbly. When travelling abroad and mixing in, I usually felt that I was the least educated of the group.

One time on a French railway station I was obviously looking lost, a female attendant came up to me and spoke English right off the bat, I suppose I could not be mistaken for anything but British. She asked me where I was going but I said I was looking looking for the toilet. She showed me where to go and added that in future to be polite I should ask for the cloakroom or lavatory instead.

2 hours ago, SteveW said:

She showed me where to go and added that in future to be polite I should ask for the cloakroom or lavatory instead.

Fascinating! As I mentioned, in Canada, "toilet" sounds so direct--seems that way in France--at least, in English in France. 🙂

As it was in France, the same can be said for English-speaking Canada: to be polite, it's best to ask for the washroom, not the toilet. Also, if you ask for the restroom, you'll probably mark yourself as an American.

My first day in Geneva as I was waiting for a train to Aigle to catch the cogwheel railway to my new school in Leysin-Fedey, I politely asked a porter at the train station where I could find the "salle de bain".

He looked at me curiously, then politely and somewhat stiffly replied in English "Sir, we have no public baths in the train station. If you are asking for a place to pee, try asking for the 'cabinet de toilette', or simply the 'cabinet'.

23 minutes ago, n4gix said:

He looked at me curiously, then politely and somewhat stiffly replied in English "Sir, we have no public baths in the train station. If you are asking for a place to pee, try asking for the 'cabinet de toilette', or simply the 'cabinet'.

I can see that bloke now, clear as day. He was the same one who was a wine waiter at a very nice restaurant that I took a young lady to, in order to impress her (I'm going red at the memory) I had just gone 17 and of course what I didn't know wasn't worth knowing.

The wine was brought to the table (I chose one just above the halfway price) he poured some as you do and I went to pass judgement. I looked at it, then looked up at him and said with great authority "This wine is corked" He took the glass, looked at it, then looked at me. "No Sir, it has cork in it" 

Yeah well, don't do it again. ( wish I could have said that)

Never saw the girl again oddly enough.

On 8/10/2020 at 12:53 PM, SteveW said:

One example might be to pronounce "something" with a K on the end so as to sound like "some-think".

Or even worse.. "sumfink" (eugh..)