Most alcohol tastes like piss. Which is why, when I do drink, I buy spirits. Atleast some of them taste nice.

If that's the case, instead of spending money on liqours, I'll go the Fallout route and drink from the toilet instead.

English is difficult to learn for a number of reasons. I forget the terminology (I'm a fair few years out of school and I never use this stuff anymore IRL) but...

English is special, if not unique, because it has

• a lot of fluff words -- a, the
  
• very particular, intricate tenses -- for instance, French has a much simplified presentation of time, and Aboriginal (is that what it's called?) has a very loose idea of time
  
• a lot of pronouns that are used in really funny ways, compared to other languages
  
• a lot of gendered nouns and gender-specific rules -- this is a really tough hurdle to get over, because each language has a different way of approaching nouns; for instance, Pedi speakers will have a tought time using he/she/his/her/him because their rules for gender are vastly different; they'll call a women "he" or refer to "his" purse, etc.
  
• a lot of collective nouns, and number, potency, value, etc. rules -- things to do with numbers often don't translate well from one language to the next; for instance, African languages typically have a communal understanding of ownership, so they'll refer to "their" (the community's) cow rather than "his" (the owner's) cow
  
• a lot of exceptions to rules -- although, you find this is the case in most languages
  
• a lot of imported words -- from French, Russian, German, Arabic, Dutch, and even tiny languages like Afrikaans

and because it's so international and changes so quickly now, it can be difficult for learners to know what words are contemporary, or formal, or archaic, or technical, etc.

Everyone who has watched a few Westerns knows that. Never actually use the term myself, unless I'm quoting Clint Eastwood.

I think people have pointed out the inconsistency of England's age limits, too: you can join the Army at 15, marry at 16 and smoke as much as you want while you're at it, drive at 17, and have to wait until 18 to buy alcohol and vote (preferably at the same time.) And wait until you're 25 before you can afford car insurance...

I think its absolutely ridiculous. It's not even that you can drive at 16. You can die for your country (18), pick the president (18), but yet you aren't considered responsible enough to handle a beer.

And when you think about it: people under 21 are going to drink. And since they aren't legally allowed to, they find ways to that are more dangerous than just going to the local bar. So it can be argued that the age restriction causes more problems than it fixes.


And yet your location is the Lucky 38 Cocktail Lounge?



Love the discussion in here, by the way!

So basically like Prince Phillip, old phil the dill, oh look at the filthy prols why again cant went hunt them like foxes.

Marrying a prince is a fairy tale ideal, its like marrying a millionare you get a free ride, just with royalty you get a title and your face on tv alot more and a free ride.

Drinking well when i got to 18 my town was known for the fact that it basically had a pub on every corner, we are a regional town, and we had over 68 pubs, it was a thing to at least once in your life to have one or more drinks in each pub in one day, and when i was 18 pubs closed at 12.00 am, drinking was basically the only entertainment on offer with the exception of the one cinema, still have one cinema for a town with way over 80.000 people.


Ummm do you live in Australia, games are not banned and censored like they are in many countries some states occasionally will ban a game when political parties are lobbied to ban it, but its not banned nationally, some games have some violence removed, but in general its not a big issue, censorship in the US is worse than here we can see briasts on free to air tv not cable channels without, howls of death to the infidel, oh my child saw a briast they are mentally damaged for life. When movies come out there are usually a North American edition or US edition that is censored for the US market, when i purchase dvd's i always check for the UK, or European versions because they arent slashed to peices.

And i have no idea where the pormstars must have certain briast size came from, its not as if we actually have a porm industry here, and what little of there is you wouldnt notice.

And as for fire and floods, what about the 200 people that have just died in europe from the cold, floods in europe are becoming common every year, they are not common events here especially the one on the scale of the queensland floods, it was one of the once in a century type floods, weve been through 12 years of drought, across the whole country, and fire is a natural occurence same with the US, we have pact with the US fire service, they send people here and when they need us we send people there.

It's got a great view up here, love. Plus it has running AC and radios. Why wouldn't I be up here instead of with the peons on the Strip below?

Do typical Brits have difficulty understanding the Cockney accent?
And when in the company of those who speak with a different accent, do you unconsciously begin to emulate that accent, thinking perhaps that they could understand you a little better?
Doesn't have to be Cockney btw.

All Brits speak with the cockney accent. Didntcha know? They also work as chimney sweeps, have poor dentistry, and drive horse and buggy down the road.

If I can afford car insurance by the time I'm 25 I'll consider myself very lucky indeed
Not really, unless it's a very, very strong accent. Most people in southern England speak with a mild cockney accent anyway.

Meh, if doesn't get below -30^oC it's not worth writing about It's all about clothing. And supposedly us finnish people are pretty cold resistant Currently it's -22^oC here, typical temperature for this time of the year.

That's what i love living here, winters are -30^oC, summers are +30^oC

That's not actually how I pictured it...Hyacinth Bucket would not be caught dead near any creature what soils the road...or the top side of a flue for that matter.
To say nothing of that cheeky Mr. Humphries...

Gawd I love Britcoms.

Ah car insurance. The reason I gave up on learning to drive.

I dont care about driving in general, but the insurance jut made me give up. Some peoples insurance costs more than their car ffs.

The driver's license laws vary depending on the state. In my state, which has some of the strictest driver's license laws in the country, you have to be 17 to get a full license (if you take drivers ed, otherwise you have to be 18).

As for alcohol, it seems kinda pointless to have such a high restriction on the age, since most people drink before then anyways. You only have to be 21 to buy the alcohol, or drink it in public.

Yankees is originally a derogatory term for dutch immigrants living on the eastern seaboard. Stems from Jan-Kees, one of the most prolific Dutch names around, along with it's components Jan, and Kees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee#Dutch_origins

I know.. we're everywhere

I have a real bugger of a time understanding Cockneys, and south-east accents in general. Never really got used to them.

I've heard of a few people who'll unconsciously start to emulate other accents but what I think tends to happen is that people generally tone down the more obvious elements of their own accent when in other company, and revert once they're back in familiar territory. My sister was "bi-accented" and would switch depending on the company she was keeping, though she got confused when that company featured a person from each region and it was one of the very rare times she remained silent!

I guess you're right. I also agree with you on the car insurance. My first year's car insurance cost more than the car. Thankfully, after a year the price dropped by half and I got better cover.


Don't even get me started on that chimney sweep one. Apparently it's all we do.


I have another question for our cousins across the pond! If you call trousers pants, and pants shorts, what do you call shorts?

Are you American ?

Speaking of British tv. What is it with America copying our shows ?

Shorts as in knickers? Usually we call them boxers or briefs

Yup. 'Murican Hillbilly...to be honest my parents were from Mississippi but I have a prodominately Michigan accent...but I speak hillbilly fluently, actually probably a hybrid....

I meant the shorts as in summer wear. So I guess shorts (summer wear) are just shorts. I'm confused because Bart Simpson always refers to his boxers as 'shorts' when he tells people to eat them.

Thank dike van Dyke for that one..
crap.., I wonder if he's from dutch origin?

our underwear... boxers only though.

I'm confused...we call pants pants and shorts shorts.

As in: pants are to your ankles and shorts are to your knees.



You guys have good stuff, simple as that. Our PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) has brought over some classics: Are you Being Served, and One Foot in the Grave as well as newer ones: East Enders, BallyKissAngel, Doctor Who)

NBC showed Merlin for awhile, it was the first original BBC show to be brought over here in its original form and shown on a major network channel since The New Avengers in the 70's. However, it got moved over to SyFy (Science Fiction Network)

Anyway, I quite like them. Wish we had Sharpe!

But instead of just watching our shows, you guys end up with American top gear. I hear they are making an American only fools and horses. Why ?