Post a bad thing that happened in your life today

[Inchiquin]

2 hours ago, MDM said:

 

Have you any particular preference? There are probably as many different Irish accents as there are British accents. A Kerry accent is as different from a Belfast accent as a Devon accent is from Glaswegian. 

 

I don't really care for the Northern Irish accent. I'm afraid I'm not sufficiently practised to differentiate between different regions of the Republic. So I don't know whether an accent that's pleasing to me is from any particular region. Similarly, although I lived in Germany for 3 years the only differences I could hear clearly were between Austria/rural Bavaria, which I couldn't understand, and the rest of Germany which I could understand when the wind was in the right direction. It also took me many years to distinguish between a US and Canadian accent, and still occasionally I'm not quite sure.

 

Alan

[Inchiquin]

3 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

 

Still remember these two French backpackers in a hostel in  NZ speaking to eachother in painful English, not realising they both share some mother tongue, after a couple minutes listening to them struggling I asked "wouldn't it be easier if you just did it in French?".  

 

 

Sometimes it can be deliberate! When I lived in Germany my wife and I (both English) sometimes conversed in German in touristy places, campsites etc, to stop other Brits latching onto us and treating us as long-lost friends simply because we shared a nationality (is that just a British thing or do other nationalities do it too?). We had a German-registered car so they were never any the wiser.

 

Alan

[meanderingemu]

3 hours ago, Inchiquin said:

 

Sometimes it can be deliberate! When I lived in Germany my wife and I (both English) sometimes conversed in German in touristy places, campsites etc, to stop other Brits latching onto us and treating us as long-lost friends simply because we shared a nationality (is that just a British thing or do other nationalities do it too?). We had a German-registered car so they were never any the wiser.

 

Alan

I understand,  and i do the same,  but this one was clearly two strangers who met in a hostel, and couldn't hear the struggle of the other based on theirs  

 

As for other part, not only brits.  Doesn't help that my English has more a northern US accent than Canadian,  so i actually sometimes fake an extremely French accent.

Edited December 25, 2021 by meanderingemu

[Michael Ventura]

25 minutes ago, Inchiquin said:

Sometimes it can be deliberate! When I lived in Germany my wife and I (both English) sometimes conversed in German in touristy places, campsites etc, to stop other Brits latching onto us and treating us as long-lost friends simply because we shared a nationality (is that just a British thing or do other nationalities do it too?)

 

Not Americans....well very few.  The vast majority of Americans do not speak a second language...unless their foreign born parents speak their first language at home.  My parents dropped a golden opportunity to teach us four kids a second language.  Both my parents spoke four languages fluently....my mom was even a French teacher and they still failed at teaching us anything other than a few phrases in French and Italian.  A foreign language is mandatory in schools in most of the USA but unless you use it regularly, it is forgotten very quickly.

[sb photos]

4 hours ago, MDM said:

 

I learnt French in school but have never used it except on a few brief trips to France. I always found it very difficult to speak French, mainly because of the r, which I could never get. The Spanish r comes a lot more naturally to me. I could not distinguish different French accents - I think you need to be very fluent in a language before reaching that stage. 

After changing schools at 11 I started to learn German. The following year I moved into the top stream and was expected to learn French. I found German much easier to pronounce, and also as I would have been a year behind the other students learning French, I asked to continue learning German. That was accepted. I then participated in a very interesting student exchange program that was beneficial. Later in life I spent a week in Düsseldorf on a training course, and later still a 2 week training trip to California with someone from the companies German office. More frequently I spent 2 weeks on holiday in what used to be East Berlin. Now my conversational German is likely to be rusty, but reading German is still fair.

[Michael Ventura]

Just off a WhatsApp video call with some of my Italian cousins.  There were five of them there and all speak at least two languages very well (Italian and English) and one of them is fluent in FIVE (Italian, French, English, German, Spanish and Japanese)!!  I always feel so pathetic after talking to them.

[Cecile Marion]

Languages have always been very difficult for me. I’ve forgotten most of the Spanish I learned in high school and college through lack of use. As a mature adult, I’ve managed to teach myself enough French to get by when traveling, but then I figured out I was Italian. Now I’m an embarrassed to open my mouth since I might know 25 Italian words on a good day. Very humbling. 

[Martyn]

I did learn a fair bit of German a lifetime ago when I spent a year living in Hamburg but it didn't do me much good trying to use it in Munich due to the dialect ... much the same scenario as when I worked on French ships where most of the crew were from Brittany so I learned Breton rather than French ! Living in Indonesia for a fair few years and I picked up basic Indonesian easily another but living in Hungary and trying to learn Hungarian is a completely different matter !

Bad news of the day was waking up with a sore throat which may be Omicron or may be a cold ... but having batted off the original nasty version of Covid in November 2019 before it was even a thing, I'm not too worried either way.

Good news of the day was firing up the wood burning stove in my kitchen for the first time ever and using it to cook a roast dinner for the first time ever and it came out rather well and I didn't burn the house down ! Yes ... I did take some pix for Alamy !!

Happy Christmas all ...

[Sally]

6 hours ago, MDM said:

 

Have you any particular preference? There are probably as many different Irish accents as there are British accents. A Kerry accent is as different from a Belfast accent as a Devon accent is from Glaswegian. 

The Glaswegian accent is noticeably different from the Edinburgh accent even though the two cities are only 40 miles apart. You have to live here a while to pick it up. The Aberdeenshire accent is different again, and as for the Western Isles…..totally different. We are only  a short distance away from Berwick-upon-Tweed, but as soon as you cross the border into Northumberland, the accent changes. It astounds me.

Edited December 25, 2021 by Sally

[Bryan]

People have differing abilities, I attended the same senior school as my wife, but we didn't meet up until the sixth form.

 

She took to languages like a duck to water and can speak passable French and German, and can get by in Spanish and Italian.  In contrast I really struggled with French, I did manage to scrape a bare pass at O level, but that was my worst grade out of all of the subjects. At work I attended French language classes but, despite better motivation, just couldn't hack it. I also wrote a computer program to help with my French vocabulary - it randomly fired phrases in French or English and you had to input the correct translation.  

 

Subsequently we have spent many happy days in mainland Europe, I suspect that we've probably accumulated a year or more in France, but she does all the talking. I can say please and thankyou etc and just about put together a question, but I can never follow the answer !  I mentioned earlier here that I also suffer from a form of aural dyslexia as far as the work of Shakespeare is concerned, I find the spoken performances impossible to follow,  I guess my brain just isn't appropriately wired.  

 

Fortunately my problem was not passed on, as our elder son took a degree in French with Business and initially worked as a representative for a UK company in France.

 

With regard to my accent, if you have watched the architect George Clarke on TV then I guess we sound pretty similar, although I try to avoid the excessive use of the word Stunning !

Edited December 25, 2021 by Bryan

[Betty LaRue]

6 hours ago, Bryan said:

People have differing abilities, I attended the same senior school as my wife, but we didn't meet up until the sixth form.

 

She took to languages like a duck to water and can speak passable French and German, and can get by in Spanish and Italian.  In contrast I really struggled with French, I did manage to scrape a bare pass at O level, but that was my worst grade out of all of the subjects. At work I attended French language classes but, despite better motivation, just couldn't hack it. I also wrote a computer program to help with my French vocabulary - it randomly fired phrases in French or English and you had to input the correct translation.  

 

Subsequently we have spent many happy days in mainland Europe, I suspect that we've probably accumulated a year or more in France, but she does all the talking. I can say please and thankyou etc and just about put together a question, but I can never follow the answer !  I mentioned earlier here that I also suffer from a form of aural dyslexia as far as the work of Shakespeare is concerned, I find the spoken performances impossible to follow,  I guess my brain just isn't appropriately wired.  

 

Fortunately my problem was not passed on, as our elder son took a degree in French with Business and initially worked as a representative for a UK company in France.

 

With regard to my accent, if you have watched the architect George Clarke on TV then I guess we sound pretty similar, although I try to avoid the excessive use of the word Stunning !

Aural dyslexia! Never heard of it. Possibly that’s why I’m so poor with accents. We used to have people from the U.K. come through for eye exams where I worked, and I could barely understand a word they said. Pretty bad when I was the person who took them back to the exam room and took their medical history. Embarrassing.  “Say that again, Pardon me, I’m sorry, I didn’t understand, It’s not you, it’s me, I don’t do accents well….”
Other nationalities…same thing.  Then, we actually had a woman move from New York City to Oklahoma and go to work at the Ophthalmologist’s office, and I couldn’t understand her either. Mostly because she spoke at the speed of light. Oklahomans speak slower like the southern states do. So my brain could never keep up with my ears when she spoke. I did get better with practice! 😁

[Bryan]

6 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

Aural dyslexia! Never heard of it. Possibly that’s why I’m so poor with accents. We used to have people from the U.K. come through for eye exams where I worked, and I could barely understand a word they said. Pretty bad when I was the person who took them back to the exam room and took their medical history. Embarrassing.  “Say that again, Pardon me, I’m sorry, I didn’t understand, It’s not you, it’s me, I don’t do accents well….”
Other nationalities…same thing.  Then, we actually had a woman move from New York City to Oklahoma and go to work at the Ophthalmologist’s office, and I couldn’t understand her either. Mostly because she spoke at the speed of light. Oklahomans speak slower like the southern states do. So my brain could never keep up with my ears when she spoke. I did get better with practice! 😁

 

Strangely enough I didn't have any real problems in understanding what people had to say in the USA and Canada, although we didn't venture far from the east coast.  Maybe I was prepared for the accents due to watching all those films etc. The one thing that caught me out was the satnav with the instruction "Take the raaamp", we'd driven well past the turn off before I realised what was being said !

[gvallee]

11 minutes ago, Bryan said:

 

Strangely enough I didn't have any real problems in understanding what people had to say in the USA and Canada, although we didn't venture far from the east coast.  Maybe I was prepared for the accents due to watching all those films etc. The one thing that caught me out was the satnav with the instruction "Take the raaamp", we'd driven well past the turn off before I realised what was being said !

 

Reminds me when I used my Australian GPS in France. Turn 'roodooboo' it said ????? Does it mean roundabout? There wasn't one. Ha!! Rue du Bourg !! I wonder why GPS bother telling us street names as I had never been there and it's their job to give us useful directions. 

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by gvallee

[Ed Rooney]

 

Hmm. How odd am I? I have suffered with dyslexia every day of my life since entering St. Paul's School at age six. That is: I can't spell or read out loud without making mistakes. On the other hand, I can do any accent. Italians often think I'm native Italian until I screw up on the vocabulary or structure. I could not sightread music either but I could improvise. Hmmmm.

Edited December 26, 2021 by Ed Rooney

[gvallee]

4 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Hmm. How odd am I? I have suffered with dyslexia every day of my life since entering St. Paul's School at age six. That is: I can't spell or read out loud without making mistakes. On the other hand, I can do any accent. Italians often think I'm native Italian until I screw up on the vocabulary or structure. I could not sightread music either but I could improvise. Hmmmm.

 

You're special Edo. 

[Ed Rooney]

1 minute ago, gvallee said:

 

You're special Edo. 

 

I'm strange. 🤪

[Ed Rooney]

 

Boxing Day? I used to think I was going to have to go a couple of rounds with someone. Now it seems that I'm supposed to wrap packages for the servants. Servants? I can't even get anyone in here to fix the lift! 

[Ed Rooney]

Liverpool is a city awash with statues, some very good and others not so good. My favourite is the Tommy Steele bronze of Eleanor Rigby sitting on a stone bench just down from me on Stanley Street. I often stop and sit with Miss Rigby, keeping her company for awhile. In the last year, some idiot stole a part of the sculpture, the sparrow sitting on a newspaper. It's a shame that it's gone and a shame that it will probably never be replaced. 

 

 

[Allan Bell]

4 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

Liverpool is a city awash with statues, some very good and others not so good. My favourite is the Tommy Steele bronze of Eleanor Rigby sitting on a stone bench just down from me on Stanley Street. I often stop and sit with Miss Rigby, keeping her company for awhile. In the last year, some idiot stole a part of the sculpture, the sparrow sitting on a newspaper. It's a shame that it's gone and a shame that it will probably never be replaced. 

 

 

 

I see there is a spare place for another plaque to go. Perhaps if you sit with Miss Rigby often your name could go in there and a statue of you looking at Miss Rigby.

 

Allan

 

[Ed Rooney]

1 minute ago, Allan Bell said:

 

I see there is a spare place for another plaque to go. Perhaps if you sit with Miss Rigby often your name could go in there and a statue of you looking at Miss Rigby.

 

Allan

 

 

I said that I keep her company but she keeps me company too. And I think that's enough. 

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

HI could not sightread music either but I could improvise. Hmmmm.

 

I'm quite the opposite, not brilliant at sight reading but I can do it, playing by ear a major problem.  I know enough to realise when I've gone wrong but then the wheels fall off.

[Ed Rooney]

 

Playing by ear? Chet Baker played totally by ear. But I don't think I did, not really. I understand musical structure, Chet did not. I know the chords and the traditional harmony and modal harmonies. Modes are scales. Improvising, you can start with modes (as in Kind of Blue) or start with a series of chords (try Body and Soul). They interrelate. You play piano, Bryan? Play a simple C Major scale. Than change the prime note to D. You will then have the D Dorian mode. Miles Davis's piece So What is based on just two Dorian modes -- D Dorian and E flat Dorian. E and up you get Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian. There're many others. Listen to Irish music. 

 

One time In the university concert band, we were given the charts for Bela Bartok's Bear Dance. The conductor, who was first chair trumpet with the National Symphony, was also my trumpet instructor. He hated modern music. When he heard my attempt at the part in front of me, unique to other parts, he said, "Rooney, would you mind playing the right wrong notes instead of the wrong wrong notes?" He was a wonderful person. 

 

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=miles+davis+kind+of+blue&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

 

 

[Bryan]

17 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Playing by ear? Chet Baker played totally by ear. But I don't think I did, not really. I understand musical structure, Chet did not. I know the chords and the traditional harmony and modal harmonies. Modes are scales. Improvising, you can start with modes (as in Kind of Blue) or start with a series of chords (try Body and Soul). They interrelate. You play piano, Bryan? Play a simple C Major scale. Than change the prime note to D. You will then have the D Dorian mode. Miles Davis's piece So What is based on just two Dorian modes -- D Dorian and E flat Dorian. E and up you get Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian. There're many others. Listen to Irish music. 

 

One time In the university concert band, we were given the charts for Bela Bartok's Bear Dance. The conductor, who was first chair trumpet with the National Symphony, was also my trumpet instructor. He hated modern music. When he heard my attempt at the part in front of me, unique to other parts, he said, "Rooney, would you mind playing the right wrong notes instead of the wrong wrong notes?" He was a wonderful person. 

 

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=miles+davis+kind+of+blue&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

 

 

Lovely story Edo made me chuckle !

 

I play clarinet and recorders, the Mrs handles the keyboards, accordion, piano etc.  I wish that I had been introduced to an instrument that plays chords, be it violin, guitar, or keyboard etc, because they remain a mystery to me. However music remains important, a lifesaver during lockdown, we played every day, mainly baroque and renaissance, but with a bit of folk mixed in.   I regret that, to date, our grandchildren don't play, despite our encouragement. I guess that there is time yet. 

[gvallee]

18 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Playing by ear? Chet Baker played totally by ear. But I don't think I did, not really. I understand musical structure, Chet did not. I know the chords and the traditional harmony and modal harmonies. Modes are scales. Improvising, you can start with modes (as in Kind of Blue) or start with a series of chords (try Body and Soul). They interrelate. You play piano, Bryan? Play a simple C Major scale. Than change the prime note to D. You will then have the D Dorian mode. Miles Davis's piece So What is based on just two Dorian modes -- D Dorian and E flat Dorian. E and up you get Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian. There're many others. Listen to Irish music. 

 

One time In the university concert band, we were given the charts for Bela Bartok's Bear Dance. The conductor, who was first chair trumpet with the National Symphony, was also my trumpet instructor. He hated modern music. When he heard my attempt at the part in front of me, unique to other parts, he said, "Rooney, would you mind playing the right wrong notes instead of the wrong wrong notes?" He was a wonderful person. 

 

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=miles+davis+kind+of+blue&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

 

 

 

You might be dyslexic Edo but I am a complete ignoramus in music. I cannot sing for the life of me. Although I love music and still can go mad at my age with music full blast dancing across the room, notes mean nothing to me.

 

An interesting story (to me anyway) is that I once owned a chocolate box weekend cottage in Normandy in France. Very cosy with a huge fireplace on top of a hill in gorgeous countryside. It meant the world to me. I decided to buy an old piano which looked fabulous in an antique shop. Put candles on top of it, looked perfect. I asked my boyfriend to teach me how to play. What notes were they on the keyboard? He started C, D, E, etc. Great got it! Attempt at Scarborough Fair. Then on to another song. Wait!! You told me this physical note was a C. No I didn't, etc... I ended up putting labels on notes he taught me before. Look, that's a C ! No it isn't. Arghhh... I'm a total failure. It must be the equivalent of musical dyslexia or something.

 

Another interesting fact about this piano is that I called a piano tuner to come and tune it. He said no problem. Then I get a phone call from him saying 'I missed the bus, would you mind coming and get me, I can't see very well'. I was taken aback but said OK. It turned out he was totally blind, which I since learnt that it's not unusual for piano tuners. He was able to determine, just by the touch, that the piano had not been used much, probably given as a present to a young girl who did not so much appreciate the intention.

[Ed Rooney]

41 minutes ago, Bryan said:

 

mainly baroque and renaissance, but with a bit of folk mixed in.   

 

Ahh, baroque -- Bach the complex master, Handel the dramatic German Brit, and Vivaldi when you need a smile and Italian charm!