Meme Thread... no politics

In reply to Stampie :

This is how tiny that looks on my phone.

Now I feel like a creeper zooming in to read it. Thanks.

RichardNZ said:

Interesting bit of trivia...

Toyota was founded by Mr. Toyoda. When he started the company, he went to a fortuneteller who told him that his company would be a great success if he removed a single brush-stroke from the name. So he changed the final syllable from "da" to "ta".

Yeah, Japanese is funny like that.  Their entire population has a profound understanding that correct pronunciation and grammar matters.  It's almost like they have pride in their language...  

<sigh>

stroker said:

Yeah, Japanese is funny like that.  Their entire population has a profound understanding that correct pronunciation and grammar matters.  It's almost like they have pride in their language...  

<sigh>

Is this meant to be a dig against English or English speakers?

The flexibility of English is an incredible feature that we should be proud of. An artist who masters the English language can PLAY with it in ways that would be impossible in many other languages. There is a reason why Hip Hop started and is strongest in English. Listen to Eminem making rhymes with "orange". Shakespeare's verse is uniquely English. You literally could not have composed it in French, let alone Japanese.

English is a wonderful language. People are wonderful and creative and stupid and uneducated everywhere.

Yes, the language is fine.   The spelling.....

In reply to Beer Baron :

I think he was talking more about actually learning the rules before breaking them, if you follow. It's like jazz. Anyone can play wrong notes and sound like a total novice, but a master can play the right "wrong notes" and create something beautiful. 

In reply to aircooled :

English imports the spelling, and sometimes the grammar, from whatever language got mugged for the word.  There IS no "native spelling".  In this respect it is almost unique.

We spell it Kyiv now, because we previously got the city's name from Russia and that is not really palatable anymore.

There is a city in Poland named Oświęcim.  Most people know it by its German spelling, Auschwitz...

In reply to aircooled :

Wait, whut?  What's so hard about English spelling?

English:  Tank

German:  Schutzengrabenvernichtungsautomobile

You think I'm kidding?  That was the original word before "panzer" was coined.

Duke said:

In reply to aircooled :

Wait, whut?  What's so hard about English spelling?

English:  Tank

German:  Schutzengrabenvernichtungsautomobile

You think I'm kidding?  That was the original word before "panzer" was coined.

 

The way that spelling in English is very un-phonetic compared to most languages. See how the first 3 letters in "english" are pronounced completely differently to the same first 3 letters in "engine" for one quick example.

Edit: Requisite meme:

In reply to GameboyRMH :

I'll live with having to remember that some words are spelled the same way even though they mean different things or are pronunced a little differently.

It beats hell out of having to remember what gender has been assigned to every berking inanimate object on the planet.

In reply to Beer Baron :

The English language is an awful,  contradictory, bastard language that doesn't even follow it's own rules. I like it because its what I know, not because it's good.

Duke said:

In reply to GameboyRMH :

I'll live with having to remember that some words are spelled the same way even though they mean different things or are pronunced a little differently.

It beats hell out of having to remember what gender has been assigned to every berking inanimate object on the planet.

 

Fair point...

Phonics...is not spelled with an f.

Author unknown, but it's still fantastically relevant-

We'll begin with box, and the plural is boxes; 
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes. 

Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese, 
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese. 

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice, 
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice. 

If the plural of man is always called men, 
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen? 

The cow in the plural may be cows or kine, 
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine. 

I speak of my foot and show you my feet, 
If I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet? 

If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth, 
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth? 

If the singular is this and the plural is these, 
Why shouldn't the plural of kiss be named kese? 

Then one may be that, and three may be those, 
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose; 

We speak of a brother, and also of brethren, 
But though we say mother, we never say methren. 

The masculine pronouns are he, his and him, 
But imagine the feminine she, shis, and shim! 

So our English, I think, you all will agree, 
Is the craziest language you ever did see. 

I take it you already know 
Of tough and bough and cough and dough? 
Others may stumble, but not you, 
On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through? 

Well done! And now you wish, perhaps 
To learn of less familiar traps? 

Beware of heard, a dreadful word, 
That looks like beard and sounds like bird. 

And dead; it's said like bed, not bead; 
For goodness sake, don't call it deed! 
Watch out for meat and great and threat; 
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt. 

A moth is not a moth in mother, 
Nor both in bother, broth in brother. 

And here is not a match for there, 
Or dear and fear for bear and pear. 

And then there's dose and rose and lose, 
Just look them up, and goose and choose. 

And cork and work and card and ward, 
And font and front and word and sword. 

And do and go, then thwart and cart. 
Come, come, I've hardly made a start. 

A dreadful language? Why, man alive, 
I'd learned to talk it when I was five, 
And yet to write it, the more I tried, 
I hadn't learned it at fifty-five! 

stroker said:

Yeah, Japanese is funny like that.  Their entire population has a profound understanding that correct pronunciation and grammar matters.  It's almost like they have pride in their language...  

 

<sigh>

What is funny is walking with a Japanese guy who is having a great time reading American tattooes and sniggering. 

Duke said:

In reply to aircooled :

Wait, whut?  What's so hard about English spelling?

English:  Tank

German:  Schutzengrabenvernichtungsautomobile

You think I'm kidding?  That was the original word before "panzer" was coined.

I knew a lady whose job was translating text of comic books from English into German. This was incredibly challenging.

Invariably, the German translation would be like 10-20% longer, which doesn't work well when you have a defined space for a text bubble. Plus all the puns and such do no translate at all. So she'd just have to... make up new jokes.

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:

What is funny is walking with a Japanese guy who is having a great time reading American tattooes and sniggering. 

Duke said:

In reply to aircooled :

Wait, whut?  What's so hard about English spelling?

English:  Tank

German:  Schutzengrabenvernichtungsautomobile

You think I'm kidding?  That was the original word before "panzer" was coined.

Yeah, but German had the tools to bolt that together when they needed it. English didn't have a word for tank before so someone had to just make something up right from the beginning. Which is basically how English rolls.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Conception means creation, often as an idea but also as physically startin' to grow a baby.

Contra means anti.

So, in English, contraceptive means anti-baby...

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

Well, that's what it means in Latin :) 

bearmtnmartin (Forum Supporter) said:  What is funny is walking with a Japanese guy who is having a great time reading American tattooes and sniggering. 

This cuts both ways - from my own personal collection of photos I took in Japan:

I hope these count as memes