The Takeover Thread - Recon Group - NOW WITH NEW POLL

[berneboy]

Before the accent discussion fades my accent, of which I am very proud, has become panel beaten by many years of travel and living among strangers.  However, as time has passed the biggest, and growing, obstacle to clear communication with others including my son's Norwegian in laws has become vocabulary.  A typical example was the other day on this forum when I could not understand why such outrage had ensued over the use of a racist word that was used in my youth in Birmingham derived from the past tense of the verb to flare meaning a tantrum.

Younger Brummies do not know what I mean by "Gansey" (Guernsey or Jersey, a heavy woollen pullover) or "Tun dish" (a metal funnel) or "Boards" (timber fence) "Suff or Suff hole" (a foul drain) or "Miskin" (variously a dustbin or refuse receptacle) or "Push bike" (bicycle, Bike meaning motor cycle) or "Pudding bag" (a cul de sac) to recall only a few changes of Birmingham vocabulary.

I was struck by this language ebb and flow when a brilliant poster on here the other day described the noses as "all over Tony Xia like cockroaches in a Small Heath pantry".  Outside my house I have not heard  the word pantry used for donkey's years except by the butler in Downtown Abbey.

This post has been a nightmare confrontation with predictive spelling.

I know this isn't Facebook but LIKE!

[brian green]

One I must add which always comes out for a spin when we visit our friends (ex Sparkhill) now living in Nimes - "Ackerdock" (aqueduct).

[Villa in Denmark]

Wow. A Brummie clubs fans criticising the way someone speaks English. You'd think that we'd have sympathy with that.

Anyone remember the first time Randy was heard speaking? One of the local TV stations snuck upto him at an American Footy game I think it was and he mumbled something equally in incoherent about MON being 'the man' if I recall.

Give him a chance.

Are you trying to suggest that Brummies can't speak English very well?

If so you're about as wrong as you could get, do a search of the opinion of brummie accents by people that aren't from the UK.

I spend a lot of time talking to people from all over Europe (and Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and the US) and I regularly get comments on how easy it is to understand me because the words are so clear.  I know we have a bad reputation in the UK and I used to mask my accent a lot when I started dealing with people from the South but a couple of years abroad completely changed my opinion because, and I quote "Your voice is much easier to understand when you've had a few beers, how does that work?" it took me a couple of weeks to click what it was and then I just gave up with the conscious effort of received pronunciation and I found it got  a lot easier to get my point across, especially with our russian and polish developers.

As an anecdote related to this when you're in a bar in Western Norway a few beers in and there's lots of conversations going on it sounds exactly like being in a bar in the North-East, it's a really strange feeling to not understand a word that's being said but thinking that you really should be able to.

If you were drinking Ringnes or Dahls you'd have needed about 5 pints to feel like you'd had one.
Most Danes admit that Carlsberg, Tuborg and Cere's Royal aren't very good, but they're like nectar compared to Norwegian beer. In Danish, ringe means weak or poor quality. It doesn't translate properly, but there's a quip that if Carlsberg is probably the best lager in the world, Ringnes is almost the best named lager in the world.

There's  a very good micro brewery in Trondheim mind.

[fbriai]

Wow. A Brummie clubs fans criticising the way someone speaks English. You'd think that we'd have sympathy with that.

Anyone remember the first time Randy was heard speaking? One of the local TV stations snuck upto him at an American Footy game I think it was and he mumbled something equally in incoherent about MON being 'the man' if I recall.

Give him a chance.

Are you trying to suggest that Brummies can't speak English very well?

If so you're about as wrong as you could get, do a search of the opinion of brummie accents by people that aren't from the UK.

I spend a lot of time talking to people from all over Europe (and Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and the US) and I regularly get comments on how easy it is to understand me because the words are so clear.  I know we have a bad reputation in the UK and I used to mask my accent a lot when I started dealing with people from the South but a couple of years abroad completely changed my opinion because, and I quote "Your voice is much easier to understand when you've had a few beers, how does that work?" it took me a couple of weeks to click what it was and then I just gave up with the conscious effort of received pronunciation and I found it got  a lot easier to get my point across, especially with our russian and polish developers.

As an anecdote related to this when you're in a bar in Western Norway a few beers in and there's lots of conversations going on it sounds exactly like being in a bar in the North-East, it's a really strange feeling to not understand a word that's being said but thinking that you really should be able to.

I suffer the inverse here. If I speak in English, people have real difficulty understanding me. We have regular collaboration meetings, attended by people from other labs in Italy, France, Poland, Hungary and the Netherlands, so presentations are all given in English. I gave one such presentation at our most recent meeting, at the start of May. Spoke lucidly, enunciated clearly, or so I thought. I completed the presentation after twenty minutes, sat back down again and said to my colleagues sat around me, 'How was that then?'. 'Very good', they replied. 'Did you understand anything?'. 'Not a word!'

They tell me that I 'eat the words'. I just speak in Italian. It's easier.

[Clampy]

Wow. A Brummie clubs fans criticising the way someone speaks English. You'd think that we'd have sympathy with that.

Anyone remember the first time Randy was heard speaking? One of the local TV stations snuck upto him at an American Footy game I think it was and he mumbled something equally in incoherent about MON being 'the man' if I recall.

Give him a chance.

Are you trying to suggest that Brummies can't speak English very well?

If so you're about as wrong as you could get, do a search of the opinion of brummie accents by people that aren't from the UK.

I spend a lot of time talking to people from all over Europe (and Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and the US) and I regularly get comments on how easy it is to understand me because the words are so clear.  I know we have a bad reputation in the UK and I used to mask my accent a lot when I started dealing with people from the South but a couple of years abroad completely changed my opinion because, and I quote "Your voice is much easier to understand when you've had a few beers, how does that work?" it took me a couple of weeks to click what it was and then I just gave up with the conscious effort of received pronunciation and I found it got  a lot easier to get my point across, especially with our russian and polish developers.

As an anecdote related to this when you're in a bar in Western Norway a few beers in and there's lots of conversations going on it sounds exactly like being in a bar in the North-East, it's a really strange feeling to not understand a word that's being said but thinking that you really should be able to.

If you were drinking Ringnes or Dahls you'd have needed about 5 pints to feel like you'd had one.
Most Danes admit that Carlsberg, Tuborg and Cere's Royal aren't very good, but they're like nectar compared to Norwegian beer. In Danish, ringe means weak or poor quality. It doesn't translate properly, but there's a quip that if Carlsberg is probably the best lager in the world, Ringnes is almost the best named lager in the world.

There's  a very good micro brewery in Trondheim mind.

I drank Ringnes on a ferry over to Bergen a few years ago. It actually wasn't bad from recollection. Being that the price of the beer on the ferry was cheaper than it is in Norway, there were a lot of very drunk Norwegians aboard.

[Villa in Denmark]

Before the accent discussion fades my accent, of which I am very proud, has become panel beaten by many years of travel and living among strangers.  However, as time has passed the biggest, and growing, obstacle to clear communication with others including my son's Norwegian in laws has become vocabulary.  A typical example was the other day on this forum when I could not understand why such outrage had ensued over the use of a racist word that was used in my youth in Birmingham derived from the past tense of the verb to flare meaning a tantrum.

Younger Brummies do not know what I mean by "Gansey" (Guernsey or Jersey, a heavy woollen pullover) or "Tun dish" (a metal funnel) or "Boards" (timber fence) "Suff or Suff hole" (a foul drain) or "Miskin" (variously a dustbin or refuse receptacle) or "Push bike" (bicycle, Bike meaning motor cycle) or "Pudding bag" (a cul de sac) to recall only a few changes of Birmingham vocabulary.

I was struck by this language ebb and flow when a brilliant poster on here the other day described the noses as "all over Tony Xia like cockroaches in a Small Heath pantry".  Outside my house I have not heard  the word pantry used for donkey's years except by the butler in Downtown Abbey.

This post has been a nightmare confrontation with predictive spelling.

Tun dish still has a definite meaning within process engineering and is, as you describe it. It's used as simple break between a pressurised system and an atmospheric system.

Having established that we were indeed talking about the same item in Danish, it took one of my Danish colleagues 3 attempts to get it down in English. Ton Tonne Tun dish

[Walmley_Villa]

I work with a Chinese guy (ex Chinese Navy) and I was talking to him about the takeover. He is going to do a bit of digging but reassured me by telling me that there is no way the Chinese Govt would allow Dr X to go bankrupt as they would not want to lose face likewise no Chinese Bank will ever go under because of the same reason.

[brian green]

It took two slams against my bedroom wall to get this bloody tablet to write the word "tun".  In true Basil Fawlty alter ego mode I shouted at it "what the tin man wears on his head in Wizard of Oz!!! FFS!!!"

[TonyD]

Anyhow have we discovered if our potential new owner is proper loaded or what?

[croatian]

Wow. A Brummie clubs fans criticising the way someone speaks English. You'd think that we'd have sympathy with that.

Anyone remember the first time Randy was heard speaking? One of the local TV stations snuck upto him at an American Footy game I think it was and he mumbled something equally in incoherent about MON being 'the man' if I recall.

Give him a chance.

As a born n bred Brummie living in the inner city and supporting Birmingham's finest football club I would never apologise for my accent. It's a British thing to categorize people just because of an accent. An attitude promoted by the Birmingham/midlands  hating BBC. And I'd like to add I think The Doc has been doing an impressive job conducting interviews in English. (as I've said numerous times)

I watched an interview with Jeff Lynne, ELO, recently. It was remarked that even after all these years in L.A he still had his Brummie accent.
"They think I talk posh" was his reply!

[Villa in Denmark]

It took two slams against my bedroom wall to get this bloody tablet to write the word "tun".  In true Basil Fawlty alter ego mode I shouted at it "what the tin man wears on his head in Wizard of Oz!!! FFS!!!"

When it comes to misbehaving technology I've always found this line from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy therapeutic.

Eddie: I'm waiting. I can wait all day if necessary.
Zaphod Beeblebrox: Computer, if you don't open that exit hatch pretty damn pronto, I shall go straight to your major data banks with a very large axe and give you a reprogramming you will never forget. Capisco?
[pause]
Zaphod Beeblebrox: Okay. Get the axe.

[paul_e]

Wow. A Brummie clubs fans criticising the way someone speaks English. You'd think that we'd have sympathy with that.

Anyone remember the first time Randy was heard speaking? One of the local TV stations snuck upto him at an American Footy game I think it was and he mumbled something equally in incoherent about MON being 'the man' if I recall.

Give him a chance.

Are you trying to suggest that Brummies can't speak English very well?

If so you're about as wrong as you could get, do a search of the opinion of brummie accents by people that aren't from the UK.

I spend a lot of time talking to people from all over Europe (and Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and the US) and I regularly get comments on how easy it is to understand me because the words are so clear.  I know we have a bad reputation in the UK and I used to mask my accent a lot when I started dealing with people from the South but a couple of years abroad completely changed my opinion because, and I quote "Your voice is much easier to understand when you've had a few beers, how does that work?" it took me a couple of weeks to click what it was and then I just gave up with the conscious effort of received pronunciation and I found it got  a lot easier to get my point across, especially with our russian and polish developers.

As an anecdote related to this when you're in a bar in Western Norway a few beers in and there's lots of conversations going on it sounds exactly like being in a bar in the North-East, it's a really strange feeling to not understand a word that's being said but thinking that you really should be able to.

If you were drinking Ringnes or Dahls you'd have needed about 5 pints to feel like you'd had one.
Most Danes admit that Carlsberg, Tuborg and Cere's Royal aren't very good, but they're like nectar compared to Norwegian beer. In Danish, ringe means weak or poor quality. It doesn't translate properly, but there's a quip that if Carlsberg is probably the best lager in the world, Ringnes is almost the best named lager in the world.

There's  a very good micro brewery in Trondheim mind.

Hansa in Bergen, it's pretty shit.  They do have a decent microbrewery called Aegir (it's actually in Flam which is probably the prettiest bit of Norway, it's a stunning place to visit), their stuff is pretty good but it's £12-13 a bottle.

[Witton Warrior]

Wow. A Brummie clubs fans criticising the way someone speaks English. You'd think that we'd have sympathy with that.

Anyone remember the first time Randy was heard speaking? One of the local TV stations snuck upto him at an American Footy game I think it was and he mumbled something equally in incoherent about MON being 'the man' if I recall.

Give him a chance.

Are you trying to suggest that Brummies can't speak English very well?

If so you're about as wrong as you could get, do a search of the opinion of brummie accents by people that aren't from the UK.

I spend a lot of time talking to people from all over Europe (and Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and the US) and I regularly get comments on how easy it is to understand me because the words are so clear.  I know we have a bad reputation in the UK and I used to mask my accent a lot when I started dealing with people from the South but a couple of years abroad completely changed my opinion because, and I quote "Your voice is much easier to understand when you've had a few beers, how does that work?" it took me a couple of weeks to click what it was and then I just gave up with the conscious effort of received pronunciation and I found it got  a lot easier to get my point across, especially with our russian and polish developers.

As an anecdote related to this when you're in a bar in Western Norway a few beers in and there's lots of conversations going on it sounds exactly like being in a bar in the North-East, it's a really strange feeling to not understand a word that's being said but thinking that you really should be able to.

If you were drinking Ringnes or Dahls you'd have needed about 5 pints to feel like you'd had one.
Most Danes admit that Carlsberg, Tuborg and Cere's Royal aren't very good, but they're like nectar compared to Norwegian beer. In Danish, ringe means weak or poor quality. It doesn't translate properly, but there's a quip that if Carlsberg is probably the best lager in the world, Ringnes is almost the best named lager in the world.

There's  a very good micro brewery in Trondheim mind.

Hansa in Bergen, it's pretty shit.  They do have a decent microbrewery called Aegir (it's actually in Flam which is probably the prettiest bit of Norway, it's a stunning place to visit), their stuff is pretty good but it's £12-13 a bottle.

I am still in shock after seeing a bottle of Somersby cider for £28 in Oslo last year...

[paul_e]

Wow. A Brummie clubs fans criticising the way someone speaks English. You'd think that we'd have sympathy with that.

Anyone remember the first time Randy was heard speaking? One of the local TV stations snuck upto him at an American Footy game I think it was and he mumbled something equally in incoherent about MON being 'the man' if I recall.

Give him a chance.

Are you trying to suggest that Brummies can't speak English very well?

If so you're about as wrong as you could get, do a search of the opinion of brummie accents by people that aren't from the UK.

I spend a lot of time talking to people from all over Europe (and Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and the US) and I regularly get comments on how easy it is to understand me because the words are so clear.  I know we have a bad reputation in the UK and I used to mask my accent a lot when I started dealing with people from the South but a couple of years abroad completely changed my opinion because, and I quote "Your voice is much easier to understand when you've had a few beers, how does that work?" it took me a couple of weeks to click what it was and then I just gave up with the conscious effort of received pronunciation and I found it got  a lot easier to get my point across, especially with our russian and polish developers.

As an anecdote related to this when you're in a bar in Western Norway a few beers in and there's lots of conversations going on it sounds exactly like being in a bar in the North-East, it's a really strange feeling to not understand a word that's being said but thinking that you really should be able to.

If you were drinking Ringnes or Dahls you'd have needed about 5 pints to feel like you'd had one.
Most Danes admit that Carlsberg, Tuborg and Cere's Royal aren't very good, but they're like nectar compared to Norwegian beer. In Danish, ringe means weak or poor quality. It doesn't translate properly, but there's a quip that if Carlsberg is probably the best lager in the world, Ringnes is almost the best named lager in the world.

There's  a very good micro brewery in Trondheim mind.

Hansa in Bergen, it's pretty shit.  They do have a decent microbrewery called Aegir (it's actually in Flam which is probably the prettiest bit of Norway, it's a stunning place to visit), their stuff is pretty good but it's £12-13 a bottle.

I am still in shock after seeing a bottle of Somersby cider for £28 in Oslo last year...

sounds about right.  One night out there I got bought a shot of rum (I love good golden rums), over here in the UK a bottle of the one we got goes for about £45 - it was £26 per shot, I have never treated 25ml of liquid with the amount of care and respect I gave that rum.

[robbo1874]

They should have had the town planners first. That's where they went wrong.

oi!