[TAG] Talkback:126/pfeiffer.html

[Jimmy O'Regan]

[Apologies for the late reply]

Steve Brown wrote:
> On 19/10/06, Benjamin A. Okopnik <ben at linuxgazette.net> wrote:
>> On Thu, Oct 19, 2006 at 03:47:38PM +0100, Steve Brown wrote:
>>> On 19/10/06, Benjamin A. Okopnik <ben at linuxgazette.net> wrote:
>>>> Who's next? :)
>>> [Steve Brown]
>>> English (just) ;-)
>> Oh... Steve, you _don't_ want to go there - nobody's selling any tickets
>> back. :) Is that "just Bawston" ("pahk the cah by the cahner"), "just
>> Noith Joisey" ("What's wid youse guys?"), "just Scandasotan" ("Supposin'
>> a guy was to ask a question here, might could he get an answer?"), or
>> what?
>>
> 
> Ah,but I _can_ understand Glaswegian, Geordie, Scouse and Cockney.
> 
> Although, Cockney does have the remarkable ability to make my teeth itch. Funny.
> 

No, not really -- they're just trying to distance themselves from your
tongue, in case you try to speak in that manner :)

> 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.
> 

Heh. I've spent almost 2 years learning Polish that way :) I can swear
like a trooper, but I still don't know the names of all the months!

> Sadly, I have to get into a similar state to be fluent again, I enter
> a sort of 'fugue' state on ther narrow border between sentience and
> insensibility. At that point I can converse with almost anyone. The
> only real drawback is that when I wake up I lose the ability to talk
> to anyone for a couple of days. That and a blinding headache.
> 

Well... "drunk" is a universal language. I made friends in Spain, though
I spoke almost no Spanish and they spoke almost no English, just by...
well, being drunk. Same in Poland -- though I knew enough Polish to get
by in shops, train stations, and the like, I knew nowhere near enough to
have a proper conversation... I think it was Ben who summed it up here
before: "gibberish *is*" :)