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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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When I happened not to think as the people of the town had done for the past 50 years, I got a lot of bullying.
Ah--you, too, have been a victim of the "(S)He's not like us--let's get 'im" way of thinking. I really wonder what makes us that way, sometimes. I also wonder how many
'would-have-been-greats' have been stifled, due to that kind of repression.
But, thank you for your clarification; that helped. One of the things I am working on learning as I age is that
people of all kinds have real value. I confess, and this is not at all to my credit, that I have always tended to de-value people who are unintelligent. But, as I go through my life, I have been shown that there are MANY other valuable contributions, that I would be very much worse off without. I'll give a couple of examples. I know of a man and wife, neither of whom is smart at all in the academic sense, and there is an alcohol problem, to boot.
But as I have observed over the years, I realize that if there is ANYTHING that needs to be done, they are there.
Furthermore, they are the first to give money to a worthy cause, even though their income is so low they were in danger of losing their house. They say "ain't" and "he don't", but they are good people. One of my dearest friends here is also not the brightest person in the world,
but this lady has an instinct about people like you wouldn't believe. She is always aware of undercurrents in a relationship, and their significance. And I, with all my professional training in these matters, am clueless (at times).
So, my dear, perhaps as you gain experience, too, you will
learn to appreciate what is good about the people you came from. I'm betting on it.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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>To what extent, and in what ways, do you think exposure to TV has altered perception and use of language? Does this vary from country to country? I'm glad that you came back to his topic Mav. Sometime ago I asked a question about the difference between accents coast to coast in Canada and Australia. http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=5853&Search=true&Forum=All_Forums&Words=radio&Match=Entire Phrase&Searchpage=0&Limit=25&Old=allpostsbel told us: "Well, in Canada there is not much difference in the way people from Vancouver or Toronto sound. Both have a majority of English speaking inhabitants, both are business hubs." Marty told us: "I'd be hard-pressed to pick any difference in accent between people from any Australian cities." Yet the distances between these cities are enormous. To travel the same distance in Europe would give rise not just to a change in accents along the route but marked changes in the languages spoken. The difference must be that both these countries experienced their main growth in population when mass communication (via radio and cinema, in the first instance) was already established. The impact must have increased once television entered daily life. In England, for example, accents had been established in days of much greater isolation, when travelling a short distance was time consuming. Rhubarb Commando tells us of changes in dialect over very small distances. In the early days of radio the BBC said that it was not able to broadcast the stonger regional accents as people from other areas would not understand them. I have listened to excerpts which were not just hard to understand, they were completely unintelligible. With the growth of television in the English speaking world we have all been exposed to wide range of accents from all over the world and this cannot fail to have had an impact on our pronunciation, even without the minor "fashion" changes which occur due to the popularity of programmes like "Neighbours" in the late eighties and "The Simpsons" in the nineties. Even the attempt at emulating an accent must have an impact. As a child I remember that everyone could "do" John Wayne and later Marlon Brando. So I think that television has accelerated change in language, rather than being starting the process of change.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I absolutely agree, and not just southern accents, ethnic ones too, Poles, Italian and the Irish (that subtle anti catholic thing) are often uses as a short hand for dumb. It has become political incorrect to use blacks, but there is a long history of that, too.
And its not just here in the tv capital of the world-- Monty python (which I loved!) used "Irish" to equal stupid--as did Fauwlty Towers---remember O'Rielly? Do you think maybe he was Irish? (stupid, lazy and incompetent all rolled up into a name!)
and if you have Scotsman about, sure but he is canny--so when you want a show with a quick witted, mechanical inclined hero, you got McGeiver!
Yes TV has some wonder moments, but it has been miss used!
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
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The complete quote which Helen paraphrases is from "Time Enough for Love"
Reading that list has left me rather depressed – I seem to have only the challenges of bone-doctoring left before making my gallant last stand!
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veteran
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veteran
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Helen, have to pull you up on the Monty P and Fawlty Towers points! Both were hardly discriminating against minorities in their targets, and often the main targets were the RP speakers. "Upper Class Twit of the Year" is an example from Monty P that immediately springs to mind; and Basil Fawlty himself was the main fool in Fawlty Towers. Definitely an Englishman! It's extremely unlikely you'd see Rab C.Nesbitt over your side of the pond, but in that you have a Scot taking the mickey out of very local Scottish ways and speech in a way that not only the Scots find amusing. It's been shown on BBC2 at peak time. Then there was "Spitting Image", which had some excellent vicious satirical moments and, again, targeted the established order if anything more than minorities. I suppose I'm playing down the "mis-use" and playing up the "freedom of expression" side of TV. It ain't all bad! 
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veteran
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veteran
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re-cycling
Yeah, The Simpsons! One of the best shows currently on TV, as far as I'm concerned. And my sprats like it too (although I'm a little wary of Itchy and Scratchy, even if we do all love Tom and Jerry)...
But what does"consarndit" mean, mav? Is this a YART?
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veteran
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veteran
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Just occurs to me that, looking to the not-so-distant future, interactive TV (pick your own programmes) could make a huge difference. Will people pick programmes in their own dialect(s) or a preferred middle dialect? Bit of a crossover to "English as a Global Language" here, I suppose. And then you have Web access for all through TV.... How much could that change the world? Search me, guv. 
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Posts: 218 |
The talk of late regarding accents has stuck to the negative aspects of various regional aspects. But let us not forget that equally as untrue can be the "quasi-positive" lustful accents attributed to numerous European English-speakers.
Years ago, I lived in a mountain resort town where the ski lodge only hired attractive young ladies with European accents to work the front desk, the chocolatier shop, and to hand out towels at the sauna and pool. The Standard-English speakers were consigned to work the laundry rooms and street sweepers.
Again, it surely is the influence of the media that has portrayed the European accent as sexy. I expect the lack of literal interface and exposure to European English speakers casts an even higher probablity on TV being the culprit.
Brandon
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Carpal Tunnel
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talk of late regarding accents
Two out of ten, class! Language does not reside in the accent alone, or even mainly. What other influences has TV had so far - and in the context of shona's interesting spin about interactive choices in the future imperfect?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Back to something Xara said on page 1 >We went to the next town over to go to a mall because lots of the kids had never been 10 miles from home.<
It sad isn't it? but don't think it is just because the town was isolated. I live inside the NYC limits, but at the very edge.. (NYC covers alot of geography!) I always went "downtown", and my kids always came to center city for theater and museums. by the time she was 16, my daughter felt very comfortable heading to Manhattan by herself, (15 miles, what about 25 kilometers) but she had school friends who had never been to Manhattan. They had never left Long Island, except for a school trip to Pennsylvania!
I find it hard to understand such behaviour. I have wanderlust, and i think about selling my house, quitting my job, and just heading off to where ever the road takes me! (and then I shudder, and think--How Could You!) one day wanderlust will win. I don't think there is anyplace better, but many places are different.
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