[TAG] Talkback:126/pfeiffer.html

[Steve Brown]

On Thu, Oct 19, 2006 at 02:38:36PM -0700, Rick Moen wrote:
> Quoting Steve Brown (steve.stevebrown at gmail.com):
> 
> > I learnt both Glaswegian and Geordie by immersing myself in the local
> > culture - going to the pub and staying there for two weeks at a time.
> > I am amazingly receptive to new languages whilst drunk. I learnt most
> > of the little German I have in a similar manner.
> 
> I can easily imagine Geordie being markedly more comprehensible while
> drunk.  (Ford Prefect:  'It's unpleasantly like being drunk.'  Arthur
> Dent:  'What's so unpleasant about being drunk?'  Ford Prefect:  'Ask a
> glass of water.')  Having spent time around Scots helps, such that
> phrases like 'Dinna fash thyself, lad' no longer seem entirely cryptic.
> 
> Knowing that particular phrase, however, caused me considerable
> confusion in Glasgow, when a waitress reassured me that 'Your fash
> will be out in a minute.'  It took me _several_ minutes to deduce
> that she was referring to my plate of haddock.

I was once in Scotland for Hogmanay. Inadvertantly, I let slip that I
enjoy a glass of whiskey. Asked if I wanted water, I declined - makes it
taste funny. Oh, drink your whiskey like a man do you?

That was my last clear recollection for the next four days. Apparently I
did quite well, I managed to taste each and every whiskey in the house
before I fell off my chair. My friends dad worked in a distillery and
collected malt whiskey as a hobby. As did all his friends. To add to the
injury I was inflicting on my liver, kidneys and brain I was expected to
go 'First Footing' due to my dark hair (now sadly departed), naturally
this meant toasting the health of the household with a wee drop of
whiskey. The Scots have a marvelous knack for understatement. My friends
dad was known to most of the estate, and almost all of them wanted to
see the 'wee drunk English laddie'.

I seldom drink now.
 
> > I hail from Leicester where they swap the terminal 'er' for 'uh' and
> > 'tt' for 'kk' (hence Leicestuh and bokkle).
> > 
> > Despair is a daily companion.
> 
> Eh, the Midlands are lovely country, and Leicester has all those lovely
> Victorian buildings and the best Indian cuisine I encountered outside
> Southwark.

Ah, you can't beat a good curry - it will always beat you. 
> So what if you don't pronounce it properly?  ;->