Finding things People Lost?

[dmccarty]

The USA has its local accents as well.
The Ozarks have some dillies.
A real Cajun accent will have U wondering if that is really English , however being Canadian and speaking French I do manage to interpret somewhat.
The word Cajun was derived from Acadien which indicated French.

In one of my first trips in NC, I met a guy who I could barely understand. He was speaking English but it was a Southern US English that I had mucho trouble parsing. There are many different accents in the US but especially so in the South. NC had/has people on the Outer Banks speaking what is supposed to be Shakespearean English. Then are there NC accents similar/same as many areas of the South. The guy I mentioned before was from the Piedmont and he was really different. I am sure there are accents up in the NC mountains that are different too. Unfortunately, these regional/local accents are being lost as people move around but also because of mass media.

I used to work for a UK company and the different accents from the UK is astounding. They assured me they were speaking "English." :confused3::shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: The number of accents just in England is amazing though I think they are loosing those accents too.

When I was a kid in LA they hired a native French speaker to teach French because of the French influence in the state. The French she was speaking was only roughly related to what/how the Cajun's talked. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[tungularafishcamp]

I love hearing different dialects/accents, hope they never go away! I wonder if television is also helping to do away with them.

I used to help a guide friend every fall for a week when he had the same spaniards come, working as a guide/translator (even though my learned in Mexico, Spanish isn't very good) These Spaniards who all spoke proper Castilian Spanish would crack up at my Mexican slang.

The toughest English accent I ever tried to understand was the Rastafarians in the Virgin Islands, it did not even sound like English to me

 

[dmccarty]

I love hearing different dialects/accents, hope they never go away! I wonder if television is also helping to do away with them.
...

Yeah, I really like the different accents I run into. When we were in Ireland, we FINALLY found a store with Irish wool products. We were looking for things for ourselves but also to bring back to family. We kept finding sweat shirts with San Francisco, New York, Boston, etc written on them! :confused3::shocked::shocked::shocked: We did not go to Ireland to buy a sweat shirt with Chicago on the front! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

In the store with Irish products, a very nice lady spent quite some time with my wife. The lady had an odd accent though. You could hear Eastern European but then there would be full on Irish. When we were checking out the cashier, who I think was the manager, started to talk with us and we mentioned the helpful lady's accent. Turns out she IS from Eastern Europe, I forget where, but has been in Ireland for almost a decade which explained the accent.

From what I have heard, TV, radio, music mass media, as well as people moving so much, are removing the distinct regional accents. In the US, we are merging to a mid western accent.

:laughing::laughing::laughing: Seem we are still on topic, "Finding things People Lost."

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

...
The toughest English accent I ever tried to understand was the Rastafarians in the Virgin Islands, it did not even sound like English to me

Try to understand some one from Liverpool. Not really sure what language they are speaking but I have been assured it is English. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[tungularafishcamp]

Seem we are still on topic, "Finding things People Lost." Later, Dan

Have never been to England, so they are are the ones responsible for our crazy language!

 

[mark02tj]

Did a job in central Mexico about a dozen years ago. The client was a Japanese owned fastener (screws, nuts, bolts, etc.) distributor that had operations in the US, 1 in Mexico and 1 in Canada. The Japanese facility manager learned his English from the Mexicans. It was pretty funny to listen to a Japanese guy speak English with a Mexican accent!

 

[ovrszd]

I've been to Korea 13 times. In Seoul there's a huge International shopping district called Itawon (sp?). Very common to see people from many nations in one shop at the same time. I really enjoy watching people talk amongst themselves in their native tongue, German, French, whatever. Then the shop personnel talking in their native tongue, Korean. Then when it comes time to negotiate on a purchase both parties speak English.

 

[bunyip]

The black tube sticking up out of the ground was a pis* tube for the male Soldiers.

View attachment 527664

I was in the RAAF (Air Force) and when on bivouacs we called those 'Dessert Lillies'
A neat row of pipes sticking out of the ground with a funnel on the end, could have been pretty if someone painted the funnels

 

[ovrszd]

I was in the RAAF (Air Force) and when on bivouacs we called those 'Dessert Lillies'
A neat row of pipes sticking out of the ground with a funnel on the end, could have been pretty if someone painted the funnels

Good stuff right there!!!!

 

[Wagtail]

I was in the RAAF (Air Force) and when on bivouacs we called those 'Dessert Lillies'
A neat row of pipes sticking out of the ground with a funnel on the end, could have been pretty if someone painted the funnels

Sorry but I'm calling BS on this!

Everybody knows that the Air Force 'roughing it' is a 3-star motel (no swimming pool :melodramatic.

'Hard Laying Allowance' would apply.

 

[bunyip]

I think you are being extremely unfair, I ate off a chipped plate once.
Having said that we had to do a training course with the Army near Wodonga, four of us checked in just on lunch time, we were directed to the mess tent and given a panikin and cutlery, stood in line and were present with three ladles of different coloured slop, we couldn't bring ourselves to eat it and there was almost a riot to grab the food we didn't want.
We checked ourselves into the Albury Travelodge for the next two weeks.

 

[crash325]

Most recent find that amounted to anything was 2 gallon Eglue water cooler.

Find pennies, nickles & dimes quite often.

best fine in forever was a few thousand $$ worth of gems that the thief missed when he stole most everything of value.
Including pressure washer & welding tanks & 3 heavy duty Victor torches.

 

[3930dave]

Went to visit a buddy who lives about 2.5 hours away a number of years back. Didn't have a great cell plan back then, so stopped at a roadside payphone in his town, to get final directions to his new place. Found a man's wallet, sitting on top of the payphone - small amount of cash and cards, ID in it. Went for a drive with the friend I was visiting later that day, to drop it off at the local police station.

Walking, jogging, or biking local roads, I've found a few hand-tools over the years. Nobody around, or no worksite nearby, so likely had fallen off a truck. Haven't lost too many over the years myself, but I've had one or 2 "go away" - so I figure in the big picture, we are just passing 'em around

Was jogging along a road near home on a early Spring day, and saw what looked like a wallet sitting on top of a melting snow bank near a big hedge - strange place, as there was no sidewalk, driveway or anything else there. It looked fairly new, so I walked through a shallow ditch to get it. Turns out, there was a grocery store next town over where it often happened that ladies who left their purse in their grocery cart had their wallet lifted - thieves would cruise down the road I was on, and toss the wallet once they'd lifted the cash. Id was intact, so I checked the phone listings against that, and called. Got the lady's Dad, and she came over later that day. She was really grateful to get the ID back, as she was shortly taking her young kids on a Spring driving trip to the USA, and was about to start scrambling to replace all their ID to go on the trip.

I've had a few total strangers help me or family out over the years..... I figure what goes round comes around.....

Rgds, D.

 

[mjarrels]

Back in the sixties, following a friday night home football game, I would ride my bike to the football field early saturday morning and go under the bleachers and hunt for lost money. Usually found at least 6 or 8 dollars in loose change and single dollar bills. That was a lot of cash for a young kid back then. A bottle of pop was 10 cents and a candy bar a nickle.

mark

 

[ovrszd]

I think you are being extremely unfair, I ate off a chipped plate once.
Having said that we had to do a training course with the Army near Wodonga, four of us checked in just on lunch time, we were directed to the mess tent and given a panikin and cutlery, stood in line and were present with three ladles of different coloured slop, we couldn't bring ourselves to eat it and there was almost a riot to grab the food we didn't want.
We checked ourselves into the Albury Travelodge for the next two weeks.

I am Retired Army. Glad to see things are the same here as Down Under!!!!

 

[CobyRupert]

Back in the sixties, following a friday night home football game, I would ride my bike to the football field early saturday morning and go under the bleachers and hunt for lost money. Usually found at least 6 or 8 dollars in loose change and single dollar bills. That was a lot of cash for a young kid back then. A bottle of pop was 10 cents and a candy bar a nickle.

mark

...and the bike ride was always through the snow, and uphill, both ways! (Sorry, couldn't resist)

I once got a letter in the mail, no return address. I opened it up and there was my motorcycle registration. Didn't even know I'd lost it (it must of blown out of a saddle bag). "Thanks anonymous stranger!!"

 

[dmccarty]

I've been to Korea 13 times. In Seoul there's a huge International shopping district called Itawon (sp?). Very common to see people from many nations in one shop at the same time. I really enjoy watching people talk amongst themselves in their native tongue, German, French, whatever. Then the shop personnel talking in their native tongue, Korean. Then when it comes time to negotiate on a purchase both parties speak English.

When we were in China, we were buying some stuff for ourselves and gifts for family. We went into this underground "shopping center" that was nice but just a maze of stores. Figured if the place caught on fire we were dead since finding a way out would be difficult to say the least. :shocked: Did not mention that to the wife until we were back at the hotel. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

We are Gweilos and there are danged few westerners seen where we are so the shop keeper(s) see dollar signs when looking at us. Among other things. We knew to go to a certain shop for some of the items, and like most of stores, it was very small about 10'x10'. We mentioned what we were looking to buy and they waved us through a hidden door behind the counter into another itty bitty room that was about 10'x10'. We start asking for the things we want and the store keepers English was good enough for us to broadly communicate. They don't have quite what we are looking for so the lady talks to her husband who is out front and he comes back and goes through yet another hidden door into what must have been another 10'x10' room! :laughing::laughing::laughing: The shop was like a Russian doll with room after hidden room. He returns with more stuff and we finally find what we are looking to buy so the dealing really starts. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

We simplified things and just put everything in one pile, even though there were two "groups" of us buying. We started negotiating for the price but since our Cantonese was non existent, and while their English was better than our Cantonese, speaking was going to slow things down so we used a calculator to "bid." They would put in a price we would shake our head and put in another number. They would say no and put in a number. Back and forth it went until we had a deal. :thumbsup::laughing::laughing::laughing:

I think many people could speak English but they did not want to loose face by not speaking it well. Given our skill with Cantonese was zero, they had nothing to be ashamed about but that is China. After shopping, we went and ate at a local Dim Sum restaurant where we were having trouble communicating with the older women at the counter. A young man, who seemed to be the delivery guy, helped out and he had pretty good English. :thumbsup:

Ironically, we ended up going to Walmart in China. :confused3::shocked: It smelled like Walmart. It looked like Walmart. It has the usual Walmart stuff. But the difference was they had employees all over the place, it was clean and the shelves were all neat. :thumbsup: The funny thing is we popped out on one of the main aisles and saw another Western couple! :shocked: We were all shocked to see each other. Turned out they were Americans teaching English to the locals. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

We found Americans in a Chinese Walmart AND the can of Turtle Wax we were looking to buy! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

 

[check]

:thumbsup: Yep, true-blue dinky-di fair-dinkum spot-on mates! Strewth.

Don't listen to Wagtail guys. He's not even a real Aussie! Just a Hoser from Alberta, so take off, eh?. (Probably never even met Crocodile Dundee.)

 

[Garandman]

I was hooking my boat to the mooring last summer (Boston Harbor) and fell off it. Lost my glasses, cell phone, and wallet. Fortunately did not lose my car key.

Two days later the wallet showed up in our mailbox, soaking wet, with all the cards in it. No note. Now before I go out to hook it up I empty my pockets. And got an easier shackle....

My HS German teacher had a Bavarian accent, and I was stationed in Bavaria. When we went to Berlin, I told the waiter I was translating for the group. Oh you are from Bavaria? I will speak slowly. :laughing: [Most Northern Germans think Bavarians are a little slow.]

 

[tungularafishcamp]

Glad you didn't lose your life Gman!