Klarinet Archive - Posting 001309.txt from 1998/07

From: "Mary Sotnik" <marys@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Classical Music and Young People
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 18:17:08 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: Kenneth Wolman <kwolman@-----.com>
Date: 29 July 1998 22:58
Subject: Re: [kl] Classical Music and Young People

>On Wed, 29 Jul 1998, Mary Sotnik wrote:
>
>> Maybe swearing's *not* linked to a lack of imagination then :-)
>>
>
>It could have a lot to do with your command of a language not your own.

Sorry, you don't mean me, do you? I didn't get the connection (I'm not
foreign - well, I'm British if that counts as American! but my parents are
foreign - I've been occasionally swearing for years...).

>Correct me if necessary, but my understanding is that the forbidden words
>in any language are the last thing that any foreigner learns.

I sort of agree (they're not in the textbooks), though at school we used to
pass round rude words!

>Even
>Americans and Brits have occasional misunderstandings. I used to work
>with someone who, when she was a foreign student in the UK, stayed with a
>family who said she could sleep until 7 AM, but then they'd have to "knock
>her up." "WHAT???" They meant awaken her...the meaning of that
>expression for an American is just a bit different:-).

:-) Haaaa. That must have been a shock. The phrase *also* means the same
here as in America, though (as in 'she got knocked up'), or at least it does
if I've understood it right.

>
>The Russian comic Yakov Smirnoff told a funny story on the radio once
>about his first months in the USA. He spoke English, but it was English
>as taught in the Russian schools, not what he would hear on the streets of
>Los Angeles. He wanted to see American standup comics at work, so a
>friend took him to see Richard Pryor's club act in the days when Pryor was
>still doing stand-up. After listening, Smirnoff turned to his friend and
>said:
>
>"What a soulful man he is! Every other word he mentions his mother!" The
>friend then explained to Smirnoff the Russian approximation (if there is
>one) for Pryor's favorite noun and adjective.
>
>"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh" said Smirnoff.....

:-) Is RP still alive? I know he got ill (MS?).
Mary

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