The Dumbest Engineer I ever met!

[Speakerguy]

I grew up in Texas. Fortunately, my folks came here from Illinois, and enough of their Yankee influence rubbed off on me that (among Americans) I have a fairly non-descript accent. People from Texas say I don't sound like I'm from here (which I take as a compliment), even though I am a born and raised native.

One of my friends from high school moved to London after college, and she has the worst fake accent I've ever heard. It's a constant source of comedy and I don't know if she knows how much we laugh about it behind her back. She's been over there a whopping four or five years. The usual joke is "So, how's [name]? Still working on her accent?" with ensuing chuckles amongst all. She was born and raised and educated in east Texas of all places.

I do have an affectation for British spelling though. I notice a lot of places over here switch to British spellings to look upscale. The IMAX theater at the Texas history museum is spelled "THEATRE" in big letters as you enter the ticket booth.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

We don't put that sneaky, extra letter "u" in every other word, if THAT'S what you mean. Like "honour". Ugh. It's not pronounced like "flour" or "hour" - by putting that sneaky "u" in there, you make it look dishonorable.

We didn't 'put them in' you 'took them out' - English long predates our colonies

The 'u' probably comes from the French anyway?.

And if it's a minute to midnight, do you say it's 59:11? Of course not. Larger units first. So why do you insist on writing dates backwards?

So do you, if larger units go first then today is 2009/1/17 not 1/17/2009 - sorry but your system is the most stupid of all, it mixes the normal two systems up to make a silly one

How did that come about anyway?.

 

[duffy]

How did that come about anyway?.

As with any of these, we introduced some level of rationality into some other nation's quaint holdover from their vaunted caveman ancestry.

 

[mramos1]

A guy I work with and good friend/mate is from the UK. I would not say he is smarter than me by any means (in our job) and he would agree on that, but I will say we compliment each other a lot.

What I like about people from the UK that I have met and he, is they are direct and to the point, no BS like most people here in the US. Maybe I am getting old.

There are people here in the US that could work in the UK with no problem, but they would probably never move there, weather, etc.. Sorry the BS types are landing over there. Rather you guys have them than us.

And dates should be YYMMDD so they sort correctly. We can not even get that right.

 

[be80be]

Well I guess I'm English all the way but because I was born in the US I didn't learn how to spell. But now I know where my IQ came from.

 

[Boncuk]

You guys can get by over here on account of the accent alone, it's sickening!

Did you say Americans speak the better English?

 

[Pommie]

And if it's a minute to midnight, do you say it's 59:11? Of course not. Larger units first. So why do you insist on writing dates backwards?

You can have either little endian (18/1/09) or big endian (09/1/18). Middle endian (1/18/09) is not allowed and is just plain silly.

Mike.

 

[Speakerguy]

Ye can hae either little endian (18/1/09) or big endian (09/1/18). Middle endian (1/18/09) is not allowed and is just plain daffy.

Fixed it for you

 

[bokbaard]

We don't put that sneaky, extra letter "u" in every other word, if THAT'S what you mean. Like "honour". Ugh. It's not pronounced like "flour" or "hour" - by putting that sneaky "u" in there, you make it look dishonorable.

And if it's a minute to midnight, do you say it's 59:11? Of course not. Larger units first. So why do you insist on writing dates backwards?

But can you explain why you incorrectly say "should of" instead of "should have" which makes sense lexically and otherwise?

 

[duffy]

No, we say "shoudda", as in "shoudda stood in bed this mornin' stedda comin' into work." Get your facts straight. And stop substituting a pretentious letter "z" in words where a perfectly good letter "s" will suffice.

 

[bokbaard]

No, we say "shoudda", as in "shoudda stood in bed this mornin' stedda comin' into work." Get your facts straight. And stop substituting a pretentious letter "z" in words where a perfectly good letter "s" will suffice.

I don't see the 'z' in my line, but ok, seeing as my well-meant reply was taken to sensitively... fine. I recommend kleenex

 

[duffy]

South Africans don't put a letter "z" in words like "advertise" - ?

Also, "Kleenex" is a trademarked American invention, like aluminum.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

South Africans don't put a letter "z" in words like "advertise" - ?

Also, "Kleenex" is a trademarked American invention, like aluminum.

How can you trademark the name of an element? - or is it just the incorrect spelling of aluminium that's trademarked?.

 

[bokbaard]

How can you trademark the name of an element? - or is it just the incorrect spelling of aluminium that's trademarked?.

Absurd.
I rest my case anyway. We don't have large enough mouths in SA, I am unable to compete in that regard, you win Duffy

 

[duffy]

How can you trademark the name of an element?

I was taking the piss. But there's an interesting story about the young American, Charles Martin Hall, who invented the electrolytic refining process. His professor said anyone who came up with a cheap way to refine aluminum would become rich. He went home, invented the process in his garage using a couple of batteries and a tray of bauxite, then went back to his professor and said "Ok, where's my million dollars?" The process is still used today. Before it, the cost of aluminum was similar to the cost of gold. Today, it is cheap enough to make beer cans out of. Aluminum.

Now please excuse me while I slam bokbaard some more.

my well-meant reply was taken to sensitively

"too" sensitively.

explain why you incorrectly say "should of" instead of "should have" which makes sense lexically

You mean "grammatically", not "lexically". And your definition of a "well-meant reply" is preposterous.

 

[bokbaard]

Slam all you want. You are just highlighting the typical american in yourself.
Either way, I don't think we south africans with 10+ official languages, are doing too badly, compared to some countries where people only speak english, have extremely bloated attitudes about raping the language and then having the nerve to continue on boring the rest of the thread.
Nothing more to say here for me, thanks.

 

[3v0]

World Wide Words

The metal was named by the English chemist Sir Humphry...

Sir Humphry made a bit of a mess of naming this new element, at first spelling it alumium (this was in 1807) then changing it to aluminum, and finally settling on aluminium in 1812....

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) officially standardised on aluminium in 1990, though this has done nothing, of course, to change the way people in the US spell it for day to day purposes.

Why the US does not use the 'offical' name aluminium is more a matter of process then choice.

One could argue that had Sir Humphry not "made a bit of a mess" we might all be using the same word.

3v0

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

World Wide Words

Why the US does not use the 'offical' name aluminium is more a matter of process then choice.

One could argue that had Sir Humphry not "made a bit of a mess" we might all be using the same word.

Thank you for that, I found it really interesting - it had never occurred to me to try and find out why - nice when there's a sensible reason.

 

[be80be]

Reading comprehension. Some time's you have to read tho whole thing to get the point not Line by Line

 

[be80be]

This was the about

The Dumbest Engineer I ever met!

Now it's about spelling.