General > General Technical Chat
No, you didn’t “reach out”, you CONTACTED them
tooki:
--- Quote from: themadhippy on September 25, 2021, 03:32:01 pm ---Bloody septics claiming to have invented english,just like they claimed to have invented the electric lamp,the computer , friendly fire and 101 other things that us brits done first.
--- End quote ---
The fact you think Americans claim to have invented all those things doesn’t mean we actually claimed it. (Not to mention that an individual’s false understanding doesn’t mean the entire country has it wrong.)
Not that anyone has ever claimed Americans “invented” English. For starters, it wasn’t invented by anyone, since natural languages evolve… naturally. Even if we use the word “invent” lazily to mean “created by any method, intentional or not”, still nobody would claim Americans invented it. We did, however, continue to use it as our native language.
And “septics”? ”Septic” has to do with infection. You probably meant to to write “sceptics” (“skeptics” in American orthography). But if anyone is denying the reality of how modern English came to be, and what it means to even be the English language, it’s the Brits who attack American English and pretend the UK has a monopoly on the English language.
Cerebus:
--- Quote from: tooki on September 25, 2021, 01:59:31 pm ---What I find curious is how fragile the British psyche must be, given how so many Brits take every opportunity they can to bash on American English (and American things in general).
--- End quote ---
That has nothing to do with the English, it's to do with a certain type of American who cannot resist telling everybody in the world, at every opportunity, that everything American is bigger, better, any positive superlative you like, than everything else in the world.You know the type, that cannot resist telling the English, the French, and anyone else that was involved, that "we saved your butts for you in WWII" conveniently forgetting that they were missing for the first half of the match. It's a reaction to that certain type of American. And it has nothing to do with the English, everybody in the world hates that kind of guy/gal and has it in for them. It only sticks out because if it was "that certain type of Bulgarian" nobody would notice.
It sticks out with the English and "English" because (1) the English character traditionally loathes a loudmouth and thinks they "need taking down a peg or two", (2) the language is called English and, rightly or wrongly, that lends a certain proprietorial air, (3) it's an easy target when dealing with the aforementioned type of loudmouth becuase, let's admit it, to that certain type of American syntax and semantics are the names of some villages in France.
TimFox:
And so, we see that “a certain type of American” and “a certain type of Englishman” are both jerks. The rest of us can get along.
tooki:
--- Quote from: Stray Electron on September 25, 2021, 03:58:47 pm ---
--- Quote from: eti on September 23, 2021, 12:31:36 am ---
might like to consider this for a second: if part of an English family emigrated to America in the 1800s, then years later, their descendants flew back to England, from America, and demanded instant English citizenship, can you see how that would turn out?
"But my great great grandfather was English, so I'm entitled, and technically I'm almost English by ancestry"
Yeah? NO.
--- End quote ---
What's your point? AFIK, the same applies whether the descendants were American or not; or if the originating country was England or any other country.
I'm not aware of any country that would allow immigration or citizenship based solely on someone's far removed ancestry.
--- End quote ---
Depends on how far removed “far” is! Italy, for example, has a quite generous rule that theoretically goes back indefinitely: https://www.esteri.it/mae/en/servizi/stranieri/cittadinanza_0.html
tooki:
--- Quote from: Cerebus on September 25, 2021, 04:00:37 pm ---
--- Quote from: tooki on September 25, 2021, 01:59:31 pm ---What I find curious is how fragile the British psyche must be, given how so many Brits take every opportunity they can to bash on American English (and American things in general).
--- End quote ---
That has nothing to do with the English, it's to do with a certain type of American who cannot resist telling everybody in the world, at every opportunity, that everything American is bigger, better, any positive superlative you like, than everything else in the world.You know the type, that cannot resist telling the English, the French, and anyone else that was involved, that "we saved your butts for you in WWII" conveniently forgetting that they were missing for the first half of the match. It's a reaction to that certain type of American. And it has nothing to do with the English, everybody in the world hates that kind of guy/gal and has it in for them. It only sticks out because if it was "that certain type of Bulgarian" nobody would notice.
It sticks out with the English and "English" because (1) the English character traditionally loathes a loudmouth and thinks they "need taking down a peg or two", (2) the language is called English and, rightly or wrongly, that lends a certain proprietorial air, (3) it's an easy target when dealing with the aforementioned type of loudmouth becuase, let's admit it, to that certain type of American syntax and semantics are the names of some villages in France.
--- End quote ---
Believe me, I know and detest that “certain type of American” as much as you do! (They’re the ones who’ve called me “euro trash” and accuse me of not being a “patriot” because I won’t kowtow to their indiscriminate, uninformed belief in the USA being #1 in all things past, present, and future.)
However, the British ragging on American English sadly has precious little to do with that, as it’s brought up regularly in the total absence of any “certain type of Americans”. Literally just encountering a (perceived) Americanism is can be enough to trigger an outburst.
I find it amusing that the British worry about boorish Americans, when meanwhile, the rest of Europe worries about boorish Brits!
Things would be so much nicer if the British would accept that the US and the UK are peas in a pod, that we are far more alike than we are different. Alas, the deference and admiration most Americans have for the UK is most decidedly not reciprocated.
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