LUFCTALK

johnh wrote:Many thanks all. Have had a great day so far. Out to lunch - two glasses of red! - daughter no.1 drove us home! A lot of people said nice things like 'you don't look 83', most said I only look 82. Wish I only felt like 82. Apologies if I have posted this before but when I was about 10 years old I asked my mother why, if I was born on St Patricks day, I wasn't called Patrick John instead of John Patrick. She explained that as my older brother was called Michael and at the time I was born there was a surfeit of Pat and Mick jokes doing the rounds, she didn't want us to be known as Pat and Mick. True story that.

Pat and john were talking at a bar Pat said...


Nah not quite right that.

Hope you have had a great day John, Atb.

Happy birthday, John

Got a text from her indoors that said 'Your great'. I texted back 'No, you're great'. She's been walking around with a big smile all day. Do you think I should tell her I was only
correcting her grammar, or just leave it?

johnh wrote:Got a text from her indoors that said 'Your great'. I texted back 'No, you're great'. She's been walking around with a big smile all day. Do you think I should tell her I was only
correcting her grammar, or just leave it?

Leave it John, she will only pick up the frying pan like my wife does when i correct her grammar. My wife is Filipina and sometimes her grammar isn't the greatest but she speaks well enough to be understood especially when she has a machete in her hand and then i understand everything she says

You're lucky though in the UK and in most English native speaking countries grammar is normally the main issue but one of my pet hates with the English language is American English and UK English which really annoys me a lot especially when teaching Chinese people English like I do every day. They are hell bent on learning American English but i persistently tell them, I'm not American and have no desire to be either (No offence to our American Talkers) I just dislike how American English has become the standard English rather than where the English language originated from.

American / British

sidewalk = Pavement
Vitamin (long I sound) Vitamin (short I sound)
Tomato (long a sound) tomato (short a sound)
and many many more. Even the company i work for are encouraging the changes in the lesson materials they use but I'm hardheaded and a stubborn person when it comes to this and i persist in speaking the language as i see it should be, with British English and a certain amount of eloquence too. chin chin.....

CorkWhite wrote:

johnh wrote:Got a text from her indoors that said 'Your great'. I texted back 'No, you're great'. She's been walking around with a big smile all day. Do you think I should tell her I was only
correcting her grammar, or just leave it?

Leave it John, she will only pick up the frying pan like my wife does when i correct her grammar. My wife is Filipina and sometimes her grammar isn't the greatest but she speaks well enough to be understood especially when she has a machete in her hand and then i understand everything she says

You're lucky though in the UK and in most English native speaking countries grammar is normally the main issue but one of my pet hates with the English language is American English and UK English which really annoys me a lot especially when teaching Chinese people English like I do every day. They are hell bent on learning American English but i persistently tell them, I'm not American and have no desire to be either (No offence to our American Talkers) I just dislike how American English has become the standard English rather than where the English language originated from.

American / British

sidewalk = Pavement
Vitamin (long I sound) Vitamin (short I sound)
Tomato (long a sound) tomato (short a sound)
and many many more. Even the company i work for are encouraging the changes in the lesson materials they use but I'm hardheaded and a stubborn person when it comes to this and i persist in speaking the language as i see it should be, with British English and a certain amount of eloquence too. chin chin.....

CW - this made me smile a lot! My wife (Colombian, just a reminder ) used to use the American pronunciation (computer (hardly no t), tuna (soft n) etc) but she now says those words properly - TEWNA is a particular joy. Some words she says with a distinct Nottingham accent ('scrubbing machine', 'buffing machine'....she works as a school cleaner) but I think she's on the right track (BTW I told her to leave her machete at home after I found out she was part of Pablo Escobar's gang)

Also with apologies to our American forumers, here's a couple of words they don't understand/use:

Penultimate
Fortnight

More odd words they use:

Pavement - road surfaced with tarmac
Faucett - water tap
Fender, hood and trunk - respectively bumper, bonnet and boot on a car

But bit of a dilemma when I was in Toronto when I expressed my pleasure to a colleague that the middle of the city was signposted as 'centre' - his reply was 'it's the French spelling'.

Anyway keep up the good work teaching proper English!

Off into the big smoke with friends for a bite to eat then onto UB40 concert, not a massive fan but friends bought us tickets for Tracey's birthday so going with an open mind but should be good craic lol. Then onto a few bars were we're meeting up with her daughter Samantha who's Flybe leaving do is tonight (may have to put up with tipsy cabin crew ) On top of that a maintenance engineer with our company is having his leaving do in the same bar tonight......... could get messy.

Davycc wrote:Off into the big smoke with friends for a bite to eat then onto UB40 concert

No doubt you’ll be having a glass or two of red red wine

Barlow Boy wrote:

Davycc wrote:Off into the big smoke with friends for a bite to eat then onto UB40 concert

No doubt you’ll be having a glass or two of red red wine

But spot on