Non-SHERLOCK Quizzes

[SherlockedCAMPer]

If you get 100%, it's still a PhD.  I think the doctorate is in how much of a geek/nerd you are in the academic arena.  If I had known how to apply myself in my schooling, I would have given the valedictorian of my high school class a run for his money on that title 20 years ago.  I also like a good game of Trivial Pursuit (original Genus Edition) although I'm out of practice so subsequently rubbish at it.

[Van Buren Supernova]

My friend sent me this out of nowhere, and naturally I remember you guys (cue for sweet music playing) XD

 

To all the Phd-s!

:cowdance:

[Arcadia]

More proof (if any were needed) that I am NOT a Phd! :p

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I passed high school easily with honors and slacked off.  Passed college without honors having no idea how to apply myself.  Passed grad school would have been with honors if they gave it for my degree level but still no idea how to apply myself.  I worked hard at the last minute to get most of my work done those 19 months.

[Carol the Dabbler]

MeTV has a pretty good "How Old Are You" quiz. They guessed my age far closer than any of these other quizzes have, only 12.5% too low.

[Arcadia]

Missed me by 15 years (under -- better than over, I guess!)

 

The biggest problem is my real answer to most of those was "none of them."

[Carol the Dabbler]

Yeah, I know. So I just picked the one that seemed the least unlikely.

[Van Buren Supernova]

I am younger! But forced to answer some too.

 

Yes, they should include none or don't bother as one of the answers, I would get timeless or forever young. XD

[SherlockedCAMPer]

The one time I get put as older than I am by 7 years. It Peggy's me correctly as an 80's kid but I'm not 45. I wish looney toons had been an option for the cartoons.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Before posting what I came here to post, I want to follow up on something I just noticed above, from five years ago (better late than never):

On 10/16/2015 at 6:31 PM, Shadow Dweller said:

Your result: Congratulations! Your British celebrity husband is Colin Firth.  << Who is that?! *clueless*

Congratulations, indeed!  Well, let's see -- In Love Actually, Colin Firth [link] is the writer who falls in love with his Portuguese housekeeper.  He plays Darcy in the Pride & Prejudice miniseries with Jennifer Ehle and also in the Bridget Jones movies.  In The King's Speech, he stars as George VI.  And so on.

********

I recently found out about this American dialect quiz [link] from the New York Times.  After each choice of pronunciation or vocabulary, it shows you a map of where they talk the most and the least like you.  Then at the end, they tell you where you're most and least likely to be from.  Even if you're not American, you can find out which American dialect is closest to or furthest from the way you talk.

I grew up in Indiana, have lived in Boston, Iowa, upstate New York, California, and am now back in Indiana.  I know I've picked up terminology in those other places, so I tried my best to answer as I might have done just before I left Indiana in my early 20s.  OK -- they say my choices have the most in common with the way people talk in Fort Wayne Indiana, Dayton Ohio, or Cincinnati Ohio.  I don't know what other cities they have in their database, but those are pretty close!

The Times also has a British-Irish dialect quiz [link], so of course I want to find out where I'd be from if I'd been born on the other side of the Atlantic.  But since I just worked their American quiz, the Times wants me to create an account first.  As I recall though, they seem to allow a certain number of free visits per month, so I guess I'll wait a few weeks and try again.

 

[kimber8ada]

Thanks for the quiz, Carol! My most common cities were Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky and Chattanooga, Tennessee. I live in northern Kentucky about 30 miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio so I wasn't surprised with the Kentucky cities but Chattanooga did surprise me since it's in southern Tennessee, quite a distance away. Interestingly the question that put me there was the one about "lightning bugs". 

[Carol the Dabbler]

4 hours ago, kimber8ada said:

Chattanooga did surprise me since it's in southern Tennessee, quite a distance away. Interestingly the question that put me there was the one about "lightning bugs". 

Is that what you call them?  That's the term I grew up with and what I still call them, even though I understand the term "fireflies."

 

[kimber8ada]

Yes, I've always called them lightning bugs but, like you, I do know them as fireflies also.

[Arcadia]

Well, mine came out about what I expected: lots of red around Ohio (where my Dad is from) and Tennessee (where my Mom is from), and Maine & the South (the two places where I've spent most of my life.) Interestingly, the darkest reds are in Connecticut and Georgia, two places I've never lived. 

There's also a hint of red in California, where I was born, but we left there when I was pretty young so that makes sense. After that we lived overseas a lot, who knows what influences I picked up then.

I'm pretty sure by now I would sound pretty Southern to most non-Southerners. But the locals know I'm not from around here.

PS for those who haven't looked at the quiz ... red means that's the region where your dialect is most common.

[Carol the Dabbler]

On 3/12/2021 at 11:42 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

The Times also has a British-Irish dialect quiz [link], so of course I want to find out where I'd be from if I'd been born on the other side of the Atlantic.  But since I just worked their American quiz, the Times wants me to create an account first.  As I recall though, they seem to allow a certain number of free visits per month, so I guess I'll wait a few weeks and try again.

Did that, and got further this time, but ended up creating an account (turns out it's free).  So here's how they pegged me:

Quote

Definitely not from around here are you? Your answers were closer to the average person outside of Ireland and Britain than anywhere inside it.

My answers to many individual questions put me in various parts of those islands, but overall I'm apparently not fooling anybody!

Nevertheless, they invited me back for a bunch more questions.  I love this kinda stuff!

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

On 3/12/2021 at 11:42 PM, Carol the Dabbler said:

I recently found out about this American dialect quiz [link] from the New York Times.  After each choice of pronunciation or vocabulary, it shows you a map of where they talk the most and the least like you.  Then at the end, they tell you where you're most and least likely to be from.  [....]  OK -- they say my choices have the most in common with the way people talk in Fort Wayne Indiana, Dayton Ohio, or Cincinnati Ohio.  I don't know what other cities they have in their database, but those are pretty close!

Alex just took that same quiz, and they say he's most likely from Buffalo NY, whereas he actually grew up in -- well, Buffalo NY.  Most of the work was done by only two of his word choices, pop and sneakers, which intersect only in (you guessed it) Buffalo NY.

 

[Arcadia]

Well, I took American dialect quiz again, and this time practically the whole country was red, except for some icy blues around the Great Lakes and lower New England.

But the deepest concentrations of red this time were Kansas, Kentucky and Georgia ... three places I've never lived. But still, pretty close to Ohio and Tennessee (my parents' roots) and a touch of the South. Although quite a bit further south than I actually live.

California and Maine, which I had traces of before, were more slight this time.

What this means, I have no idea. I've always believed my dialect was pretty generic, does this mean I'm right?

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Did you answer the questions from a different point of view this time?  For example, did you take the quiz one time based on how you talk now, and the other time based on how you talked as a kid?  (I did the latter, because -- like you -- I've moved around so much that the reults would otherwise have been fairly meaningless.)

 

[Arcadia]

9 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Did you answer the questions from a different point of view this time?  For example, did you take the quiz one time based on how you talk now, and the other time based on how you talked as a kid?  (I did the latter, because -- like you -- I've moved around so much that the reults would otherwise have been fairly meaningless.)

Well, I probably can't remember any differences from how I talk now and how I talked as a kid (except for - perhaps? - a larger vocabulary?  ) but no, I didn't make a conscious effort to do it differently, I was just curious to see if I'd get the same result. I'm not sure they were even all the same questions this time?

What's interesting to me is how my parents' points of origin seem to have affected my dialect more than the places I've lived. Makes sense, I suppose, as those were the most consistent dialects I would have heard during my most formative years, but somehow I didn't expect it. But I imagine my other influences muddied the water enough that it's not easy to pinpoint the exact area they were from.

It's weird, thinking back on it, to realize that my ever-travellin' parents never went more than 50 miles from where they were born ... until their mid-twenties, when WWII came along and changed everything. Whereas I never had the chance to stay in place for more than a few years until I was in my mid-twenties. Quite frankly, having gone through a huge move recently myself and facing another one soon ... I don't know how my mother stood it! And she had four kids to move with! Egad. 😬