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pluto
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03 Feb 2009, 6:43 pm

twoshots wrote:
Kajjie wrote:
Kara_h wrote:
Kajjie wrote:
As people are talking about racism on here, people in the UK find it very odd that people in the US talk about "African Americans". It confuses some people if the person they are referring to isn't from Africa.

Remember, our history on the topic is a bit different: we had a slave trade that only ended in a civil war. Race riots. Why do you think Obama being elected was such a big deal here?


We think Obama being president is a pretty big deal over here as well. ;)
I don't think the civil war and race riots fully expains why you call them 'African Americans'. It offers some explanation, as the slaves were African. :shrug:

The term African American is fairly recent (about 30 years ago) and was began by the African American community itself. Perhaps to some extent this has to do with the idea of trying to ground themselves in the traditions of Africa which seems to have become quite popular maybe a few decades before that, although the term can be seen as simply an analog to other ethnic identifiers used commonly in the United States (e.g., Irish American, German American, Italian American, &c). Wikipedia has a brief and completely unsourced discussion of the term.

Quote:
mitharatowen - Personally, I don't like it when people call me Caucasian. It's such a weird term, in my opinion. I mean the equivilants for other races are 'Afro-Caribbean' and 'Asian' and stuff, which makes sense as it's where they come from (Afro-Caribbean = descended from people from Africa or the Caribbean), but Caucasian? Since when are we all from Caucasia? Who even says Caucasia, or knows where it is?

Again, with Wikipedia as my guide, it seems that this term originated in the 1800s and seems to have originated with the racial classification of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach who wrote
Blumenbach wrote:
Caucasian variety - I have taken the name of this variety from Mount Caucasus, both because its neighborhood, and especially its southern slope, produces the most beautiful race of men, I mean the Georgian; and because all physiological reasons converge to this, that in that region, if anywhere, it seems we ought with the greatest probability to place the autochthones (birth place) of mankind.

The fact that we still use a term originating with that kind of reason boggles the imagination.


There's one theory that the American expression 'Caucasian' relates to a belief that after the
Great Flood,the main white race that survived did so because they lived high above sea level in the Caucasus mountains.From there emerged what became Aryans,Sumerians,Phoenicians
and others who eventually spread around the world via the colonial European empires.

Likewise,Africa was where the main black race came from.In fact,there's another theory
that the Earth was once on an orbit nearer to the sun and so everyone at that time probably
had black skin which was best suited to deal with the sun's heat.It could be that President
Obama actually represents the world returning to it's original African origins.


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Prof_Pretorius
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04 Feb 2009, 1:08 pm

I still prefer a person of colour. No point in nailing it down further.


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jacola
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21 Feb 2009, 12:34 pm

windcheater = deerhunter hat

taking the micky = taking the micheal bliss = piss



Greyhound
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21 Feb 2009, 2:00 pm

jacola wrote:
windcheater = deerhunter hat

A windcheater:
Image

A deerstalker (not deerhunter) hat:
Image

They are not the same at all.


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Doro
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21 Feb 2009, 3:31 pm

Greyhound wrote:
jacola wrote:
Image


Hehee, I would call that a "Sherlock Holmes hat"... :wink:



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22 Feb 2009, 1:06 pm

Doro wrote:
Greyhound wrote:
jacola wrote:
Image


Hehee, I would call that a "Sherlock Holmes hat"... :wink:

...which is properly called a deerstalker hat :lol:


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Magliabechi
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23 Feb 2009, 1:27 pm

Greyhound wrote:
Doro wrote:
Greyhound wrote:
jacola wrote:
Image


Hehee, I would call that a "Sherlock Holmes hat"... :wink:

...which is properly called a deerstalker hat :lol:

Or could be termed a 'Professor Moriarty Stalker hat'.

Magliabechi.



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23 Feb 2009, 1:37 pm

Magliabechi wrote:
Greyhound wrote:
Doro wrote:
Greyhound wrote:
jacola wrote:
Image


Hehee, I would call that a "Sherlock Holmes hat"... :wink:

...which is properly called a deerstalker hat :lol:

Or could be termed a 'Professor Moriarty Stalker hat'.

Magliabechi.

:lol:


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benjimanbreeg
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23 Feb 2009, 1:44 pm

anna-banana wrote:
I love the London word "lairy", I wonder of Americans know what it means...?


Eww, I don't like that word. And the worst one is when they say they've "had a touch" as in some good luck one way or the other. Its more annoying when my friend says it or writes it on facebook, cause we live an hour from London. Makes me so angry.


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Crunchybizzle
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26 Feb 2009, 7:15 am

Quote:
I recently bought the new Racounteurs album. There is a song on it called 'Top Yourself'
it's probally an intended double meaning. i've never heard top yourself used in a sexual way. i've always thought of it as self improvement like to do better than yourself. maybe they're trying to say something along the lines of killing yourself is the only thing you can do to make it/yourself better. also in american music it's pretty trendy to talk about suicide in a romantic way. i think it comes from the fact that love can often lead to heartbreak so if you really love someone you might end up wanting to kill yourself. these days self mutilation is a faddy expression of love. i love the racontours too. jack white is awesome. i want to know how he gets that guitar tone of his. also i think american artists try to sound deep sometimes by using british expressions. but then again look at the rolling stones. they had a bit of an american style. idk i think there is a lot of mutual fascination. just look at this forum!

practice vs. practise ...is that one? also what does it mean to "jog on"
and what is cockney? is that like an accent specific to a class or is it regional. because on tv it seems poor people and early 20th century millitary commanders typically have cockney accents.

oh and since we were talking about race... in America the stereotypical african american has a bit of thier own dialect (ebonics) which actually was almost made into a language you could study in school back in the 80s or something(crazy). is this the case with blacks in europe? do they use the n word as a term of endearment?

also what's up with the taxation without representation in parliament? i'm still pissed! (meaning angry not intoxicated(there's another good one))

also if you could explain most of A Clockwork Orange's dialogue that would be great!



Crunchybizzle
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26 Feb 2009, 7:24 am

oh and one more thing. i work at the jamestown settlement living history museam and a few of my coworkers are from england and i was wondering if you had any like really thoroughly british phrases i could impress them with. like things that americans would never know of. plus what's the difference between England, Britain, and the Uk. the UK includes Scotland right? for some reason that whole thing confuses me. also olde english is fun.



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26 Feb 2009, 8:58 am

And then there is Canadian English, which is like normal english for spelling, better than American english for accent, and definitly not Brittish/Aussie/other for accent, but the most neutral of all accents, depending on province of course. As for idioms, that is a bit interesting. We have a lot of phrases in common with the US, but also some they don't have and they have some we don't. American English is bastardising the way Canadian youth are wanting to spell. Yes program is acceptable, but it is properly programme. I have all my languages set to Canadian English, and it is an absolute pain in the a** to do, because on Word, it is always wanting to change the language back to American English, and it took me forever to figure out how to prevent that. Top me off refers to having a drink refilled, especially if it is not quite empty. And I hate this new language that is starting to appear, I will call it Gutterspeak English (also trailer park English, and gangster English) and it is the worst bastardisation of a language I have ever heard. Not even the homeless will degrade themselves enough to speak it.

My favourite phrase which has evolved into another phrase is to push a dead horse (or kick a dead horse as I say), which evolved into the term "dead horse society" on one forum, where that is were people go to rant, and where threads that are killed by mods but not locked go to.



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26 Feb 2009, 12:51 pm

Crunchybizzle wrote:
what's the difference between England, Britain, and the Uk. the UK includes Scotland right?

The United Kingdom comprises Britain and Northern Ireland.
Britain comprises Scotland, Wales and England.

So England is in Britain which is in the United Kingdom.


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Dodgy circuitry! Diagnosed: Tourette syndrome. Suspected: auditory processing disorder, synaesthesia. Also: social and organisation problems. Heteroromantic asexual (though still exploring)