dwar0123 Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 But why can't I call your country in my language whichever way I please? ...our language is our language, we decide what we call your land (as long as it's not openly offensive, like Fascist Puppet State of Masochistan or something), thanks.I am with Barmar on this one, any name that isn't our name(or at least an honest attempt to pronounce our name) is openly offensive. Spelling isn't as relevant as getting it phonetically as close to right as reasonable. Now countries that change their name I am far more meh about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordontd Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Mind you, we still use "Bombay" over here.You, John Crinnion & who else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali to me just as soon as he wanted to be, and I pretty much feel that same about countries. Still, I would feel I am being a little pretentious to speak of Espana instead of Spain (and I don't know how to get the twiddle over the n). I recall that there was some issue about Macedonia a while back, and there are ongoing issues with Taiwan. My default would be that if there is a stable recognized government that announce that the name of their country is such and such, then such and such it is. I can imagine a little fuzziness around the edges here, for example someone has to interpret stable and recognized. My daughter, when she was thirteen, proclaimed that she would henceforth be Nicole. Fortunately that did not last. I got nothing against all you Nicoles out there, but we named her Ruth. Reminds me of an old Tom Lehrer line, c. 1960: China, which we call Red China, exploded a bomb, which we called a device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted November 13, 2012 Report Share Posted November 13, 2012 Annoying titles on business cards: "Chief Creativity Officer" "Corporate Evangelist" or certainly anything with "guru" in it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberyeti Posted November 14, 2012 Report Share Posted November 14, 2012 Now countries that change their name I am far more meh about. I don't understand why some are universally adopted pretty quickly (you don't see Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Leningrad (St Petersburg) or Peking (Beijing) any more, and they went away almost instantly in the UK), but some still persist (Burma being the obvious one). Mumbai/Bombay are both in use, as I think are Kolkata/Calcutta and Chennai/Madras. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwar0123 Posted November 14, 2012 Report Share Posted November 14, 2012 I don't understand why some are universally adopted pretty quickly (you don't see Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Leningrad (St Petersburg) or Peking (Beijing) any more, and they went away almost instantly in the UK), but some still persist (Burma being the obvious one). Mumbai/Bombay are both in use, as I think are Kolkata/Calcutta and Chennai/Madras.Well Burma is easy, the government that instituted the change is not fully recognized by many nations, including the USA and UK. I would imagine Bombay/Mumbai has to do with the city being very well known by those slow to adopt its new name. Familiarity breeds resistance to change, but honestly I think many British resent the name change. Not their right to change the name, just that they would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwnn Posted November 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2012 Peking is absolutely standard in Hungarian and German and I imagine many other languages (edit: a quick scroll through the left hand side of the wikipedia entry confirms this). It just sounds better. It's just a transliteration anyway, so that one is not a big deal (or??). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillybean Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 Opponents who ask about an alert and then stop you before you have given the complete description of your methods. Opponents who do not have a completed CC. Opponents who comment on our bidding or play and tell us how we could have done better. Opponents in general :) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 Peking is absolutely standard in Hungarian and German and I imagine many other languages (edit: a quick scroll through the left hand side of the wikipedia entry confirms this). It just sounds better. It's just a transliteration anyway, so that one is not a big deal (or??). Beijing, except when I want a duck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thiros Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 Threads that just won't die. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjbrr Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 Annoying titles on business cards: "Chief Creativity Officer" "Corporate Evangelist" or certainly anything with "guru" in it. Yes. "Champion" kills me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjbrr Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 Threads that just won't die. People who can't distinguish good threads from bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyberyeti Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 That's what it is here, although the "also known as Myanmar" is often omitted. Mind you, we still use "Bombay" over here.Just listened to ex indian cricketer Farokh Engineer saying he still calls it Bombay, so it's not universally Mumbai. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helene_t Posted November 15, 2012 Report Share Posted November 15, 2012 The locals refered to their bidding system as "Bombay Club" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zelandakh Posted December 6, 2012 Report Share Posted December 6, 2012 Grammar: you ought to absolute love this sentence, set to increasing be a part of modern English. My favourite in this area is the message that regularly goes out that "The system will return to normal operation until 4pm" or "We estimate that the problem will be solved until 11am". This is a classic mistake for native German speakers. TV License: it is not illegal to own a TV in Britain without a license provided that you can show it is not connected to a TV feed. So, for example, you can buy a huge TV to play your DVDs on and this is not a problem. Having watched a fair bit of German Fernseher now, I don't blame Michael for not having a TV at all. Americans: US-ian? What is wrong with using US American? In German I often hear US-Amerikaner. 10000 posts: Is becoming the 4th member of the 500 Club also a pet pevve thing gwnn? For goodness sake, write one of your super-cool messages already so we can start the fireworks and open the beer! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenberg Posted December 6, 2012 Report Share Posted December 6, 2012 I have come to accept many things, might as well do so, but one that gets me is "courtesy call". Eg The phone rings, I pick it up, the caller, calling from our bank, asks to speak to my wife. She's not home right now, can I take a message? "Please have her call this number. There is no trouble with your account. This is just a courtesy call to tell you about our new services." Seems to be what I refer to as a sales call. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwnn Posted December 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2012 I'm writing low-quality posts on purpose to prolong anticipation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barmar Posted December 6, 2012 Report Share Posted December 6, 2012 Grammar: you ought to absolute love this sentence, set to increasing be a part of modern English. My favourite in this area is the message that regularly goes out that "The system will return to normal operation until 4pm" or "We estimate that the problem will be solved until 11am". This is a classic mistake for native German speakers.I've often noticed that non-native speakers use words like "until" and "since" incorrectly. I assume it's because they express these ideas differently in their languages, and they're just doing a literal translation rather than changing the idiom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarabin Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 Toothpaste you cannot swallow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike777 Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 I hate over the years defense will not claim \they hate it and push us out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwar0123 Posted December 7, 2012 Report Share Posted December 7, 2012 I hate English that I can not parse, no matter how many times I read it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarabin Posted December 8, 2012 Report Share Posted December 8, 2012 Sorry if my post is obscure. I have recently found Macleans and Colgate have introduced toothpaste with warnings on the tube that you should not swallow the toothpaste. This seems to me to be idiotic and I dislike it. I also dislike the fact that I cannot find any alternative that can safely be swallowed. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarabin Posted December 8, 2012 Report Share Posted December 8, 2012 I hate over the years defense will not claim \they hate it and push us out "twas brillig and the slithey toves..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onoway Posted December 8, 2012 Report Share Posted December 8, 2012 Sorry if my post is obscure. I have recently found Macleans and Colgate have introduced toothpaste with warnings on the tube that you should not swallow the toothpaste. This seems to me to be idiotic and I dislike it. I also dislike the fact that I cannot find any alternative that can safely be swallowed. :D doesn't taste that great but plain baking soda works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fluffy Posted December 9, 2012 Report Share Posted December 9, 2012 I have come to accept many things, might as well do so, but one that gets me is "courtesy call". Eg The phone rings, I pick it up, the caller, calling from our bank, asks to speak to my wife. She's not home right now, can I take a message? "Please have her call this number. There is no trouble with your account. This is just a courtesy call to tell you about our new services." Seems to be what I refer to as a sales call.There is no trouble with your account... and you complain?I had a call like that asking me to get to the bank, with no further instructions, when I went there as qickly as I could I found out that they found on their data that I was the perfect client for their new product. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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