Why are so many people trying to sound american nowadays ??

[dune]

My daughter has been invited to a 'Baby shower' this afternoon. WTF is this all about then? Peer pressure and guilt on friends and relatives to attend and to buy gifts for an as yet unborn child. Insidious creeping in of more Americanisms: the selfish, 'me, me, me' culture.

What is wrong with accepting gifts from people who want to give them after the baby is born?

 

I hate wedding lists with a passion. Another "me, me, me" phenomenon. The f/cking cheek one relation had when she got married! Luckily I saw the list early and put my name next to one of the cheaper items.

[revolution saint]

I hate wedding lists with a passion. Another "me, me, me" phenomenon. The f/cking cheek one relation had when she got married! Luckily I saw the list early and put my name next to one of the cheaper items.

 

Never thought I'd agree with you but I ignore wedding lists. In many cases they're not necessary. My sister got married after living with her future husband for a few years, they decided to get married but there was nothing domestic they really needed so we were asked to chip in for their honeymoon instead. My Dad paid for the wedding and they got a free holiday. I can understand the tradition but in this case we were talking about two top rate tax payers; a solicitor and a senior teacher. Obviously I was happy for them but the decision to get married was a financial bonus for them.

[SNSUN]

Never thought I'd agree with you but I ignore wedding lists. In many cases they're not necessary. My sister got married after living with her future husband for a few years, they decided to get married but there was nothing domestic they really needed so we were asked to chip in for their honeymoon instead. My Dad paid for the wedding and they got a free holiday. I can understand the tradition but in this case we were talking about two top rate tax payers; a solicitor and a senior teacher. Obviously I was happy for them but the decision to get married was a financial bonus for them.

 

You beat me to the punch. I get married next year and this is what we're doing. We don't need material things, as we've lived together for four years and have what we need so aren't having a wedding list, but as I'm funding the whole wedding myself due to neither parental unit having any spare cash, we won't be able to afford a honeymoon. I don't earn much but have saved well, but any extra help to get us on a honeymoon would be much appreciated. Thus we're giving people the chance to buy us holiday vouchers. As much as people want to give. We won't kick up a stink if we don't end up in the Maldives, even a weekend in Bognor Regis would be something! We won't look down on friends and family that give us nothing, that's their choice.

 

We're not showy people anyway, I've noticed an upturn in Americanisation of weddings, a "look at me" culture where the bride and gloom choreograph their own first dance. I'd be embarrassed as sin. I watched that Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and it nearly made me sick.

[pap]

That's just like, your opinion man.

 

I've lived in the states for almost 8 years and I have picked up a lot of American words, phrases and inflections. I can't help it, I've seen other ex-pats and all have varying degrees of how much they adopt. I worked with one cockney who had been here for 30 years and he sounded more cockney now than when he left! I have no idea how he managed that.

 

I have noticed in the last few years that more of my friends back in the uk saying 'dude' and other americanisms, it definitely surprises me sometimes when I hear words I'm only used to Americans saying.

 

From my experience, it goes one of two ways. I've pretty much kept my Southampton accent; it gets nursed back to full health whenever I go back home. My best mate, who moved to Liverpool a year after I did, sounded like a third-rate comedian trying to do a scouse accent. I had a constant fear that someone was going to say "you taking the ****" and fill us on nights out.

 

He's now leaving near Reading. It got better.

[revolution saint]

You beat me to the punch. I get married next year and this is what we're doing. We don't need material things, as we've lived together for four years and have what we need so aren't having a wedding list, but as I'm funding the whole wedding myself due to neither parental unit having any spare cash, we won't be able to afford a honeymoon. I don't earn much but have saved well, but any extra help to get us on a honeymoon would be much appreciated. Thus we're giving people the chance to buy us holiday vouchers. As much as people want to give. We won't kick up a stink if we don't end up in the Maldives, even a weekend in Bognor Regis would be something! We won't look down on friends and family that give us nothing, that's their choice.

 

We're not showy people anyway, I've noticed an upturn in Americanisation of weddings, a "look at me" culture where the bride and gloom choreograph their own first dance. I'd be embarrassed as sin. I watched that Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and it nearly made me sick.

 

Fair play to you, hope you enjoy the big day - and at least it's your day and not financially dependant on someone else. That's something to be proud about.

[pap]

I hate wedding lists with a passion. Another "me, me, me" phenomenon. The f/cking cheek one relation had when she got married! Luckily I saw the list early and put my name next to one of the cheaper items.

 

Yup. Especially if they're already making you drive out to the country so they can pretend to be a 19th century middle-class couple for a few hours, where the only place to drink or stay is the big fecking castle that you have to pay £150 notes to stay in.

[SNSUN]

Fair play to you, hope you enjoy the big day - and at least it's your day and not financially dependant on someone else. That's something to be proud about.

 

Thanks. On the upside, i'll be skint after the wedding, so if I divorce the dozy mare she can't take me for every penny! (I have saved enough back for the odd trip to SMS though!)

[Johnny Shearer]

'My bad' instead of 'my mistake'.

 

Seriously it just does not make any sense.

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

I love it when you set up Microsoft software and are forced to choose "US English" or "International English" for your locale. wtf?

On another note, I hate the way antipodeans and teenagers end their sentences on an up tone. Drives me ****ing crazy.

Also why do a lot of the yoof think they are in some gangsta's hood and go around talking like Snoop Dog?

[Huffton]

Also why do a lot of the yoof think they are in some gangsta's hood and go around talking like Snoop Dog?

 

coz dey is all rock innit blud, naaot a meen...

[Frank's cousin]

When the feck did schools in the UK start having Proms? ArgHh.. It's inevitable that language evolves, but the pace is what makes it so noticable and thus so annoying to many... and dont get me started on the 'kids' trying to be US 'Gangstas'....

[LVSaint]

That's just like, your opinion man.

 

I've lived in the states for almost 8 years and I have picked up a lot of American words, phrases and inflections. I can't help it, I've seen other ex-pats and all have varying degrees of how much they adopt. I worked with one cockney who had been here for 30 years and he sounded more cockney now than when he left! I have no idea how he managed that.

 

How does he do that?

 

For the first 6 or 7 years I was ok, it's now over 10 and I'm starting to sound like a twaaat more and more each day. (Don't get me wrong, an American accent is one thing, and there are some really nice regional accents out there. But with an English based voice with a developing twang, It's like listening to someone's voice drop...one sentence to the next, sounding different. T's become D's, etc, etcedera. You start to stop and rethink what you just said or just sounded like.)

 

There's an expat from Blackpool living round the corner who's been here for over 30 years and he just sounds silly.

 

Sonofab!tch....

[LGTL]

People who refer to a TV show as a "season" instead of a "series" irritate me.

[Window Cleaner]

You beat me to the punch. I get married next year and this is what we're doing. We don't need material things, as we've lived together for four years and have what we need so aren't having a wedding list, but as I'm funding the whole wedding myself due to neither parental unit having any spare cash, we won't be able to afford a honeymoon. I don't earn much but have saved well, but any extra help to get us on a honeymoon would be much appreciated. Thus we're giving people the chance to buy us holiday vouchers. As much as people want to give. We won't kick up a stink if we don't end up in the Maldives, even a weekend in Bognor Regis would be something! We won't look down on friends and family that give us nothing, that's their choice.

 

We're not showy people anyway, I've noticed an upturn in Americanisation of weddings, a "look at me" culture where the bride and gloom choreograph their own first dance. I'd be embarrassed as sin. I watched that Big Fat Gypsy Wedding and it nearly made me sick.

 

bride and gloom.................the shape of things to come perhaps.

 

In fact bride and groom all sounds very equine.

[Ohio Saint]

From my experience, it goes one of two ways. I've pretty much kept my Southampton accent; it gets nursed back to full health whenever I go back home. My best mate, who moved to Liverpool a year after I did, sounded like a third-rate comedian trying to do a scouse accent. I had a constant fear that someone was going to say "you taking the ****" and fill us on nights out.

 

He's now leaving near Reading. It got better.

 

After 10 years here I have pretty much kept my accent. My only problem is that I can't remember sometimes which words are American and which are English. I sometimes try to give the American one so that I will be understood, but get caught in a conflict trying to remember how I used to say it, or have I got it all upside down and thinking a word is English when it is American or vice versa.