English vs English

[TheMightyEthan]

pow-ncing

[Chewblaha]

HA! It looks like I'm pretty fucking wrong about something I thought I was pretty fucking right about.

 

It was first yelled at me by one of my old teachers in high school when she saw me typing up an entry on the computer for the school's yearbook. I ended the sentence with a quote that was actually a question. I placed the question mark outside of the quotation marks and I got hammered for it.

 

After that, in college, I'd take my papers by the writing center (each professor wanted this done) and the correction was always "punctuation before the quotation, always." (<-)

 

SO...being the headstrong and stubborn person I am (to say the least), I took a particular stance against someone that irked me because he dislikes the word "winningest" ("'but winningest"?' [very understandable, the word is dumb and overused, though I'm going to do some research on the origin of the word tonight].)

 

I was originally going to bring this into EvE, but I decided to just post it. I was then informed by all of you that I was wrong in the best way possible. So I looked it up myself and got dang you all were right.

 

That sucks.

 

Edited January 14, 2013 by Chewblaha

[TheMightyEthan]

My understanding was that in the US the punctuation always goes inside the quotes, whereas in the UK it only goes inside the quote if it's actually part of the quote.

[Thursday Next]

If you are asking someone to confirm something that someone else said. For example if Dean said "Should of." I'd "ask are you sure he 'should of'?"

[TheFlyingGerbil]

from here.

 

Also, I was watching this:

 

 

and it says you don't use the word camp in US? You use flaming instead. I never really thought they meant the same thing so I'm a bit confused. Also, Nipples.

[TheMightyEthan]

[deanb]

I think I've mentioned before now I use that system for folder/files.

 

Anywho Terraced Houses in the UK become Row Homes in the US. Seems they're somewhat uncommon/rare within the US, going off the fact I learnt the name from a reddit thread where people were attempting to pinpoint where a picture of a half demolished house was at (Philadelphia). In the UK I'd be pretty stumped to figure out where that could be based purely off the picture of a side of a terraced house. I'd take a stab in the dark that we've got a large amount of terraced homes due to them being quick to build to thus supply housing demand in coal pit areas (and similar) as well as being quick to replace the homes bombed in WWII.

[TheMightyEthan]

Also they don't take up as much space as typical American houses, and given that your population density is so much higher that might be a good thing.

[TheMightyEthan]

So there's the stereotypes that the British are excessively polite, and Americans are rude.  Well on Wednesday I was at the local Rotary meeting (because I've become an old person well before my time) and the speaker was a British foreign exchange teacher.  She said that one of the things that surprised her coming over here was how polite the students are, much more so than her students back in England.

 

I thought that was interesting.

[deanb]

Yeah our school system with dealing abusive/disruptive children is pretty fucked. There's some schools that are great, and then there's some schools that are basically last on everyones choice for school placement. Basically they get filtered through the system till all the shitty kids end up at the really shitty school, then OFSTED closes the shitty school or turns it into an Academy and the system starts all over again.

I've been in a mix. Started in a local crappy school, moved on to a middling school (my mum did a u-turn when heading for a meeting with headmaster of the really crappy school, don't put windows in your school.), a pretty cracking school (mainly due to being in a well to do area), then on to a middling school again (only secondary in the area). None of these are city schools either, which I'd guess could be much worse.

 

I guess it depends from what school she was coming from, but I imagine if you're from the shitty school you'd know.

[Thursday Next]

Agree with Dean. I went to a really good school apart from the constant, pitiful indoctrination techniques (CofE so had to attend church on a Wednesday). After that I went to a school that was rubbish (but for less than a year so the damage was minimal). Then I passed my 12+ exam with flying colours and got into a Grammar (state funded but academically selective school).

 

At the Grammar school teachers were called "Sir" or "Maam" (a pronounced as in "farm" not "ham") the really laid back teachers allowed you to call them "Mr / Ms Surname" as appropriate. You were expected to hold open doors for teachers and older students. Uniforms were compulsory even through sixth form. Beyond an excellent education, they really instilled a respect for others.

[deanb]

You did the 12+(I thought it was 11+?) and went to a grammar school? How fucking old are you grandpa?

 

And now I read the rest and I'm like...yep definitely no grammar schools when I was in education.

 

 

edit: Wiki says it was 12+ in Buckinghamshire. And yeah it was ended in 1976. I can understand sort of why the Tripartie system was scrapped, but it seems like a neat idea than the current "Specialist" schools and Academies n shit.

[TheMightyEthan]

When it's rainy so I'm wearing my wide-brimmed hat and I pass women I tip it ever so slightly and say "Ma'am" because I like to pretend I'm in a Western.

 

Sparked by Thursday's sir/maam comment.

[Thursday Next]

Grandpa? Cheeky shite! I'm 30. It did not end in '76. I took it when I was 12+ which was ~1994 (which I think is when Bucks moved over to 11+). For those who are interested. I went here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hampden_Grammar_School

[Hot Heart]

T-Next lives fairly close to me.

 

And now I'm really regretting looking up my secondary school on Wikipedia. I knew about the murder but it seems there had been some pretty tragic deaths since, too. Damn...

[deanb]

See I figured you somewhere in your 30's but only people I know that have done the 11+ are all Grandparents/aunts/uncles. Certainly no one I know of below mid-forties.

 

Also here's my schools wikis for comparison to Thursdays;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risedale_Community_College

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettlethorpe_High_School - This would be my good school. You can tell because it has a latin motto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedgefield_Community_College

 

Also while we're here;

Any americans up for giving the US view on Margaret Thatcher? (Other countries also welcome, but I'm under the impression she had a close tie with US than most other countries. Anyone for Argentina especially welcome to give thier views.)

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Didn't they like her because she was basically a smexy version of Ronald Reagan.

[TheMightyEthan]

I'd imagine all the Americans on here are probably too young to have clear memories of when Margaret Thatcher was a big enough deal for Americans in general to have opinions on her.

[deanb]

Best description I've heard on that is "Ronald Reagan in a Whig"

[Hot Heart]

That's a terrible pun.

 

(Says the guy who tweeted 'Ashes to ashes, rust to rust')

[TheRevanchist]

The best I can remember is reading Mad Magazine/Cracked for the political humor, as well as the political humor comics I read during that time frame.  I recall them being positive about her (as positive as editorial comics can be).  Mostly, during her time, we were all obsessed with the new prince.

 

 

Edit:  And Princess Diana, of course.

Edited April 8, 2013 by TheRevanchist

[TheMightyEthan]

My wife was reading this page this morning and telling me about it, and I thought it was quite interesting.  It's a discussion of various American dialects, what defines them, and where they're centered geographically.

[Thursday Next]

See I figured you somewhere in your 30's but only people I know that have done the 11+ are all Grandparents/aunts/uncles. Certainly no one I know of below mid-forties.

 

Also here's my schools wikis for comparison to Thursdays;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risedale_Community_College

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kettlethorpe_High_School - This would be my good school. You can tell because it has a latin motto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedgefield_Community_College

 

Also while we're here;

Any americans up for giving the US view on Margaret Thatcher? (Other countries also welcome, but I'm under the impression she had a close tie with US than most other countries. Anyone for Argentina especially welcome to give thier views.)

 

 

I'm loving that the first one you linked has been taken down because it was an "attack page". Popular school then.

 

@Hotty I live and work in Guildford these days.

[Hot Heart]

 

@Hotty I live and work in Guildford these days.

 

Still fairly close...

[Thursday Next]

We'll have to go beer sometime.