Mike in Japan  +  13199 Mon, 17 Nov 03 12:52 AM Yes you are quite right about variation of usage within groups. This variation is at its greatest when a group has little exposure to other groups. You would be amazed at some "English" used in Japan! "I ate shoe cream while watching terror bee in my mansion thismorning before riding my mama charry to eat a Viking near the supa." No this person is not a bug collecting cannabalistic aristocrat intoxicated from eating boot polish, but any 'regular' English speaker could be forgiven for thinking so. What this person is saying is; "I ate cream puffs while watching television in my apartment thismorning before riding my ladies bicycle to a smorgasbord near the supermarket." Yes, confusion and misunderstanding aside, variation can be very amusing! Mike in Japan Joined on Tue, Aug 19 2003 Senior Member 4,371 I do like to be beside the seaside

	advoca  +  14039 Tue, 25 Nov 03 01:51 AM Interesting thread. But no one has stopped to define what is a New Yorker? Is it someone who lives in Chinatown? The Bronx? Manhattan? Queens? What is a Londoner? Someone who lives in North London? The East End? Chelsea? Lambeth? Hampstead? There is always danger in generalisations. advoca Joined on Fri, Oct 10 2003 New Member 28

	Barley  +  20897 Sat, 31 Jan 04 01:24 AM Hello! I'm new to this site, and I've read very interesting posts. The term 'Yanks' come up often in this forum, and I was wondering who the Yanks are? Thanks. Barley Joined on Sat, Jan 31 2004 New Member 04

	Mike in Japan  +  20921 Sat, 31 Jan 04 09:34 AM Good question Barley. Yank or Yankie usually mean American (noun or adjective). In Japanese 'English' it means a punkish youngster. Mike in Japan Nouns

	Barley  +  22865 Thu, 19 Feb 04 05:01 PM I was asking what the term Yanks or Yankees meant because a lot of the people in these forums were using the term differently from what I had thought it meant. I suppose there are varying meanings to the term, Yankees. I live in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States. During the Civil War between the Union (north) and the Confederate State (south, meaning southeastern region of US), the southerners referred to the north people as Yankees. I know a person who is originally from the south (NC), and she always jokes that she married a Yankee to get out of the South and that is why she is now living in New York. If she had used the term Yankee to mean American, her statement woulnd't quite make sense the way she wanted it to. (since according to that definition, marrying a fellow southerner would be marrying a Yankee, too.) However, in this forum, the term Yankee seems to apply to all Americans. I don't think that people from the Pacific coast, Rocky Mountain area, Alaska, Hawai'i, South (but south as in texas, oklahoma, etc.), the southeastern states, mid-west, and maybe even new england states, would consider themselves Yankees. As far as I was aware, I thought that the term Yankee referred to New Yorkers, or on a larger scale people from the Mid-Atlantic states, not Americans as a whole. Barley Jokes

	Chameleon  +  23485 Wed, 25 Feb 04 03:07 AM Education shall cure all ills: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/uk.html http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ja.html I believe these include literacy numbers. Check out your favorite country! I spent hours on this site when I discovered it. In regard to second language learning in the U.S.: Yes, US children in public school are required to take second-language classes. I say "take second-language classes" and not "learn a second language" because American public education is on a steady decline from awful to abysmal with respect to language. I'm biased (having learned Japanese in college), but I would say a lot more children would take an interest in language if something besides French, Spanish, and German were offered. Those choices are so over-emphasized and (with the notable exception of Spanish) impractical, that they border on mind-numbing. Nonetheless, if the object is to make students bilingual, maybe another more interesting impractical language would be inspiring. The problem of course is finding a qualified Chinese language teacher who is willing to settle for the disgustingly low pay that US public school teachers recieve. Football coach Jones just isn't going to cut it for teaching Mandarin. Yet, I also agree that beginning the learning process when students are already 13-14 years old is so illogical it defies explanation. Kids should be learning a second language from the day they get out of diapers. Studies have repeatedly shown that early learning of a second language is more successful than late learning. Chameleon Joined on Wed, Feb 18 2004 Full Member 174 Regards, Football

	Chameleon  +  23487 Wed, 25 Feb 04 03:14 AM Yankees are traditionally residents of any state that sided with the union during the American civil war. This includes all states east of the Mississippi river, and from the border with Canada down to the line formed by Kentucky, West Virginia, and Missouri (the so-called "Mason-Dixon Line"). West of the Mississippi (especially on the west coast), the term Yankee is pretty meaningless, or at least is not used as a chide or mild insult. Chameleon

	Forbes  +  241172 Thu, 29 Jun 06 01:02 PM  Trellis wrote: When I lived in London I had a British, Oxford graduate friend who had worked in NYC for 2 years. He had a long list of misused words that he had heard while he was living there in New York. The one that seemed to have annoyed him the most was the frequent use of "take" instead of "have". As in: take a shave, take a walk, take a bath. He could rant on about this for hours. heh I think your Oxford graduate friend is overeducated for his intelligence. If he thought about it the use of have is equally open to ridicule - you do not possess the shave, walk or bath. A man who clearly fails to understand language. Forbes Joined on Thu, Jun 16 2005 Regular Member 895