Introverts, how is your day?

[Carol the Dabbler]

3 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

I just got slightly made fun of in the post office for the way I talk... it wasn't mean spirited though so it's okay. 

Are you from somewhere else -- far enough away that your accent is a bit different?

[Pseudonym]

My accent is a bit different, but on this occasion it was my word choices more than how I sound. When asked "Is it cold out?" I responded that "It's autumnal." Then felt awkward when it got a snort, expounded a bit more, and was told my description of the weather was like a Dickensian novel. 

[J.P.]

Legend? I have the impression nobody remembers that film.

[Pseudonym]

I remember it mainly because of the Tim Curry demon. 

[Pseudonym]

Me: Contentedly watching TV with all the lights off except a lamp. Wander out towards kitchen, notice a dark patch on the wall. What...? Horrible suspicion forms. Run to turn on main lights. Massive spider is revealed. 😫

[Arcadia]

6 hours ago, Pseudonym said:

My accent is a bit different, but on this occasion it was my word choices more than how I sound. When asked "Is it cold out?" I responded that "It's autumnal." Then felt awkward when it got a snort, expounded a bit more, and was told my description of the weather was like a Dickensian novel. 

I was going to say … maybe your letting your education show. I get ribbed for that sometimes, but it really does come naturally to me to speak in a rather "high-falutin'" way sometimes. Usually when I'm feeling whimsical.

5 hours ago, J.P. said:

Legend? I have the impression nobody remembers that film.

I try not to.

54 minutes ago, Pseudonym said:

Me: Contentedly watching TV with all the lights off except a lamp. Wander out towards kitchen, notice a dark patch on the wall. What...? Horrible suspicion forms. Run to turn on main lights. Massive spider is revealed. 😫

 

[Pseudonym]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

I was going to say … maybe your letting your education show. I get ribbed for that sometimes, but it really does come naturally to me to speak in a rather "high-falutin'" way sometimes. Usually when I'm feeling whimsical.

I had a colleague say to me once "I love it when you speak oldy-worldy." Which I hadn't even realised I was doing. I have a habit of saying "if I may be so bold," which I think must have started off sarcastically way back when but now I say it and don't even think about it. 

[Arcadia]

Exactly. I blame reading Tolkien at an early age.

[Pseudonym]

Ha, it’s funny that reading Tolkien is almost like a right of passage.

[Arcadia]

And yet I know so few people that have. Only in college did it seem to be a fairly common experience. But out here in the real (dare I say, less educated?) world, hardly anyone seems to have read it. If they read at all, they read the Bronte sisters instead, which I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.  

[Pseudonym]

I don't think I know anyone who hasn't read it... might be less likely for kids since the films were made though. 

 

[Pseudonym]

I have to admit the songs always irritated the hell out of me, even as a kid. And I think there are too many dwarves in The Hobbit, aside from the main ones it's impossible to remember who's who. 

[T.o.b.y]

15 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

And yet I know so few people that have. Only in college did it seem to be a fairly common experience. But out here in the real (dare I say, less educated?) world, hardly anyone seems to have read it. If they read at all, they read the Bronte sisters instead, which I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.  

People who hardly read otherwise choose to read the works of the Bronte sisters where you live?! That's... Surprising. Why do you think that is? 

I like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. And The Tenent of Wildfell Hall. But those books are pretty intense, I wouldn't have expected that people not much into reading the classics in general  would appreciate them. 

[Artemis]

Speaking with a larger vocabulary or in an "old-worldy" manner comes naturally to me as well, because it was how I was educated from a young age, and I was an avid reader.  But I was getting weird or vacant looks in response to words like "impertinent" and "philanderer", so I altered the way I spoke to most people so they would understand me better and feel more comfortable around me.  The occasional "highfalutin" word or turn of phrase still pops out though, I can't help it all the time.  I wouldn't have minded a ribbing now and then, but what I mostly got was people avoiding me because they assumed I was a snob.

I know hardly anyone who has read Tolkien, either.  But then I haven't known too many readers in general.  The majority have only read the "classics" that they were forced to read in high school and college, which almost never included Tolkien.

 

[Arcadia]

4 hours ago, T.o.b.y said:

People who hardly read otherwise choose to read the works of the Bronte sisters where you live?! That's... Surprising. Why do you think that is? 

I like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. And The Tenent of Wildfell Hall. But those books are pretty intense, I wouldn't have expected that people not much into reading the classics in general  would appreciate them. 

Well, I was being a bit tongue in cheek with the Bronte sisters. What I meant was more like what Artemis said … a lot of the people I know don't read much at all. Or at least, don't read much fiction. But the people I know who do read fiction … very few of them have read Tolkien. Their interests run more to what I would call "women's fiction", or simply romance. They don't generally like the movies I want to see either. I ended up going alone to "Infinity War" because I couldn't find anyone else who was interested in seeing it. I got talked by one into seeing "Ladybird" … she loved it, I hated every minute of it. Etc.

[Carol the Dabbler]

On 9/6/2018 at 5:59 PM, Arcadia said:

... it really does come naturally to me to speak in a rather "high-falutin'" way sometimes. Usually when I'm feeling whimsical.

Yup, me too.  And I construct words -- i.e., use words that should exist, without knowing or caring whether they "really" do or not, because it should be pretty clear what they mean.  Like uhh, a "mitigated disaster."  (Apparently I'm not in a particularly whimsical frame of mind just now.)

[T.o.b.y]

8 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Yup, me too.  And I construct words -- i.e., use words that should exist, without knowing or caring whether they "really" do or not, because it should be pretty clear what they mean.  Like uhh, a "mitigated disaster."  (Apparently I'm not in a particularly whimsical frame of mind just now.)

Ha, I do that too! And then I get criticized for not using proper English (for some funny reason, nobody seems to care when I do this in German). 

[Carol the Dabbler]

The Germans I've known here in the US tend to be real sticklers for standard American-English usage.  I remember one gal exclaiming that she speaks better English than most Americans.  I explained that they're not being ungrammatical, they're merely bilingual, and speak their local dialect most of the time.  That seemed to hit home, because she said it was the same in Germany, that she could barely understand people from certain other parts of the country.

But as I've said before, [rant] the concept of local dialects among Americans of western European descent doesn't get much respect from teachers here.  Any deviation from standard usage is simply WRONG, which doesn't endear them to most of their students, who hear the local dialect spoken the majority of the time. [/rant]

 

[Arcadia]

You'd think they'd recruit the teachers from the local population so they couldn't tell the difference.

Maybe it's the difference between formal and informal English? The former is what is taught, but the latter is what most of us speak most of the time? (Except when we lapse into formal English, for whatever reason.) In any case, it would make sense to me to teach the formal form … otherwise it wouldn't really be a common language anymore … since the informal forms are all different?? Just speculating.

This is the disadvantage of having moved so much as a kid … I don't really identify with any particular American dialect or accent. Or regional differences of any kind, I think. I'm just an American mutt, completely mystified when someone becomes defensive about their regional differences. Because I've never felt allegiance to any of them, I guess? It's weird. I feel like a fish out of water a lot of times. But it's a bit liberating, too, I think. Makes me grow legs and learn how to breathe air.  

[Pseudonym]

It's funny, I'm never interested in languages but accents and regional differences always interest me. People get pretty militant about it around here (and I mean that literally, in the past we've had a number of Welsh terrorist groups, one of which tried to blow up the Queen and Prince Charles), it causes a lot of snobbery too... but I still find it fascinating, and I like the fact that everything around here is bilingual. 

[Arcadia]

I didn't like language courses because I was so shy; I felt like I was performing (badly) and felt like an idiot in front of other people. I always was more of a behind the scenes person. I could read Spanish pretty well at one time, but if you don't use it,  you lose it.

I do wish I could remember more of the Spanish I learned, though; it would be very useful around here, with the high number of Hispanics that have moved into the area. About the best I can manage is "Mi Espanol es muy, muy malo." (My Spanish is very, very bad.) I bet my accent stinks too.  

[Carol the Dabbler]

6 hours ago, Arcadia said:

You'd think they'd recruit the teachers from the local population so they couldn't tell the difference.

Maybe it's the difference between formal and informal English? The former is what is taught, but the latter is what most of us speak most of the time?

Most of the teachers are local people, but not generally of the folksy kind.  And even the ones who might be a bit folksy on their day off will go all pedantic in the classroom.  I'm all in favor of teaching standard American English, because it's the one language that (in theory) our whole country shares.  But I would like to see the local dialects acknowledged as such, instead of being called "wrong" or "substandard."

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

I do wish I could remember more of the Spanish I learned,

You might try putting yourself into a situation where you have to use it -- and don't be afraid to speak broken Spanish.

I hadn't needed to use my Spanish for several decades, so it had gotten really rusty.  Then a friend of ours married a woman from Mexico who was really shy about using what little English she did know.  So i had to choose between asking the husband to translate everything and just saying it as best I could.  I was amazed at how quickly I regained the ability to carry on a conversation.  I never did remember much about conjugating verbs, so I would say things like "He does it yesterday" and "I go tomorrow."

But then he bought a boat, and my Spanish has gotten pretty rusty again.

[Arcadia]

3 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Most of the teachers are local people, but not generally of the folksy kind. 

Eh, that was yet another example of a poor attempt of mine to be funny. 😛

Re: Spanish, I actually have quite a few opportunities, but I can't remember enough words to even get started. "Mi Espanol es muy muy malo" is literally about the only thing I can come up with. Uhh, "gracias", and …. the other day I did (very proudly ) come up with "me gusta," but then I couldn't think of a word for what it was I liked, which was this girl's shirt. I plucked at mine, but I'm not sure the message got across. She seemed a bit scared of the crazy white lady.  

Oh! "Habla Engles?" is the other phrase I can remember.   I should probably find a way to take a class....

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

Eh, that was yet another example of a poor attempt of mine to be funny. 😛

A would have helped.

And I'm beginning to understand the looks I get from normal people when I try to be funny.

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

... the other day I did (very proudly  ) come up with "me gusta," but then I couldn't think of a word for what it was I liked, which was this girl's shirt. I plucked at mine, but I'm not sure the message got across. She seemed a bit scared of the crazy white lady.  

Shirt is usually camisa.  And English-speaking whites are generally called anglos (since there are also white Hispanics).

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

I should probably find a way to take a class....

Probably.