Hosta ... I've found recently that a quite a few newbies reply to a post via a PM ... I don't think they recognise that the Message option is a Private Message and not just a Reply.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Weedy, when I moved here, an Italian friend said I'd have to learn kilos. I told him no. they measure weight in stone. He didn't believe it. "That's neolithic!"
I appreciate you trying to defuse the situation.
As someone who lives in the UK permanently...yes I chose it, but sometimes it would be nice if the people around me didn't take the mickey every time I open my mouth. I'm always having to think about what vocab to use and what spelling depending on my target audience. On FB I have both to worry about. And Americans with Britishisms sound SO affected to other Americans (There's a Friends episode about that.) And while my British husband can do just about any accent he hears, I can't mimic a British accent from any region to save my life. But when I speak to my sister, she says I sound British. (I don't.) I don't mind jokes, although it does get wearying, and makes me feel I can't ever really be at home. But the ugly comments....
For a long time on this forum I tried to hide that I'm American, because I didn't want people to give me sh--. I get that people feel allowed to make fun of Americans because we are a wealthy, culturally dominant country (although not for much longer).
I also get that it is disconcerting to read a post on this forum from someone else in the world because we are used to thinking of it as a UK forum, and UK gardening is what we know. (And I say "we" because I am American but I'm a British gardener.) If you find this forum through Google or something, I'm not sure it's clear that it's UK based. I prefer to read the UK based posts because I can identify with them and learn something or maybe offer something, whereas someone from Pennsylvania, say, I wouldn't have a clue. Most forum users just say "Well...we are mostly based in the UK here so we aren't sure but here's an idea" in a very nice way.
As a Scot who has lived in England for over 30 years, I still have to endure folk saying such hysterical things as " och aye the noo" and " there's a moose, loose, about this hoose" and thinking, A; I've never heard it before, and B; that it's funny.
It all depends on your age. We older posters never heard of centigrade apart from in the Chemistry class, it was Fahrenheit at all times. It was the same for weights, we all knew how many ounces in a pound and what a Ton was, our milk came in Gills Half pints and pints in our own jugs or glass bottles. Money was in pounds shillings and pence and my Mother and Aunts all brilliant cooks actually worked in cups as do the Americans so who had it first I ask.
Suddenly in 1970-ish we had Litres Metres and Kilometres, what on earth were those, When told to take a Convoy of trucks from Hamburg docks to Fallinbostel and it would be so and so Kilometres and hour we all looked dumb and asked how do we do that, our speedometers are in miles per hour??? What we all knew without thinking about it became one big problem. Later in ICI we got drawings with both measurements on them, one set of Isometric drawings would come in old money and one set would be binned with the new stuff we did not understand. It is easy for people brought up on one system to criticise others brought up on different systems. "Oh" and by the way I still measure for myself in feet and inches, it works for me very nicely thank you.
I have my own confusions to deal with on a daily basis but am finding people here very kind about the fact that I use "belgicisms" when speaking French but then I left the UK in 1991 and have been learning and speaking French in Belgium until last October. Words for basic things like curtains and gates are different and the French still count the old fashioned way - four score and fifteen for 95 whereas the Belgians say 95. Generally, the locals are impressed and delighted that we don't expect to get away with English.
Watery - Americans have very little sense of irony in my experience. British humour is riddled with it and they take the mickey out of everyone. I get Belgian and French humour but not their comedy. .
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Frank, I still measure myself in feet and inches, and weight myself in stones and pounds.
When I used to survey a site, it was always in metres.
If I'm measuring something to cut a piece of wood, / paper/ to size. If it's a round number say 50 in inches or cm , that's what I'll use.
Example, if I have a curtain track to fit across a wall which is 9 feet 7 3/4 wide, and I have 5 spacers on the pole, it's a lot easier to work out the spacings if I call it 2.94m and then I can use a calcuator to divide it. No?
I think the best thing about metric,is it's all in 1000s. No more 16 oz to a pound, 14 pounds to a stone. 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, god alone knows how many yards to a mile.( I bet if you ask 100 people, you'll get about 90 different answers , apart from " I don't know" ) That's before we get onto furlongs, and rods , and poles and all those other things
When I bought my polytunnels, they're sold in multiples of 3 feet widths, and 8 feet spacing between the hoops. but the instructions include such wonders as " take the 2" x 1/4" baton , and fix with a 45mm nail.
"The hoops are 4mm thick steel, 2" diameter"
I'm 54 and remember when I was about 6 in primary school being told we're no longer using feet and inches. I suggested to the tunnel folks they change to multiples of 1m wide and 2.5m spacings and ditch the Imperial measurements altogether as , essentially, nobody under 50 knows anything about them.
I used to have great fun with my scientists teaching them Americanisms as distinct form the English so they didn't get in trouble. They all tried to tell me the metric system is logical until I explained that the Imperial system is human - based on either body part lengths or what a man could reasonably lift or plough or step out. Then they got it - but didn't want to use it. 12 times tables, 14 times tables? No.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Watery, My Daughter married an American and has lived in California for over thirty years, she sounds American to us although in America she is told she is English the second she opens her mouth. When we were in California people would hear us talking come over and talk saying they loved to hear real English??? I am from the North East of England with a Yorkshire Mother and Newcastle Dad plus Durham Kin, if you wish to hear a mix of accents come and visit. I met many Uk people who had moved to California and they all sounded English to me never having lost the accent. I found the Americans very friendly and well mannered if I may say that.
Hostafan, when I was stationed at Bordon with a unit of Londoners they all thought I was Scottish, to them the bit between London and the Border to Scotland did not exist, I heard all the old jokes, smiled and said nothing because I was getting free trips to London most weekends all paid for, they too were wonderful people bad jokes and all.
Posts
Hosta ... I've found recently that a quite a few newbies reply to a post via a PM ... I don't think they recognise that the Message option is a Private Message and not just a Reply.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Dove, methinks some, NOT ALL, "hide" behind the facility.
Weedy, when I moved here, an Italian friend said I'd have to learn kilos. I told him no. they measure weight in stone. He didn't believe it. "That's neolithic!"
I appreciate you trying to defuse the situation.
As someone who lives in the UK permanently...yes I chose it, but sometimes it would be nice if the people around me didn't take the mickey every time I open my mouth. I'm always having to think about what vocab to use and what spelling depending on my target audience. On FB I have both to worry about. And Americans with Britishisms sound SO affected to other Americans (There's a Friends episode about that.) And while my British husband can do just about any accent he hears, I can't mimic a British accent from any region to save my life. But when I speak to my sister, she says I sound British. (I don't.) I don't mind jokes, although it does get wearying, and makes me feel I can't ever really be at home. But the ugly comments....
For a long time on this forum I tried to hide that I'm American, because I didn't want people to give me sh--. I get that people feel allowed to make fun of Americans because we are a wealthy, culturally dominant country (although not for much longer).
I also get that it is disconcerting to read a post on this forum from someone else in the world because we are used to thinking of it as a UK forum, and UK gardening is what we know. (And I say "we" because I am American but I'm a British gardener.) If you find this forum through Google or something, I'm not sure it's clear that it's UK based. I prefer to read the UK based posts because I can identify with them and learn something or maybe offer something, whereas someone from Pennsylvania, say, I wouldn't have a clue. Most forum users just say "Well...we are mostly based in the UK here so we aren't sure but here's an idea" in a very nice way.
The Mower By Philip Larkin
The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.
I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:
Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.
Watery ,I empathise.
As a Scot who has lived in England for over 30 years, I still have to endure folk saying such hysterical things as " och aye the noo" and " there's a moose, loose, about this hoose" and thinking, A; I've never heard it before, and B; that it's funny.
It all depends on your age. We older posters never heard of centigrade apart from in the Chemistry class, it was Fahrenheit at all times. It was the same for weights, we all knew how many ounces in a pound and what a Ton was, our milk came in Gills Half pints and pints in our own jugs or glass bottles. Money was in pounds shillings and pence and my Mother and Aunts all brilliant cooks actually worked in cups as do the Americans so who had it first I ask.
Suddenly in 1970-ish we had Litres Metres and Kilometres, what on earth were those, When told to take a Convoy of trucks from Hamburg docks to Fallinbostel and it would be so and so Kilometres and hour we all looked dumb and asked how do we do that, our speedometers are in miles per hour??? What we all knew without thinking about it became one big problem. Later in ICI we got drawings with both measurements on them, one set of Isometric drawings would come in old money and one set would be binned with the new stuff we did not understand. It is easy for people brought up on one system to criticise others brought up on different systems. "Oh" and by the way I still measure for myself in feet and inches, it works for me very nicely thank you.
Frank.
I have my own confusions to deal with on a daily basis but am finding people here very kind about the fact that I use "belgicisms" when speaking French but then I left the UK in 1991 and have been learning and speaking French in Belgium until last October. Words for basic things like curtains and gates are different and the French still count the old fashioned way - four score and fifteen for 95 whereas the Belgians say 95. Generally, the locals are impressed and delighted that we don't expect to get away with English.
Watery - Americans have very little sense of irony in my experience. British humour is riddled with it and they take the mickey out of everyone. I get Belgian and French humour but not their comedy. .
Frank, I still measure myself in feet and inches, and weight myself in stones and pounds.
When I used to survey a site, it was always in metres.
If I'm measuring something to cut a piece of wood, / paper/ to size. If it's a round number say 50 in inches or cm , that's what I'll use.
Example, if I have a curtain track to fit across a wall which is 9 feet 7 3/4 wide, and I have 5 spacers on the pole, it's a lot easier to work out the spacings if I call it 2.94m and then I can use a calcuator to divide it. No?
I think the best thing about metric,is it's all in 1000s. No more 16 oz to a pound, 14 pounds to a stone. 12 inches to a foot, 3 feet to a yard, god alone knows how many yards to a mile.( I bet if you ask 100 people, you'll get about 90 different answers , apart from " I don't know" ) That's before we get onto furlongs, and rods , and poles and all those other things
When I bought my polytunnels, they're sold in multiples of 3 feet widths, and 8 feet spacing between the hoops. but the instructions include such wonders as " take the 2" x 1/4" baton , and fix with a 45mm nail.
"The hoops are 4mm thick steel, 2" diameter"
I'm 54 and remember when I was about 6 in primary school being told we're no longer using feet and inches. I suggested to the tunnel folks they change to multiples of 1m wide and 2.5m spacings and ditch the Imperial measurements altogether as , essentially, nobody under 50 knows anything about them.
I used to have great fun with my scientists teaching them Americanisms as distinct form the English so they didn't get in trouble. They all tried to tell me the metric system is logical until I explained that the Imperial system is human - based on either body part lengths or what a man could reasonably lift or plough or step out. Then they got it - but didn't want to use it. 12 times tables, 14 times tables? No.
Watery, My Daughter married an American and has lived in California for over thirty years, she sounds American to us although in America she is told she is English the second she opens her mouth. When we were in California people would hear us talking come over and talk saying they loved to hear real English??? I am from the North East of England with a Yorkshire Mother and Newcastle Dad plus Durham Kin, if you wish to hear a mix of accents come and visit. I met many Uk people who had moved to California and they all sounded English to me never having lost the accent. I found the Americans very friendly and well mannered if I may say that.
Hostafan, when I was stationed at Bordon with a unit of Londoners they all thought I was Scottish, to them the bit between London and the Border to Scotland did not exist, I heard all the old jokes, smiled and said nothing because I was getting free trips to London most weekends all paid for, they too were wonderful people bad jokes and all.
Frank.