Counting On, Season 4 Part 2: Still Far Behind Real Life

[saintmom]

 

HAD to.  Just HAD to.

 

I'm frequently asked if I know that guy Bill who lives out west  in Canada when we visit my American side of the family.  And I love the pretty colours of our money!

 

I also have four RCMP officers that live on my street.  Needless to say it's not difficult to stare when they cut their lawns.  (and no, they don't do it in their red serge.)

[sansan]

PASTA, I swoon for accents. I'm from IL but went to Texas this past August and a gentleman called me ma'am. Lord have mercy, y'all. I couldn't handle it. I asked him to say it three times total. Heaven.

I get it, I have been a Texan all my life and I still love hearing it. You should be in Houston during the Rodeo, the guys try to out "Southern Charm" each other. And oh yeah, the tight jeans, LAWD!

[Playagirl]

1 hour ago, saintmom said:

 

HAD to.  Just HAD to.

 

I'm frequently asked if I know that guy Bill who lives out west  in Canada when we visit my American side of the family.  And I love the pretty colours of our money!

 

I also have four RCMP officers that live on my street.  Needless to say it's not difficult to stare when they cut their lawns.  (and no, they don't do it in their red serge.)

Yes but do they ride their horses to work???

Seriously, though, I agree with all of this.  I've been asked numerous times if I know Bob from out west, or Joe from somewhere near some big lake. Or how it must be great to get away from the snow when I'm on vacation in the States in July.

I love our pretty money too, though the new polymer bills stick together way too much. It's definitely easier to pull out the right denomination without having to read the number in the corner. I always have trouble paying for stuff in the US as I have to examine the bills closely to make sure I'm handing over enough.

Timmies is vastly overrated, and I hate poutine (ducks for cover from enraged Canadian FJ'rs). I do wear a tuque,  though, and I love snowshoeing.  

[VelociRapture]

Husband and I had poutine for the first time this weekend. There was a stand selling it at a big agricultural fair in my state, I thought of this thread, and basically thought, "Fuck it. Let's do this!"

It had a bit too much cheese for our taste, but the fries were great. And yes, it was brown gravy. All in all, we both agree we need to try it in Canada before firmly deciding if we are pro or anti Poutine (we're leaning pro. Me more so than husband. He wasn't too sure about the whole potato, gravy, cheese thing. Lol!)

As for regional issues - Connecticut isn't that hard to say. Or spell. And yes, we're small, but it's not that hard to remember that we actually exist. 

(That last one goes double for Rhode Island, home of delicious Del's Lemonade and the magical land of Block Island!)

[SapphireSlytherin]

4 minutes ago, VelociRapture said:

a bit too much cheese

I can't be your friend anymore.

[SapphireSlytherin]

15 minutes ago, VelociRapture said:

Connecticut isn't that hard to say

I say kuh-NEDD-uh-kut

You?

[nastyhobbitses]

There's apparently a restaurant in Montreal called Vladimir's Poutine. I want to start a GoFundMe page about how the Lord is calling me to Montreal to win souls. And  by win souls I mean eat at this restaurant.

Also, re accents: my boyfriend is a London boy born and bred, and I always want to call him on Skype just to hear him talk. I love what he has to say and I love just being with him, but goddamn if I don't want to listen to his accent all day long.

[SapphireSlytherin]

2 minutes ago, nastyhobbitses said:

Also, re accents: my boyfriend is a London boy born and bred, and I always want to call him on Skype just to hear him talk. I love what he has to say and I love just being with him, but goddamn if I don't want to listen to his accent all day long.

Sadly, one day you'll no longer "hear" his accent (assuming your relationship moves forward). Until he throws a random, yet-unheard Brit-ism at you in the middle of a discussion... lol

[VelociRapture]

15 minutes ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

I can't be your friend anymore.

I don't want to be friends with me either. I felt dirty typing that. 

5 minutes ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

I say kuh-NEDD-uh-kut

You?

Close. I pronounce the middle t as a "t" though, not as the double t/double d sound.

This website has the best explanation. Just look under the heading for English for the pronunciation. 

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Connecticut

[Jinder Roles]

@VelociRaptureMy dad pronounces Connectiut as it's spelt, I've corrected him but he has a hard time with it. It's all relative I guess. 

Can anyone tell me why the middle 'c' in Connecticut isn't pronounced?

 

[Carm_88]

1 hour ago, Playagirl said:

Seriously, though, I agree with all of this.  I've been asked numerous times if I know Bob from out west, or Joe from somewhere near some big lake. Or how it must be great to get away from the snow when I'm on vacation in the States in July.

"Oh you're from Newfoundland? You must know Jim..." Never mind that Jim is from the west coast near Corner Brook and I am born and bred on the East Coast.  Smile and nod and pretend to know what they're saying. 

[nastyhobbitses]

39 minutes ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

Sadly, one day you'll no longer "hear" his accent (assuming your relationship moves forward). Until he throws a random, yet-unheard Brit-ism at you in the middle of a discussion... lol

I lived in London for a year, and may move back because my job might transfer me (visa gods willing...helps that my job pays really well and I'm white and speak English as my native language). Never really tired of the accent(s). It was fun to guess where in the UK people were from based on accents. I studied Linguistics while over there, and while accents weren't my research focus, they did come up in my classes, so I did pay extra attention to them when I was out and about. It was pretty funny to hear people there say that I sounded very obviously like I was from New York, even though I don't think my accent sounds very stereotypical or even very regional one way or another (born in Manhattan, raised in Connecticut).

[VelociRapture]

40 minutes ago, Jinder Roles said:

@VelociRaptureMy dad pronounces Connectiut as it's spelt, I've corrected him but he has a hard time with it. It's all relative I guess. 

Can anyone tell me why the middle 'c' in Connecticut isn't pronounced?

 

I'm not sure. Connecticut is derived from the Mohican language, so I would guess it has to do with that. 

And on a separate note - it bothers me when people from Asian countries feel like they have to use a Western name if they move here. I have no problem if someone chooses to do so because they want to, but it bothers me that some people feel like they have no choice. 

I know next to nothing about the many languages spoken throughout Asia, but I'm more than happy to at least try to learn someone's name and how to pronounce it. 

[HarryPotterFan]

1 hour ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

I can't be your friend anymore.

Me neither, @VelociRapture. What is this nonsense, too much cheese...

[Playagirl]

40 minutes ago, Carm_88 said:

"Oh you're from Newfoundland? You must know Jim..." Never mind that Jim is from the west coast near Corner Brook and I am born and bred on the East Coast.  Smile and nod and pretend to know what they're saying. 

I went to Newfoundland on vacation 3 years ago. We only had about 10 days and it wasn't anywhere nearly enough to see everything. I gotta say, you guys have some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever laid eyes on, and some of the friendliest people I've ever met.  You couldn't pay me to eat cod tongues and scrunchions though.

[Lizzybet]

On 9/22/2017 at 4:03 PM, SapphireSlytherin said:

Oh, but when you're Southern, you get this ALL the time. And the worst part is the fake Southern accents in movies/tv shows.

It doesn't make it okay. My BFF has a VERY PRONOUNCED southern drawl and it's charming. Some people 'dese, dem, and dose' with me. I don't say those things, nor do I know anyone who does. The implication is New Yorkers are stoopid.

My father had a very thick central Italy accent, and my mother a barely discernible Belfast, N.I. brogue. I don't recall them being made fun of.

Ever.

[nastyhobbitses]

10 minutes ago, VelociRapture said:

I'm not sure. Connecticut is derived from the Mohican language, so I would guess it has to do with that. 

And on a separate note - it bothers me when people from Asian countries feel like they have to use a Western name if they move here. I have no problem if someone chooses to do so because they want to, but it bothers me that some people feel like they have no choice. 

I know next to nothing about the many languages spoken throughout Asia, but I'm more than happy to at least try to learn someone's name and how to pronounce it. 

Lived in China for a while and speak Chinese. It does seem to be getting slightly less popular to default to picking a Western name as it once was, as people learn to pronounce Chinese names and get more familiar with them because of Chinese celebrities who don't use Western names (Yao Ming, Zhang Ziyi, Jiang Wen, Liu Wen, Fan Bingbing, etc.), but it's still around. Sometimes it's due to pronunciation (there are some sounds in Mandarin that don't exist in English, and tonality makes a difference) and eliminating confusion on last names/first names (last name comes first, so Liu Wen's first name is Wen, and her last name is Liu, but unless you were close enough to her to call her by a nickname like Wen Jie (Big Sister Wen), Ah Wen, or Xiao Wen (Little Wen), you'd just call her by her full name because it's just two syllables - if someone's first name is two syllables, like Zhang Ziyi, you could get away with calling her Ziyi instead of her full name), but a few of my Chinese friends genuinely enjoyed picking out English names that fit their personalities and interests. On the flip side, I chose the first Chinese name I used from a movie I really liked (Jiazhen, which was the name of a character in my favorite Chinese movie, To Live, which I highly recommend), but my Mandarin teacher the next year overrode me and assigned me a new name. I used that in China because it's three characters instead of lord knows how many it would take to Sinicize my legal name (which has a lot of sounds/consonant combinations that simply don't occur in Chinese) and far easier to pronounce.

[SapphireSlytherin]

I had a Korean co-worker whose name, though spelled in an "odd" way, was pronounced very much like a common English/American name. Her brother, OTOH, had a name that was virtually impossible for Americans to pronounce, so he chose "Bobby" as an "American name" when he was here visiting her. I did try, multiple times, to pronounce his real name, and he'd just laugh and laugh at my horrible attempts. When the sounds made by tongue/teeth/lips combo are something that you're not raised with, it's hard yall.

[Scottie]

To weigh in on the bagged milk topic from several pages ago. I'm in Alberta and I have never seen bagged milk, I've always had it in either a carton or a jug. And as far as accents are concerned, I've always felt mine is pretty neutral - until I'm around my mother's family in England (Isle of Wight and SE London) then I hate my accent....

[rexasaurus_nirb]

20 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

I’m glad you mentioned the variety of accents in the UK. My FIL is East London, my MIL is South West. My sister-in-law is from East Anglia. 

I have trouble understanding FIL on the phone. MIL has perfected a non-South-West accent and sounds precisely like Hyacinth Bucket. I have to bite my tongue to stop myself asking about her hand-painted periwinkles. 

There are just as many regional accents in the UK as in the USA. And yeah, some shows do add subtitles for particularly difficult accents. To be fair, TLC will often subtitle the Duggars’ words too. The Honey BooBoo show was always subtitled due to their very thick Southern accents. 

 

I often answer the phone with her lovely line, "Bucket residence, lady of the house speaking." Lovely and underrated show here in the US of A. 

 

As for accents, I'm told I have a NJ accent and say certain things "funny" such as button or Manhattan. Maybe it's true? Other Jersey folk (from the North), you get the same thing? 

[Scottie]

@sapphireslytherin @rexasaurus_nirb I LOVE Keeping Up Appearances!!

[SapphireSlytherin]

9 minutes ago, Scottie said:

@sapphireslytherin @rexasaurus_nirb I LOVE Keeping Up Appearances!!

I did too, until I got Hyacinth as a MIL. Imagine, if you will, how that must be? It's far worse.

[rexasaurus_nirb]

7 minutes ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

I did too, until I got Hyacinth as a MIL. Imagine, if you will, how that must be? It's far worse.

I've thought about this scenario and realized I'd end up having to live off the grid, and even then, I would somehow end up at a damned candlelight dinner... #nightmares

 

Thoughts are with you @SapphireSlytherin lol

[zenbaby]

1 hour ago, Carm_88 said:

"Oh you're from Newfoundland? You must know Jim..." Never mind that Jim is from the west coast near Corner Brook and I am born and bred on the East Coast.  Smile and nod and pretend to know what they're saying. 

Many years ago I was on an architectural study tour in Bordeaux & Périgord with participants mainly from Europe.  There were also 2 Americans.  The one guy, upon meeting me, and hearing I was from Canada, asked, "Oh do you know So&so?"

As it turns out I did.   Dammit.  Hate it when that happens.

[Scottie]

@SapphireSlytherin  That's my mother.... 

 

There is a reason the rest of her family stayed in England. haha.