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

[albireo]

2 hours ago, nastyhobbitses said:

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.

A bar near me serves poutine called Vladimir Poutine...it has pierogi in it along with the gravy and curds. Not actually Russian but pretty darn good!

[SapphireSlytherin]

13 minutes ago, Scottie said:

@SapphireSlytherin  That's my mother.... 

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

I guess you're my sister-in-law then? However, my sis-in-law thinks MIL hung the moon and vice-versa. 

Let's just say my MIL and I can get along just fine with twice-yearly interaction:  once via email and the second time in-person for about three hours.

[Scottie]

@SapphireSlytherin it is possible, haha. She is truly difficult. The person I feel for the most is  my poor father, he really is just like Richard. 

[SapphireSlytherin]

5 minutes ago, Scottie said:

 he really is just like Richard. 

I adore my FIL. He's so uncomplaining. I don't know how he stands that woman. She's a bitch on wheels. There are so many other stories about her I could share, but I won't. Suffice it to say, she is one person who should never have borne children. A mother, she is not. Except to her younger child - he is perfection personified. I had to bite my tongue the last time we visited with them - she kept making veiled comments about how horrible my DH is (he's the one with a job, is successful, owns his own home/cars, etc.) compared to his brother (who's on the dole, rents, doesn't work, etc.).

*NOT SAYING RENTERS ARE "LESS THAN" OWNERS!!!! Just an example from Hyacinth 2.0

[Jinder Roles]

@VelociRapture I get that it shouldn't be necessary but there are a lot of tones, sounds etc that don't exist in English, making some names extremely haed to pronounce without practice.

A lot of Asian people I know at school don't like when non-Asians insist on calling them by their original names because they don't like hearing their names butchered over and over again. I've learned that  insisting on pronouncing a Chinese name when they tell you their Anglicized name is a tad condescending and problematic.

[cascarones]

2 hours ago, VelociRapture said:

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. 

This was a big thing at our grad school and mr. cascarones being 1st gen Chinese has an easy to pronounce Chinese name (albeit a rare character), his younger siblings have Western first names and separate Chinese names. So he was always getting dragged into debates with our foreign classmates as an example of not having an anglicized name. Part of it is people don't want their name butchered, some of it is getting to pick your name and reinvent yourself is neat. Our school didn't force it, but mentioned lots of people go by one. The other side of the debate is people feel really strongly that it's selling out where they're from and insulting their parents. 

I'm trying to learn Mandarin and it's tough, I can't hear the differences so I'm having to go by how you hold the word in your mouth. For the baby's name we're considering doing pronunciation tests, it bugs him when people say names differently as we discovered when naming our kitty. His parents have Beijing accents, my Dad a Southern drawl and since my mother spent her youth in Suffolk it definitely shows on some words. 

 

[VelociRapture]

27 minutes ago, Jinder Roles said:

@VelociRapture I get that it shouldn't be necessary but there are a lot of tones, sounds etc that don't exist in English, making some names extremely haed to pronounce without practice.

A lot of Asian people I know at school don't like when non-Asians insist on calling them by their original names because they don't like hearing their names butchered over and over again. I've learned that  insisting on pronouncing a Chinese name when they tell you their Anglicized name is a tad condescending and problematic.

Yes. I also said I have no problems with it if the person chooses to use a western name instead. For me, I only have an issue when someone feels they don't have a choice in the matter or someone refuses to use the name the person prefers.  

[Bad Wolf]

I'm tutoring 6 refugee kids from Afghanistan, and I'm pretty sure I'm mangling their names. They're very patient with me, and they like it when I say tashikur, thank you.

[VeryNikeSeamstress]

Re: Canadians who don't like Poutine, i can understand. I grew up with a Dad who was constantly lecturing us about saturated fat, cholesterol, and getting enough fibre. I also had a strange aversion to melted cheese as a kid.

The first time I tried Poutine, I was 18 and high on shrooms at a house party. I started by just picking at the fries with gravy towards the side of the takeout dish. By the time I got to the cheese, it was at a food porn level of melty chewy stringyness, and my mind was blown. I am now a firm believer that there's no such thing as too much cheese

As for Tim's I get the impression that nobody actually likes the coffee, it's just cheap and convenient.

[nastyhobbitses]

8 hours ago, albireo said:

A bar near me serves poutine called Vladimir Poutine...it has pierogi in it along with the gravy and curds. Not actually Russian but pretty darn good!

I mean, considering Vlad's ambitions and the fact that he has a gullible, possibly demented manchild puppet installed in the White House to support those ambitions, it might not be long before Poland "joins" the Great Motherland.

[Jana814]

I'm from New Jersey and people have old me I have a NJ accent. I don't hear it. However, I have heard so many New York accents. I have a client and the first time I talked to him on the phone I knew right away he was from NY.  

[fluffernutter]

The Mother In Law. We should start a support group for people with horrible mother in laws. Mine is just awful. She has no boundaries, says horrible, inappropriate things to the grandkids and everyone else, and treats her husband like a dog. 

Poutine- so I had always steered waaaay clear of it. It sounds so unappealing- the word. Poutine. Sounds like something that one would expel from one's body. I also was certain it had organ meet or a tongue or something in it. Just was on my nope list. Until one night my husband ordered it. It smelled so good. So much cheesy goodness. And when i realized there weren't any strange meats in it I gave it a try. So good. I think the poor dish just has an unfortunate name. 

[Justmurrayed]

Why, why did I open this? I've been torturing myself with food reviews for poutine for the past two weeks. It's a sodium bomb and this pregnant lady wants NO needs a poutine but I'm so far holding strong because I don't need my blood pressure skyrocketing. It's the closest thing to a salt lick that I can think of and that's why I love it. I'm literally the most typical Canadian when it comes to food. Give me all the poutine, butter tarts, ketchup chips, donuts or beaver tails and I could live happy(gluten-free preferably so I'm not wanting to die from the intestinal pain and running for washrooms thanks to Celiac) 

[Glasgowghirl]

As a Glaswegian I am always careful about talking too fast to people from other countries and not using Scots words. I don't type any Scots words on social media apart from words that people will know like 'Aye' or 'wee' unless I'm recalling a conversation. I don't care if other people speak or type in dialects for the most part as long as people can understand you. I don't think the way the Duggar's talk make them sound stupid it's their attitude and belief that do that.

[VelociRapture]

1 hour ago, Justmurrayed said:

Why, why did I open this? I've been torturing myself with food reviews for poutine for the past two weeks. It's a sodium bomb and this pregnant lady wants NO needs a poutine but I'm so far holding strong because I don't need my blood pressure skyrocketing. It's the closest thing to a salt lick that I can think of and that's why I love it. I'm literally the most typical Canadian when it comes to food. Give me all the poutine, butter tarts, ketchup chips, donuts or beaver tails and I could live happy(gluten-free preferably so I'm not wanting to die from the intestinal pain and running for washrooms thanks to Celiac) 

All I wanted while pregnant with my daughter was melted cheese. I tried hard not to indulge too much, but damn... nothing prepares you for how intense those cravings can be! I probably would have loved Poutine when I was pregnant. 

Funny enough, my sister craved melted cheese while pregnant with her son too. I wonder if there's something genetic that influences pregnancy cravings.

[LilMissMetaphor]

My husband has an unusual (for Korea) two-part name, but only seven letters and has none of the hard or unfortunate combinations that Westerners usually mock or giggle over.   Yet, almost everyone we know struggles with it.

Just the other day at my work, a new mom, who'd named her baby Holden (yet had never heard of anyone IRL or *ahem* FICTIONAL named Holden, !?), was laughing because she had just discovered that Dong was a common syllable in Korean names, and thought it was hilarious that someone suggested she call her baby Holden Dong.

I was tempted to point out that, to Koreans (and indeed other Asians as far as I know), many of our Western names sound hilarious/snarkworthy to them too--like my birth name, which my husband did not laugh at when he met me, but later admitted it was the name of a popular cookie.     

[MayMay1123]

On 9/24/2017 at 11:19 AM, NotQuiteMotY said:

Regarding accents, I apparently have a fairly strong Philly accent. I'm not in the city, but the suburbs. I never thought of myself as having an accent until in college, when several friends from NJ and NY thought the way I said "bagel" was hysterical. 

wait, how does everyone else pronounce baygull? or wudder? or crick? <google "how to speak philadelphian" LOL>

[backyard sylph]

6 hours ago, Jana814 said:

I'm from New Jersey and people have old me I have a NJ accent. I don't hear it. However, I have heard so many New York accents. I have a client and the first time I talked to him on the phone I knew right away he was from NY.  

We're in Cincinnati now, but my kids grew up in New Jersey; my sons are too young to remember where they were born. When they tell people they're from NJ, they often get asked, "Use your accent!" And I mean, they didn't change how they speak when they moved here. They are using their accent. Areas we lived in NJ, people were from all over, and the only time anyone had a distinct accent, they turned out to be from Newark or Staten Island, sometimes another NY borough. We do speak faster than people here, but mostly only when talking with each other. Some Cincinnatians have a bit of a Southern O, otherwise, there's little other difference.

While growing up in Kansas City, people sometimes asked me if I was from a northern state. When I lived in Michigan, people sometimes asked if I was from the south. But in NJ, people never remarked on my speech either way.

Common regional phrases are what I have noticed most in the various places I've lived. (I know, right?)

[Lynn18]

17 hours ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

I adore my FIL. He's so uncomplaining. I don't know how he stands that woman. She's a bitch on wheels. There are so many other stories about her I could share, but I won't. Suffice it to say, she is one person who should never have borne children. A mother, she is not. Except to her younger child - he is perfection personified. I had to bite my tongue the last time we visited with them - she kept making veiled comments about how horrible my DH is (he's the one with a job, is successful, owns his own home/cars, etc.) compared to his brother (who's on the dole, rents, doesn't work, etc.).

*NOT SAYING RENTERS ARE "LESS THAN" OWNERS!!!! Just an example from Hyacinth 2.0

I find this fairly common; the child who is"okay" or prospering gets ignored/passed over while the "challenged" child gets all the attention/monetary help because...they need it. Causes a bunch of hurt feelings from what I've seen/experienced.

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

38 minutes ago, Lynn18 said:

I find this fairly common; the child who is"okay" or prospering gets ignored/passed over while the "challenged" child gets all the attention/monetary help because...they need it. Causes a bunch of hurt feelings from what I've seen/experienced.

In my family it is the exact opposite. My siblings are all doing very well financially, DH and I are NOT, it is like not matter what we do it just doesn't happen. Anyway, my parents expect me to be more like my siblings and often make me fell less than for having less. But as I have mentioned I am a VERY square peg in a VERY round hole.  Honestly if it wasn't for my sister I would have cut ties with my family a few years ago, they just are worth the stress but this would cause her undo issues that she doesn't deserve for MY choices, fair or not, right or wrong they will be foisted on her.

[SapphireSlytherin]

1 hour ago, Lynn18 said:

I find this fairly common; the child who is"okay" or prospering gets ignored/passed over while the "challenged" child gets all the attention/monetary help because...they need it. Causes a bunch of hurt feelings from what I've seen/experienced.

Oh - the favorite child has always been the favorite child. He's called "The Baby" to this day, and he's almost 50. He's been given everything, and was cherished and adored whereas my husband ....  was not.

[Satan'sFortress]

On 9/22/2017 at 4:31 PM, RosyDaisy said:

Note to ALL non-Southerners. When you come down here, YOU are the ignorant one with an accent. We're just too polite to point that out and mock you.

When I moved from Massachusetts to Texas, my family was mocked endlessly. I even had a teacher think it was so hilarious that she had me come back to her class the next year to recite a sentence in front of her new class so that they could all hear the freak.  40 years later, there are still words I hesitate before saying because I remember being ridiculed. 

[Kittikatz]

Oh gods, what I wouldn't do for plate of piping hot poutine followed by a fat beaver tail with loads of icing sugar and a half dozen oozy butter tarts right now... fat, calories, salt and the ensuing blood sugar spike be damned, I just waaaannnnts. What I've got is salad for lunch. Salad. I hate salad. What was I thinking? Especially after reading about all the yummy food choices lurking out there. FML. 

On the side of accents, I apparently have one that's so strong the people in my home province can hear it. I don't have a clue where it's from, but it stands out as being really clipped somehow, and - yes, I've been mocked and made fun of for most of the last 40 years (and this in a place where a large chunk of the population are born abroad or are first generation - we should be used to accents). People in the US mostly seem to peg me as being from somewhere in Europe, but nobody seems to be able to tell me exactly what it sounds like. If I knew, there are some days I'd be tempted to move there. 

[Bad Wolf]

I was taking a Spanish class here, and someone asked how I could speak Spanish because I have an English accent. It's all relative.

[Playagirl]

8 hours ago, Justmurrayed said:

Why, why did I open this? I've been torturing myself with food reviews for poutine for the past two weeks. It's a sodium bomb and this pregnant lady wants NO needs a poutine but I'm so far holding strong because I don't need my blood pressure skyrocketing. It's the closest thing to a salt lick that I can think of and that's why I love it. I'm literally the most typical Canadian when it comes to food. Give me all the poutine, butter tarts, ketchup chips, donuts or beaver tails and I could live happy(gluten-free preferably so I'm not wanting to die from the intestinal pain and running for washrooms thanks to Celiac) 

Mmmmm, beaver tails.  And butter tarts with raisins... I actually drooled reading your post.

As I stated upthread, I don't care for poutine with one exception. Pulled pork poutine is to die for. All that shredded pork and BBQ sauce mixes so well with the gooey melted cheese and fries. Oh, man.

For those of you who haven't yet tried poutine, if you do, make sure the place you get it from uses cheese curds, not anything else. Curds are more expensive than some cheeses so some places will substitute with a cheaper grated cheese.  If you want the real deal, it has to be curds.