Klarinet Archive - Posting 000858.txt from 2001/05

From: Shouryunus Sarcasticii <jnohe@-----.Edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Biting?
Date: Tue, 29 May 2001 18:15:46 -0400

On Tue, 29 May 2001, Tony Wakefield wrote:

> Who "bites" man? I`m sorry but I haven`t a clue what you`re talking about.
> I`m English. Are there several American meanings to this word which you are
> using, which you do not bother to explain to the list properly.

Essentially, it's a replacement for 'sucks'. The words bite/eat/suck/blow
are kind of interchangable, used to toss out insults ("Bite me," etc) or
to denote that something is not cool. ("That parking ticket was HOW much?
Wow, that bites.")

> I would like to see more Americans use and write English in a way which can
> be understood by everyone on the list.

How am I to know which phrases are not used by the British? Am I just
supposed to assume that EVERY possible phrase I mention is foreign? I
would spend more time defining the material in my posts than actually
coming up with contributing material.

> If it is an American "site" then
> that is no excuse to use exclusively an Americanisation of the English
> Language.

Excuse? That's like saying I have no excuse for talking the way I talk,
and I should alter my speech for every person I meet. I should be
translating my posts (all of them) into the necessary romantic languages
for our South American listmates and our continental European members as
well (which, by the way, I didn't see you complaining when they post back
and forth over the list in their own dialects).

I posed a joke, a play on words, to another list member. If you didn't
get it, all you had to say was, "I didn't get it." No need to beat me
over the head with a big book and point the damning finger of
Americanzation at me. If you have a problem with American english, fight
your crusade elsewhere, and if you have a problem with the way I talk,
take it up with ME, instead of casually casting judgement on all the
Americans on the list.

J. Shouryu Nohe
http://web.nmsu.edu/~jnohe
Professor of SarCaSM102, New Mexico State Univ.
"Never put passion before principle. Even when win, you lose."
-Miyagi-san, KKpt.II

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