English vs English

[deanb]

I used to wear "poverty pumps" then. I think it was kind of a set thing for PE kits just kinda brought everyone to the same level compared to some kid having like Shoezone trainers n others in the latest "three stripes" (similar for the whole idea behind school uniforms. Everyone has access to Tesco n Asda)

[TheFlyingGerbil]

We didn't get them from the supermarket, because they didn't sell clothes when I was young, but these are the white ones - they certainly weren't trainers or cool, nor even more expensive. We weren't allowed to wear trainers either, not until secondary school. Maybe it was seen as cooler because it meant you could tie your own shoelaces, so it was something that the older children wore? It was a long time ago, so I can't remember why really, I just remember they're the ones everyone wanted. 

[Thursday Next]

Trainers were banned (in my experience) because they left dirty black streaks on the polished wooden floors. I believe we used to refer to them as "green flash trainers" due to their similarity to the dunlop shoe of the same name.

 

Edit: The bleep test was sadistic. It was more about not being in the bottom 5 than winning. First person to drop out was always marked as a bit of a Sam Tarly.

Edited June 17, 2015 by Thursday Next

[deanb]

Yeah the bleep test was horrible. I wonder if they still do it these days.

 

Okay, had a wee google, and the list of "users" on the Wiki page is military forces, rugby teams n emergency services. And this is a test used on kids.

[deanb]

Realised that "liar, liar, pants on fire" is much more severe over here than in the US.

[TheMightyEthan]

So what exactly is the bleep test?  Because it just looks like intervals to me, but those aren't competitive in any way (other than the way every physical activity is inherently competitive).

[deanb]

You run 20m up and down the sports hall while a tape (I assume CD/MP3 these days) plays intermittent beeps which start at 60 seconds between, then get faster n faster. If you don't make it to the other in before the next beep you're out. It's used as a way of testing physical fitness.

[TheMightyEthan]

Okay, yeah, it's like a competitive form of intervals, where you just run back and forth as fast as you can for training purposes, usually with some kind of goal time but no "getting out" for being too slow.

[Thursday Next]

Yeah, that's a pretty close analogy. You run negative splits until you miss the pace and are out of the "game". It really is a horrible thing psychologically as the weakest  person is made to sit there while the rest continue to compete. Each new level compounds your defeat and you are forced to watch as your fitter peers go on to greater success.

 

It's something that would probably be referred to as "character building".

[Hot Heart]

I remember when some teachers ran one at school for charity. My form tutor intended to be a professional athlete with a dream of competing in the Olympics. He didn't last as long as the ex-marine maths teacher.

[deanb]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-33287959

 

The dress and costumes of various english traditions.

[Saturnine Tenshi]

*squints* BBC run out of pixels?

Edited July 2, 2015 by Saturnine Tenshi

[deanb]

@tenshi: BBC can't afford the pixels these days.

 

http://youtu.be/hD3w_VdTG30

 

So apparently you Americans missed out on these scenes in Austin Powers. They were great, no idea why they got removed for US release.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Powers:_International_Man_of_Mystery#Deleted_scenes

[Thursday Next]

Some of my fave scenes. How odd that they were cut.

[deanb]

hey BBC did a US vs Uk article in regards to the Crosby stuff n Yewtree n how law differences mean Crosby is gonna get off pretty much scot-free (in a legal sense)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33482619

[TheMightyEthan]

Slight clarification on the article: while the US does have a common law system overall, criminal law specifically is basically entirely statutory.

 

The thing with Julian Assange and Sweden having to change his charges due to the statute of limitations interests me.  In most (all?) US jurisdictions, if you are a fugitive avoiding apprehension then the statute of limitations stops counting, so since he's hiding out in an embassy the time wouldn't count.  The same goes for if you are actively concealing the crime (threatening witnesses to stop them reporting it, etc).

[Mr. GOH!]

The common law tradition is important in US statutory law via the importance of stare decisis and, to a lesser extent, res judicata. Having practiced in both Germany/the EU and the U.S., there are other significant differences between the European (non-British) inquisitorial systems and the American system, a lot of which is due to the U.S. system's roots in English common law.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, I didn't mean there's no influence, just that criminal law is not judge-made in the US as the article implied.

[Thursday Next]

Hmmm, not sure about the Assange thing either. It makes no sense for the clock to tick while you are on the run. Statute of limitations normally applies to the time before you bring a case, not the completion of that case. I'll check with Swedish colleagues at some point.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, that's another aspect I didn't even bring up: in most (all?) US jurisdictions the statute of limitations only applies to a deadline for filing charges; once charges are filed there are other time requirements (which are also stopped by being on the run), but the SoL doesn't apply anymore.

 

Also, I know I'm not the first to make this observation, but how perfect is it that the abbreviation for Statute of Limitations is SoL?

[Mr. GOH!]

Here's a BBC article laying out the Swedish SOL issues in a non-lawyerly way: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31867829

 

I can understand how a country might decide that there should be limit to how long an open case's investigation can take for certain types of crime, I suppose. I wouldn't necessarily advocate for such a system in the U.S., however.

 

Edit: On the English versus English front, I have always detested the Britishism "different to," even though it's the oldest formulation. "Different from" and "different than" make sense, unless you're comparing two people's perceptions. That is, "I know you think the movie is just a rehash of the same old tropes, but it's different to me." The same formulation sounds terrible when directly comparing two things, as in "an apple is different to an orange." "From" directly implicates a distance between the two objects of comparison, which makes sense. "Than" makes sense, too, because it denotes a direct comparison. "To," however, connotes an approach or similarity, not difference. 

 

Since "from" is completely acceptable in British English (apparently "different than" is only rarely used outside the U.S.), please use "different from," Brits.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Mr. GOH!

[deanb]

http://youtu.be/ScELaXMCVis

 

Since it's Yorkshire Day (don't worry, it's subtitled). To be fair a lot of the slang is stuff you don't hear much these days.

 

And a nice dictionary:

http://www.thestar.co.uk/what-s-on/out-about/yorkshire-day-47-words-and-phrases-you-would-only-ever-hear-in-yorkshire-1-7384766

 

(is "aye" a yorkshire thing cos I use that quite a bit. Err same with bait too, I'll make up a "bait box" for work..and school when I went there. I also go for a gander in town and now I'm like "what do people think I'm doing when I say that").

[Hot Heart]

A few sound like general midlands/northern things. I heard a few of those while I was in Leicester. It was funny hearing the kid who lived next door greet you with, "'Ey up"

 

I never use any of those terms you just mentioned, although I know "a gander" = "a look"

 

I know bog, flippin' 'eck, flummox, mardy (bum), nowt (wi' out), 'ow do?, and reight (as "reet") though only ever use a couple myself.

 

Flaggin' and courtin' are just those words said with an accent though.

 

Funny that "chuddy" is chewing gum, because my dad calls it that, but I'm sure he got it from Goodness Gracious Me ("kiss ma chuddy!"). Which reminds me that I bought my dad some "ras malai" recently, because he used to copy that from the show as well.

[Mr. GOH!]

Some of those words are used in American English varieties, too. "Takin' a gander," and "flummox" just sound folksy to us over here, and I'm mildly surprised those words/phrases aren't American in origin.

[TheMightyEthan]

My wife and I have been watching this show, and trying to figure out what the accents are:

 

 

We're not so much interested in the upper class folks, as they just sound upper class, but the girl a the beginning and some of the other workers have this weird (to us) accent that at times almost sounds Irish, but not really.