{"id":40658,"date":"2014-11-09T07:00:34","date_gmt":"2014-11-09T14:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=40658"},"modified":"2018-08-14T10:48:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T17:48:00","slug":"two-nations-two-languages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2014\/11\/09\/two-nations-two-languages\/","title":{"rendered":"Two nations, two languages"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month in the United States we celebrate Thanksgiving, so I thought it was a good time to do a post where I celebrate the top five things\u00a0Americans<\/a> say (or don’t say) which make me me raise my eyebrows, tut slightly and set about making myself a comforting\u00a0a cup of tea\u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\"Grumpy\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1. “Thank You”, “You’re Welcome” and “Sure”<\/strong>
\nI don’t know why, but in place of “Thank you” and “You’re welcome”, inhabitants of this country\u00a0seem to think that “Sure” and “Ok” are\u00a0equally appropriate responses. Sorry America, they’re not.<\/p>\n

2. “I could care less”<\/strong>
\nNo. You mean you couldn’t<\/em> care less. If you\u00a0could<\/em> care less then that means that you currently care to some degree. Please see\u00a0David Mitchell’s\u00a0excellent video<\/a> on\u00a0the subject.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Me vs. I<\/strong>
\nNow I understand that sometimes it’s easy enough to make a grammatical mistake, to occasionally\u00a0use the word\u00a0“me”<\/em><\/span> when you meant to use\u00a0“I”<\/em><\/span>. However, I often\u00a0come into contact with Americans who\u00a0get it around the wrong way consistently<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Please let me explain how this works. Let’s say that you are trying to\u00a0communicate that the two of us\u00a0went to the cinema together.\u00a0What should you say?<\/p>\n

Option #1:<\/strong> “David and me<\/strong>\u00a0went to the cinema”<\/em><\/span>
\nOption #2:<\/strong> “David and I<\/strong>\u00a0went to the cinema”<\/em><\/p>\n

Fortunately,\u00a0there is a\u00a0simple test. All you have to do is get rid of the proper noun (“David”<\/em><\/span>, in this case) \u00a0and then repeat the sentence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Which one of these sounds right?<\/p>\n

Option #1:<\/strong> “…me<\/strong>\u00a0went to the cinema”<\/em><\/span>
\nOption #2:<\/strong> “…I<\/strong>\u00a0went to the cinema”<\/em><\/p>\n

Hopefully, you’ll agree that the first sentence sounds strange. Since the second one sounds correct, one should say “David and I<\/strong> went to the cinema”<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Whom<\/strong>
\nI know we English sound awfully classy\u00a0when we use the word “whom”<\/em>, but don’t worry Americans, you can sound this fancy too! The rule is simple, if you’re going to use the word “who”<\/em><\/span>, but the “who”<\/em><\/span> is the object<\/strong> in the sentence, say “whom”<\/em><\/span> instead. This is why you would say “To whom<\/strong> did you send the email?”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0“It was so ironic…”<\/em><\/strong>
\nNo, it probably wasn’t. I don’t know why, but an extremely large number of Americans don’t seem to understand the meaning of\u00a0irony. Personally, I blame Alanis Morisette. You see, she released the song called “Ironic” in 1995. The song is rather catchy, but there’s\u00a0a bit of a problem. You see, from reading her lyrics, we are forced to conclude that Miss Morisette doesn’t seem to have the slightest clue as to the meaning of the word “irony”\u00a0which, funnily enough, is\u00a0rather\u00a0ironic.<\/p>\n

It appears to be commonly believed among many Americans that irony is basically the the same thing as coincidence. For example, in Alanis’ song, among her list of “ironies”, she complains about\u00a0a\u00a0“traffic jam when you’re already late”<\/em><\/span>. Sorry Alanis, that’s not ironic. It would be ironic if you were stuck in this traffic jam on your way to receive a reward for all the good work you did reducing traffic congestion in the city. A traffic jam when you’re already late is just annoying.<\/p>\n