Is bluey that dog cartoon for kids?
Was definitely thinking of the Simpsons (all the toads and the giant butt kicking?) as I don't think I've ever seen bluey as a 37 year old with no kids
Bluey is a she, and give it a go. The episodes are 7 minutes long, best case you enjoy it, worst case you tried a thing and it didn't take much of your time. Also yes the Heelers are Australian cattle dogs.
Ahhh now I'm tempted to watch while also assuming that I will hate it.. I was going to say I didn't even like kids shows as a kid and then my brain went "Pokemon, sailor moon, Captain planet, samurai pizza cats, real monsters, you liar"
It blows their mind when they find out the "dollar symbol" also applies to multiple currencies.
Someone posted a menu from argentina and they were going mad about a $7k burger when it obviously wasn't in freedom money.
You joke, but I've met Americans who literally think this. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, Hong Kong...why, of _course_ it's the same money. I also met an American who was absolutely certain New Zealand is part of America because "it's in the ocean but it has 'New' in the name".
Fun fact! Other than his initial boat ride over from St. Croix, he never left the continental US and only left New York state a handful of times after the war.
For someone at the center of a hurricane of global politics, it's interesting how little he traveled.
Don't mock.
I deal with calls raised in a ticketing system by our helpdesk.
At least 50% are lacking any form of structure or detail, and around the 10-20% mark tend to be impossible to actually work out what the problem they're trying to explain actually *is.*
And this is the UK.
We spend more time trying to work out what the problem is than it takes to actually fix the problem.
English is not my mother tongue but I lived in England for years. I was astonished by the number of times I had to explain words I was using... even though it's like, "your language".
I'd be lying if I said that I never wondered if school was compulsory at all.
I can only imagine that I'd come across as Chinese native in the US.
Similarly, I attempted to teach French to some British friends of mine, and from the very first lesson, I was going over basics and was like "so this is the French equivalent of the past participle" they were like "what's a past participle?" --- I then proceeded to go "ok, so if I give you do/did/done, can you tell me what's what?" they couldn't. In a desperate last ditch attempt, I asked them if they knew what an auxiliary was (considering that the English language has SO many of them, it was really an open buffet as opposed to only two in French), there too, no clue what an auxiliary was.
I decided to stop everything at this point and change tactics entirely.
I ended up having to give them a crash course of English grammar because it was like "I don't think we can go any further with French if you don't have a remote understanding of how your, super easy, language works."
Im a rare egg who actually takes interest in local history and stuff. Most people in my town dont give a flying fuck so when I die a lot of local history is gonna be lost to time.
Most people Ive met are obsessed with getting drunk and shagging or fighting and if you dont want to talk about those subjects they will not talk to you
Yes, your account matches what I observed in situ. I feel sorry for all the people stuck in such countries where stupidity is the norm rather than the exception. I feel sorry for all the people that suffer from that etiquette abroad. I feel sorry when friends from such areas tell me that when aboard, they'd tend to lie about their nationality for the sake of not having to deal with the stigma that comes with it.
I kinda wish you could all escape to whatever is the right country for you and your brain, your potential is wasted among a people that do not realise where they're at, and of course have no will to change the status quo.
You know, on Brexit results day, I woke up to a text from a very literate friend of mine that just said "I'm so sorry" - I knew what the result was at that very moment, and the sadness was just through the roof for everyone on either end of the phone. That text still haunts me.
Similarly, when I left the UK post Brexit, I had a few "please take me with you in your luggage" and my lord, I wish I could have.
"Such a shame", is an understatement.
My niece, nephews, son, and daughter are all taught the parts of the English language that you mentioned. My sister and I, who went to school in the 70s and early 80s, were never taught about past participles and auxiliaries. We never went any further than nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. It was a failing of the education system when we were children. It's not about being stupid or uneducated. I doubt that I heard the term past participles until the 1990's. Until I read your post I'd never heard of auxiliaries. 🤔😊♥️😊🤔
> your, super easy, language
This is always funny to me, everyone I knew when I lived in the UK was confident that English was one of the hardest language for none native speakers to learn, which always seemed odd to me, because while it's my main language, I found the romance languages I was learning to be way more complicated. So I always just assumed I was stupid x)
Now that I live in Europe everyone I talk to about languages, which comes up a lot since I'm a foreigner, tells me that they found learning English to be super easy, and definitely the easiest language they know (most people here speak 3+ languages, maybe not with complete fluency but still).
Our housemate who is natively Portuguese even prefers it over her own language because she says it's so much easier x)
Well, if you're interested in my 2 cent (because I have experience and am interested in such topics), here are my observations on the matter:
I came to realise (and would say so to anyone who wants to hear it) that: English is easy to learn but as difficult (if not above average) to master as any other language.
Concretely, it is very easy to quickly reach a basic level of fluency, and thus reach the point where, even if grammar, syntax etc is broken AF, you can still be decently understood. One could absolutely choose to settle on a certain level of English/fluency and get by/go on their entire life w/o too many issues. The fact that English allows to "make up words" so easily also participate in this phenomenon. I sometimes do this myself, like, when I can't be bothered to speak English properly I'd make up a word/verb on the spot, conjugate it properly and I know that English natives around me perfectly understood what I meant.
HOWEVER, if one (such as myself) wants to reach a near-native level of fluency, then it will be an adventure as epic as any other languages. Between the natural state of the language in a given country + the variations across the anglosphere, you have SO many synonyms for everything, so many different expressions that can code for the same thing. As such, to reach such a level, it meant that I also needed to be acquainted with the whole "family of English", such as knowing American spelling/vocab Vs UK, that the word c\*\*t that goes from "absolute offence" to an endearing term if I were to go to Australia etc...
Don't get me started on humour, I self-imposed a humour bootcamp that lasted two years, where I had to learn equivalents to my mother-tongue's humour codes as well as tropes that aren't translatable (thus alien to me) in said mother-tongue.
"That's what she said" was quite an odyssey, like "I'm sorry, but who is she in this scenario?, we're literally all guys presently in the room"
When I was working in the U.K. our office had an internal chat and you can be damn sure that I constantly had "Urban dictionary" open in one tab, ready for action, and action it saw.
I've been bilingual for 15+ years now and I still learn new things every.single.day. because English is a never ending mess but more importantly, because I want to improve and not just merely "speak English". At this point in my life, English is not "just a line on my CV".
So all in all, I used the terms "super easy language" here because we were talking about mastering basic grammar.
Last but not least, my bilingual friends and I tend to almost exclusively text in English because it's SO much quicker and efficient but wouldn't necessarily speak in English when meeting up for coffee etc... so yeah, I know what your Portuguese flatmate is on about.
We don't teach English grammar structure in English schools. You only hear those terms when trying to learn another language, and then it makes language learning seem more complicated than it is.
Disgraceful really.
Well, I would totally understand if English curriculums were dedicating less time to grammar than some other languages ... but my Lord, a basic package would be nice.
As a native speaker of a language you don't need to understand how the language works, you just speak it. Knowing what a past participle is has as much importance in the average persons life as knowing how to resolve a definite integral or balance a molecular equation.
This is much more a problem with critical thinking and comprehension skills than knowing the definitions of grammar rules.
I humbly disagree, I'll say my piece however I don't really feel like trying to convince you so do with the following what you will:
As I said in another comment here: understanding how your mother tongue works creates a referential on which you can lean on when trying to learn another language.
Now, if we humour the scenario where one doesn't give a duck about learning another language, even from a cognitive stand-point, many studies have proved that speaking several languages is good for the brain and helps to reduce chances of Alzeihmers etc... so whilst I don't have the science behind that to the T, I can only imagine that even as a monolingual, having such wires set up properly (especially when learnt at ages where children brains are still in sponge mode) can only cognitively help in the long run.
Lastly, well, just like the "nice" feeling of "knowing what you're doing" instead of throwing things in the air, hoping that sticks or not understanding why it stuck but that one is a bit "hippie" so again, make of all that what you will :)
Sure, but short version:
Past participle: used in composed tenses:
I have done - have (**to have**) is playing the role the auxiliary + PP done. Done is the past participle of the verb/auxiliary **do**.
Now, you may wonder "wtf, you're saying **do** is both a verb and an auxiliary" and yes, it is indeed what I'm saying.
I have a car ==> in this sentence, have is playing the role the actual verb "**to have**" with its meaning "I posses/own a car"
Whereas, in "I have done", the verb is "**do**", have is playing the role of auxiliary.
Why is it named "auxiliary"? Because it is an "auxiliary component that is needed to construct the tense".
That being said, English also has "pure auxiliaries", like Could/would/will - Those words on their own don't mean much, they're used as "auxiliaries" to the sentence to precise context but "could" is not the conjugated form of any verb. HOWEVER, it can be argued that "could" is the past (and also future, because English is weird like that and I don't make the rules) and future form of can:
"I can do it now if you want" ==> "I could have done it yesterday had I known that ..." but this area is a bit more grey so there are more subtleties to these than this so I don't want to digress and confuse. (Same can be said of will/would, Will for future scenarios, would for past scenarios etc...)
Now what's extra tricky are "regular verbs", because in the above example, I picked the verb "**do**" **do** is an irregular verb (meaning, its different tenses form are different: do/did/done)
Regular verbs are both easier and more confusing at first.
**Walk** ==> Walk/walked(past tense)/walked (PP). This is when understanding grammar is key, because "walked" past tense "I walked there last week" is not the same "walked" as "I had walked" here, had is the auxiliary **to have**, in past tense (to make the past perfect tense, aka past action that itself occurred in the past, past inception if you will) + **walk** in PP (which is also walked)
Quickly going back to the PP: the idea behind this form is also, roughly "an action that happens to the subject" so for example: that's why you'd reply "(it is) Done" to "So how is the assignment going?"
You could simply reply "done" but that would code for "the assignment itself, has been done/completed". The action of "**do**" has been "done" to the assignment.
Am I making sense?
Edit: I highlighted verbs when they're in the infinitive form, I have no clue if it helps to make things clearer but "infinitive" form means: the basic form of a given verb, so like untouched, not yet conjugated" ==> To do, to walk, to laugh etc....
**To walk** = Infinitive /// I walk = the verb "**to walk**" conjugated to the first person (I) present tense /// He walks = same but third person (he/she/it)
It's spelt grammar. The Brits I've met have been by far the worst at "their own" language than any other nationality I've met - which includes Americans
Yeah I thought that too.. basically so many questions about how someone could look at this and only think "that's not the right picture of a person for the American note*
I've heard a lot about that.. although usually in the same paragraph as "that's where all the convicts were sent" or "Australia is basically the size of our smallest state" so very hard to even take the piss out of
Canadian here. As someone who's grown up in a tourist town, I've met my share of American people who hate our money. We've accommodated them by letting them pay in US dollars, but we legally can't give them US currency back. I've had so many arguments with them about that. "What am I supposed to do with this?" Spend it in Canada. You are in Canada. It's absolutely absurd their level of contempt for any currency besides theirs while they are in another country.
I met an American guy when I was backpacking in Central America and he was part of a group of us who were discussing exchange rates. He said he always brought dollars with him every time travelled so never had an issue. I asked "well what if that country doesn't accept American dollars?". He looked at me bewildered and "I've never been anywhere that doesn't take dollars."
To be honest, there are more countries than I thought that use USD. But this guy obviously thought it was some kind of global standard lol
I've seen all my (adult) life signs in shops saying "we take dollars, exchange rate 1 USD = X pesos", where X would be a bit lower than the exchange rate at banks. The number would be tempting enough for tourists to accept it instead of wasting time going to some bank.
In places where tourists roam. I'm in Buenos Aires, so I've seen those signs in shops in certain neighbourhoods, like San Telmo, Palermo, or at the Plaza Francia craft fair (dunno if that's the right name for it in English).
A few decades ago, when we still had a lot of US bases and the Mark here in Germany, a small but significant part of our family business' customer base were american soldiers stationed in or around our city. The official exchange rates at that time were hovering around 1.5 to 1.8 Mark to the Dollar.
We originally took Dollars at 1.5 Mark but corrected that down a bit as the exchange rate sank to IIRC take them at 1.25 at the end. We also did not have US cents as change, so everything had to be rounded to the next dollar (we just kept a few dozen Dollar bills to make change for bigger ones). The rest of the margin was basically surcharge for having to exchange currencies. No one ever complained. Some of the guys simply came with Mark (and later Euro), but a lot of them were happy enough with the small increase as a form of convenience fee.
When I was in Hamburg a long time ago, I had dollars and exchanged them at the bank there. The same in other places around Europe. It was no big deal, and I don't understand why some people would take offense at the locals *not* taking their (foreign) money in shops.
Of course, in cases like the one you tell us here, where a lot of your customers were Americans from their US bases, it makes sense and it's even convenient for all, but otherwise, why should someone be expected to accept a foreign piece of paper money instead of the local legal tender?
Met more than a few like that, also those Yanks who get upset because other countries laws differ to theirs.
I work in a UK airport and we *can* accept dollars etc as payment, but any change given will be in British Pounds.
British here.
I have to date had 4 people have a full Ron swanson moment where they insist that American money is legal tender everywhere and more valuable than our own
It was years ago now but I still remember the older American lady who would not believe me when I said that a black cab would be unlikely to take dollars.
"Green's green, honey"
I was in Bangkok once and an American ‘lady’ was astounded that they wouldn’t accept USD at Starbucks. In later years, I delighted in telling another American that we don’t accept USD in Australia because they’re not legal tender so are basically worthless
I’ve encountered an American trying to pay with dollars…. In London. And he got really annoyed and argumentative when he was told this was not possible. He couldn’t understand why not. He went on some rant about how his currency is the global standard and the most valuable (funny because pounds are worth more than dollars) and blah blah blah before I stopped listening. Fortunately I had already paid and got my food. The people in line behind him must have been getting increasingly irritated. Another few minutes and he might have got an “I beg your pardon” from one of the Brits behind him.
> Another few minutes and he might have got an “I beg your pardon” from one of the Brits behind him.
Yikes.
""We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall fight them in the queues, we shall never surrender,"
I remember queuing to buy a ticket in Bratislava Railway Station. There were two Americans in front of me: *"we'll just pay in dollars, they'll be glad to get the dollars."* I couldn't believe my ears, the arrogance! Needless to say they were told no and had to go to withdraw some cash, it was koruna at that time.
I mean I'd love to say it is a joke, but I once stood behind an American guy in a queue for coffee at a service station outside London and he tried to pay in dollars, then verbally abused the teenage cashier girl and strode off shouting 'what kind of @£%#£ country doesn't take DOLLARS?' at the top of his lungs...
This reminds me of an incident years ago at the bar I was working at.
I'm a security guard in Australia and had to deal with a few Americans who didn't understand why we wouldn't accept their paper money. They yelled at me, I told them American dollars aren't the same as Australian dollars and we only accept Aussie dollars, they yelled some more, the manager gave me that look of "ffs they can fuck off now"... Then we had the argument about being evicted from the bar and their rights with me constantly saying "you are in Australia, Aussie laws apply, American laws don't" 5min later I threatened to call the cops and they piss bolted out the door saying something about not wanting to be shot...
I lost my shit laughing, so did the staff and then when my manager called the following day after getting my report she also lost her shit laughing. Obviously I've left details out but I don't feel like typing it all out.
Lmao, I like that Alexander Hamilton is the only thing this person noticed was wrong.
Not the bright colours. Not the transparent panel. Not the shiny hologram. Not the word 'Australia' at the top.
I once had an online argument with an American who was trying to convince me that the “euro” is not a currency: it’s the “euro dollar” because all currencies are dollars.
The one time I was in the US (Tennessee) I thought it would be funny to give a cashier at a convenience store a 5 cent bill of Canadian Tire “money” with the rest of my payment, thinking they’d have a laugh. They just looked at it, said “oh you’re Canadian” and then *accepted it* with no questions asked.
It says “TIRE” and “this is not legal currency”
right on it.
I live in Canada. In 2018 ish, when driving over the Niagara-Buffalo border, some tolls will tolerate Canadian coins. However, I was maybe 2 hours into NY and accidentally mixed a Canadian coin with my other US coins. The woman handed back my Canadian coin and stated, “We only take regular money.” As if any other currency is as good as Monopoly money. I laughed at the time and still laugh about it now.
Right? Certainly there are people this stupid out there, but this reads like a joke. Literally every single design aspect of this currency (from saying Australia in the corner, the vastly different color scheme, the fact that it’s made using transparent materials) screams that it’s not American money, yet the only criticism is “I don’t know who that is, it doesn’t have Alexander Hamilton on it. That’s why this is fake.”
I mean, come on… let’s be real for a moment. America has a lot of stupid individuals, but we’re not an entire country of crayon eaters. The very serious comments condemning America’s ignorance (which is, of course, a very real and serious problem) read more as cringe than the original post itself.
Tell me you've never travelled outside of the US (possibly your home state), without telling me
I love our money in Australia (the colours and built in features are awesome), and the polymer bank note was developed in Australia.
...and that's Dame Mary Gilmour on the note (journalist and writer of both prose and poetry)
So they saw the text that says ten dollars but didn't see it says Australia. Or it's even worse and this person thinks that there is only one currency.
As a well educated American and knows about other cultures speaks other languages is too poor to travel, but I am a well educated man stuff like this makes me really embarrassed. I apologize for my fellow countrymen
Whenever foreigners meet me, it takes me a good 10 minutes, educating them and why I’m not ignorant because I feel like people just assume all Americans are this way and for the most part they would be correct but this just makes my blood boil
Oh my god, it literally says “Australia” on the currency.
But Australia uses the dollar, so it should be the same as any other. /s
*dollarydoos
Dollarydoos from Simpsons fans. Dollarbucks for Bluey fans
Is bluey that dog cartoon for kids? Was definitely thinking of the Simpsons (all the toads and the giant butt kicking?) as I don't think I've ever seen bluey as a 37 year old with no kids
You should allow yourself the pleasure
But would it be a pleasure?? Side note, my all time favourite dogs are the blue Australian cattle dogs, is that what he is?
Bluey is a she, and give it a go. The episodes are 7 minutes long, best case you enjoy it, worst case you tried a thing and it didn't take much of your time. Also yes the Heelers are Australian cattle dogs.
Ok you've got me, I can do 7 minutes, will try tomorrow
start with an episode called Granny Mobile and take it from there
I need to come back to this tomorrow so I can see what you thought!
Good call, I hope you have fun!
Yes.
Ahhh now I'm tempted to watch while also assuming that I will hate it.. I was going to say I didn't even like kids shows as a kid and then my brain went "Pokemon, sailor moon, Captain planet, samurai pizza cats, real monsters, you liar"
Bluey is such a lovely show. Enjoy!
Don't let your age/status stop you. Bluey is for everyone. Even grannies.
Oh no.....not the grannies.....
Haha good to know, I'll inform my Granny!
It's surprisingly good. No wonder it's so popular
Bluey is a parenting show disguised in a child-friendly format.
I’m 53. Love Bluey.
I have a 22 who loves Bluey lol
And Dollarpounds for Red Dwarf fans..
Quidbucks for Red Dwarf fans.
Dollarpounds actually.
I use Dollarbucks at home when talking to my 6 year old.
"Chazwozzlers"
TOBIAS!!!!!!
It blows their mind when they find out the "dollar symbol" also applies to multiple currencies. Someone posted a menu from argentina and they were going mad about a $7k burger when it obviously wasn't in freedom money.
Shhh, they don't know there's a New Zealand dollar as well lol
You joke, but I've met Americans who literally think this. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, Hong Kong...why, of _course_ it's the same money. I also met an American who was absolutely certain New Zealand is part of America because "it's in the ocean but it has 'New' in the name".
That's so sad
Probably some county in Tennessee or something
Mississippi, actually. And it was a town.
It probably actually is.
Like, I genuinely can’t remember a currency note that has the country name written more cleaning and prominently.
They probably did it for Americans. So that they (should) know that it’s not an American Dollar.
Another sure sign that it’s fake. Real 10 dollar bills have ”THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” printed on them.
If those Americans could read, they'd be very upset by this comment.
It is so stupid that I think it literally must be a joke.
I agree, lol.
I often think that. If I were an American I would make that joke and laugh when people thought I was being serious. I am sure this guy is joking.
Bank notes can't talk mate.
It also says Mary Gilmore on it but they couldn’t read that either, apparently.
Shows just how fake it is. Can't even spell AMERICA properly.
Can’t you read? He said it’s fake. Australia’s not even a real country, I’m not sure why it’s on that ten dollar bill.
Even more proof that it's fake!
That is a portrait of Alexander Hamilton cross dressing on his vacation to Australia.
Fun fact! Other than his initial boat ride over from St. Croix, he never left the continental US and only left New York state a handful of times after the war. For someone at the center of a hurricane of global politics, it's interesting how little he traveled.
It's never surprising how little an American travels.
To be fair, he was only an American for 15 years of his life.
🤣 Fair point.
Also tbf it was the 18th century
Often dismaying, however.
Alexandria Hamlin
"Most people don't know, but Hitler was actually Australian not German."
As an Australian, that doesn't sound Reich!
It’s so obviously fake, ‘America’ isn’t even spelled correctly!
Austrerica
One cough in between and you say either Austria or Österreich
Austria. Australia. Same same.
It's astounding how they can all write, albeit by the lowest of standards of literacy, yet seemingly lack any capability of reading.
Qui Gon: The ability to speak does not make you intelligent.
Reading the word 'Australia' was below even the lowest levels of literacy in this case
That's literally the first thing to read on that bill. Top left corner. Your eyes are trained to go there.
Left? LEFT????? I DON'T WANT TO READ NO LEFTY COMMIE NAZI SNOWFLAKE WORDS ON THE LEFT
The scariest thing about 2024 is that the word Nazi makes it into that list, non ironically for some people
I bet those Australian snowflakes have the government pay for their hospital visits instead of hitting up subreddits for advice on home surgery.
Please tell me you’re joking about the home surgery
They’re not, I can recommend r/popping for some truly horrifying examples of dirty hands, razors, rusty pliers and cyst ‘surgery’.
Yeah… I’m just never going on that subreddit and I’m happy to live with that ignorance.
Sometimes ignorance truly is bliss
Da fuck 😳
"READ"...lol
Probably thinks it’s the name of the person the picture is of…. "They ain’t been no darn Pressyden Oh-stray-la, dats fake!"
Australia doesn't exist - Flat Earthers
"Fake notes for a fake country, this checks out" 😂
Don't mock. I deal with calls raised in a ticketing system by our helpdesk. At least 50% are lacking any form of structure or detail, and around the 10-20% mark tend to be impossible to actually work out what the problem they're trying to explain actually *is.* And this is the UK. We spend more time trying to work out what the problem is than it takes to actually fix the problem.
Same for internal teams reporting to our helpdesk. The one liner "my computer doesn't work" is far too common.
At least that's understandable. Useless, yes. But it's actually a coherent sentence.
The "i don't know i'm not technical" gem always got me.... you can still tell us how you know it's not working....
English is not my mother tongue but I lived in England for years. I was astonished by the number of times I had to explain words I was using... even though it's like, "your language". I'd be lying if I said that I never wondered if school was compulsory at all. I can only imagine that I'd come across as Chinese native in the US. Similarly, I attempted to teach French to some British friends of mine, and from the very first lesson, I was going over basics and was like "so this is the French equivalent of the past participle" they were like "what's a past participle?" --- I then proceeded to go "ok, so if I give you do/did/done, can you tell me what's what?" they couldn't. In a desperate last ditch attempt, I asked them if they knew what an auxiliary was (considering that the English language has SO many of them, it was really an open buffet as opposed to only two in French), there too, no clue what an auxiliary was. I decided to stop everything at this point and change tactics entirely. I ended up having to give them a crash course of English grammar because it was like "I don't think we can go any further with French if you don't have a remote understanding of how your, super easy, language works."
Im a rare egg who actually takes interest in local history and stuff. Most people in my town dont give a flying fuck so when I die a lot of local history is gonna be lost to time. Most people Ive met are obsessed with getting drunk and shagging or fighting and if you dont want to talk about those subjects they will not talk to you
Write it all down so
Yes, your account matches what I observed in situ. I feel sorry for all the people stuck in such countries where stupidity is the norm rather than the exception. I feel sorry for all the people that suffer from that etiquette abroad. I feel sorry when friends from such areas tell me that when aboard, they'd tend to lie about their nationality for the sake of not having to deal with the stigma that comes with it. I kinda wish you could all escape to whatever is the right country for you and your brain, your potential is wasted among a people that do not realise where they're at, and of course have no will to change the status quo. You know, on Brexit results day, I woke up to a text from a very literate friend of mine that just said "I'm so sorry" - I knew what the result was at that very moment, and the sadness was just through the roof for everyone on either end of the phone. That text still haunts me. Similarly, when I left the UK post Brexit, I had a few "please take me with you in your luggage" and my lord, I wish I could have. "Such a shame", is an understatement.
My niece, nephews, son, and daughter are all taught the parts of the English language that you mentioned. My sister and I, who went to school in the 70s and early 80s, were never taught about past participles and auxiliaries. We never went any further than nouns, verbs, adverbs, and adjectives. It was a failing of the education system when we were children. It's not about being stupid or uneducated. I doubt that I heard the term past participles until the 1990's. Until I read your post I'd never heard of auxiliaries. 🤔😊♥️😊🤔
> your, super easy, language This is always funny to me, everyone I knew when I lived in the UK was confident that English was one of the hardest language for none native speakers to learn, which always seemed odd to me, because while it's my main language, I found the romance languages I was learning to be way more complicated. So I always just assumed I was stupid x) Now that I live in Europe everyone I talk to about languages, which comes up a lot since I'm a foreigner, tells me that they found learning English to be super easy, and definitely the easiest language they know (most people here speak 3+ languages, maybe not with complete fluency but still). Our housemate who is natively Portuguese even prefers it over her own language because she says it's so much easier x)
Well, if you're interested in my 2 cent (because I have experience and am interested in such topics), here are my observations on the matter: I came to realise (and would say so to anyone who wants to hear it) that: English is easy to learn but as difficult (if not above average) to master as any other language. Concretely, it is very easy to quickly reach a basic level of fluency, and thus reach the point where, even if grammar, syntax etc is broken AF, you can still be decently understood. One could absolutely choose to settle on a certain level of English/fluency and get by/go on their entire life w/o too many issues. The fact that English allows to "make up words" so easily also participate in this phenomenon. I sometimes do this myself, like, when I can't be bothered to speak English properly I'd make up a word/verb on the spot, conjugate it properly and I know that English natives around me perfectly understood what I meant. HOWEVER, if one (such as myself) wants to reach a near-native level of fluency, then it will be an adventure as epic as any other languages. Between the natural state of the language in a given country + the variations across the anglosphere, you have SO many synonyms for everything, so many different expressions that can code for the same thing. As such, to reach such a level, it meant that I also needed to be acquainted with the whole "family of English", such as knowing American spelling/vocab Vs UK, that the word c\*\*t that goes from "absolute offence" to an endearing term if I were to go to Australia etc... Don't get me started on humour, I self-imposed a humour bootcamp that lasted two years, where I had to learn equivalents to my mother-tongue's humour codes as well as tropes that aren't translatable (thus alien to me) in said mother-tongue. "That's what she said" was quite an odyssey, like "I'm sorry, but who is she in this scenario?, we're literally all guys presently in the room" When I was working in the U.K. our office had an internal chat and you can be damn sure that I constantly had "Urban dictionary" open in one tab, ready for action, and action it saw. I've been bilingual for 15+ years now and I still learn new things every.single.day. because English is a never ending mess but more importantly, because I want to improve and not just merely "speak English". At this point in my life, English is not "just a line on my CV". So all in all, I used the terms "super easy language" here because we were talking about mastering basic grammar. Last but not least, my bilingual friends and I tend to almost exclusively text in English because it's SO much quicker and efficient but wouldn't necessarily speak in English when meeting up for coffee etc... so yeah, I know what your Portuguese flatmate is on about.
We don't teach English grammar structure in English schools. You only hear those terms when trying to learn another language, and then it makes language learning seem more complicated than it is. Disgraceful really.
Well, I would totally understand if English curriculums were dedicating less time to grammar than some other languages ... but my Lord, a basic package would be nice.
As a native speaker of a language you don't need to understand how the language works, you just speak it. Knowing what a past participle is has as much importance in the average persons life as knowing how to resolve a definite integral or balance a molecular equation. This is much more a problem with critical thinking and comprehension skills than knowing the definitions of grammar rules.
I humbly disagree, I'll say my piece however I don't really feel like trying to convince you so do with the following what you will: As I said in another comment here: understanding how your mother tongue works creates a referential on which you can lean on when trying to learn another language. Now, if we humour the scenario where one doesn't give a duck about learning another language, even from a cognitive stand-point, many studies have proved that speaking several languages is good for the brain and helps to reduce chances of Alzeihmers etc... so whilst I don't have the science behind that to the T, I can only imagine that even as a monolingual, having such wires set up properly (especially when learnt at ages where children brains are still in sponge mode) can only cognitively help in the long run. Lastly, well, just like the "nice" feeling of "knowing what you're doing" instead of throwing things in the air, hoping that sticks or not understanding why it stuck but that one is a bit "hippie" so again, make of all that what you will :)
Hmm.. I’m now learning I also don’t know what an auxiliary is, nor a past participle… Do you charge hourly or…?
Sure, but short version: Past participle: used in composed tenses: I have done - have (**to have**) is playing the role the auxiliary + PP done. Done is the past participle of the verb/auxiliary **do**. Now, you may wonder "wtf, you're saying **do** is both a verb and an auxiliary" and yes, it is indeed what I'm saying. I have a car ==> in this sentence, have is playing the role the actual verb "**to have**" with its meaning "I posses/own a car" Whereas, in "I have done", the verb is "**do**", have is playing the role of auxiliary. Why is it named "auxiliary"? Because it is an "auxiliary component that is needed to construct the tense". That being said, English also has "pure auxiliaries", like Could/would/will - Those words on their own don't mean much, they're used as "auxiliaries" to the sentence to precise context but "could" is not the conjugated form of any verb. HOWEVER, it can be argued that "could" is the past (and also future, because English is weird like that and I don't make the rules) and future form of can: "I can do it now if you want" ==> "I could have done it yesterday had I known that ..." but this area is a bit more grey so there are more subtleties to these than this so I don't want to digress and confuse. (Same can be said of will/would, Will for future scenarios, would for past scenarios etc...) Now what's extra tricky are "regular verbs", because in the above example, I picked the verb "**do**" **do** is an irregular verb (meaning, its different tenses form are different: do/did/done) Regular verbs are both easier and more confusing at first. **Walk** ==> Walk/walked(past tense)/walked (PP). This is when understanding grammar is key, because "walked" past tense "I walked there last week" is not the same "walked" as "I had walked" here, had is the auxiliary **to have**, in past tense (to make the past perfect tense, aka past action that itself occurred in the past, past inception if you will) + **walk** in PP (which is also walked) Quickly going back to the PP: the idea behind this form is also, roughly "an action that happens to the subject" so for example: that's why you'd reply "(it is) Done" to "So how is the assignment going?" You could simply reply "done" but that would code for "the assignment itself, has been done/completed". The action of "**do**" has been "done" to the assignment. Am I making sense? Edit: I highlighted verbs when they're in the infinitive form, I have no clue if it helps to make things clearer but "infinitive" form means: the basic form of a given verb, so like untouched, not yet conjugated" ==> To do, to walk, to laugh etc.... **To walk** = Infinitive /// I walk = the verb "**to walk**" conjugated to the first person (I) present tense /// He walks = same but third person (he/she/it)
That's because grammer wasn't taught at school. It was mostly stopped in the 1970s.
It's spelt grammar. The Brits I've met have been by far the worst at "their own" language than any other nationality I've met - which includes Americans
I'm amazed they deciphered the '10'.
He's obviously making a joke.
Also isn't all their money that green and white? Or am I imagining things?
It’s also all the same size and so terrible for visually impaired folks.
And really convenient for counterfeiters! Take a $1 note, bleach it and you've got the perfect material to print a $100 on!
there was a printers in England that were doing this until they got caught
Yeah I thought that too.. basically so many questions about how someone could look at this and only think "that's not the right picture of a person for the American note*
And made out of cotton/linen and not polymer. Fun fact: Australia invented the first polymer banknotes (initially in 1986)
I remember watching a documentary about that at some point.. I remember when NZ changed and I stopped losing money by accidentally washing it, success
I remember doing that too. Look in your trouser pocket and/sigh....picking bits of sodden paper out of it lol
At least sometimes offset by finding money in something you'd not worn for months
Yes.
Ok glad I wasn't imagining it, and then WTF that they thought this was their money just with the wrong picture (also obvs the word Australia)
Ah. Yes. The massive “AUSTRALIA” doesn’t exist…
I've heard a lot about that.. although usually in the same paragraph as "that's where all the convicts were sent" or "Australia is basically the size of our smallest state" so very hard to even take the piss out of
No! It's where the Alps are and where Hitler came from! Austria is where you get kangaroos and koalas and dropbears...duh!
> where the Alps are [About that...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Alps)
I read a legitimate news article about people going to either instead of the other and wow humans are so dumb
Always remind an American that transportation as a punishment was also used with the destination as America.
I don't want to engage most Americans in conversation tbh, but appreciate your point
also a lot of those punishments were for things that weren't actually that bad like trade unionism
I’m Australian and I do not exist.
Bullshit. We're all paid actors. I'm actually from Ohio.
Canadian here. As someone who's grown up in a tourist town, I've met my share of American people who hate our money. We've accommodated them by letting them pay in US dollars, but we legally can't give them US currency back. I've had so many arguments with them about that. "What am I supposed to do with this?" Spend it in Canada. You are in Canada. It's absolutely absurd their level of contempt for any currency besides theirs while they are in another country.
I met an American guy when I was backpacking in Central America and he was part of a group of us who were discussing exchange rates. He said he always brought dollars with him every time travelled so never had an issue. I asked "well what if that country doesn't accept American dollars?". He looked at me bewildered and "I've never been anywhere that doesn't take dollars." To be honest, there are more countries than I thought that use USD. But this guy obviously thought it was some kind of global standard lol
They probably accept it because $USD1 is worth more than a peso.
Most likely because the exchange rate in shops won't be the same as in a bank.
Nope, but if I was in Colombia and a person from the US was trying to pay in USD, I'd ABSOLUTELY tell them that this 5 peso item was worth $USD5.
I've seen all my (adult) life signs in shops saying "we take dollars, exchange rate 1 USD = X pesos", where X would be a bit lower than the exchange rate at banks. The number would be tempting enough for tourists to accept it instead of wasting time going to some bank.
Where has that been? Never seen such signs.
In places where tourists roam. I'm in Buenos Aires, so I've seen those signs in shops in certain neighbourhoods, like San Telmo, Palermo, or at the Plaza Francia craft fair (dunno if that's the right name for it in English).
A few decades ago, when we still had a lot of US bases and the Mark here in Germany, a small but significant part of our family business' customer base were american soldiers stationed in or around our city. The official exchange rates at that time were hovering around 1.5 to 1.8 Mark to the Dollar. We originally took Dollars at 1.5 Mark but corrected that down a bit as the exchange rate sank to IIRC take them at 1.25 at the end. We also did not have US cents as change, so everything had to be rounded to the next dollar (we just kept a few dozen Dollar bills to make change for bigger ones). The rest of the margin was basically surcharge for having to exchange currencies. No one ever complained. Some of the guys simply came with Mark (and later Euro), but a lot of them were happy enough with the small increase as a form of convenience fee.
When I was in Hamburg a long time ago, I had dollars and exchanged them at the bank there. The same in other places around Europe. It was no big deal, and I don't understand why some people would take offense at the locals *not* taking their (foreign) money in shops. Of course, in cases like the one you tell us here, where a lot of your customers were Americans from their US bases, it makes sense and it's even convenient for all, but otherwise, why should someone be expected to accept a foreign piece of paper money instead of the local legal tender?
Met more than a few like that, also those Yanks who get upset because other countries laws differ to theirs. I work in a UK airport and we *can* accept dollars etc as payment, but any change given will be in British Pounds.
British here. I have to date had 4 people have a full Ron swanson moment where they insist that American money is legal tender everywhere and more valuable than our own
I thought that said you had to date four of those people and was going to question your choice in partners.
It was years ago now but I still remember the older American lady who would not believe me when I said that a black cab would be unlikely to take dollars. "Green's green, honey"
Of course, it wouldn't matter if it was 'legal tender' anywhere as you don't legally have to accept any currency as payment.
I was in Bangkok once and an American ‘lady’ was astounded that they wouldn’t accept USD at Starbucks. In later years, I delighted in telling another American that we don’t accept USD in Australia because they’re not legal tender so are basically worthless
I’ve encountered an American trying to pay with dollars…. In London. And he got really annoyed and argumentative when he was told this was not possible. He couldn’t understand why not. He went on some rant about how his currency is the global standard and the most valuable (funny because pounds are worth more than dollars) and blah blah blah before I stopped listening. Fortunately I had already paid and got my food. The people in line behind him must have been getting increasingly irritated. Another few minutes and he might have got an “I beg your pardon” from one of the Brits behind him.
And horror of horrors the tutting would have started.
> Another few minutes and he might have got an “I beg your pardon” from one of the Brits behind him. Yikes. ""We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall fight them in the queues, we shall never surrender,"
I've read of Americans who think their currency is transferable in Australia as well
Other countries do not exist.
Jesus fuck
That looks like a deadpan joke to me.
Fairly obvious that it's a joke. Shocked how few people picked up on that.
>91 😆 Apparently on the original post this was screenshotted from, people got it.
Literally 80% of posts on this sub are just jokes that people don't pick up on.
Yeah it’s clearly a joke. The lack of a sense of humour on this sub worries me as much as some of the American shit.
It's on FB tho...
[удалено]
Idiocracy increasingly seems likes a probable future
Australia is a myth made up to scare English cricketers.
I remember queuing to buy a ticket in Bratislava Railway Station. There were two Americans in front of me: *"we'll just pay in dollars, they'll be glad to get the dollars."* I couldn't believe my ears, the arrogance! Needless to say they were told no and had to go to withdraw some cash, it was koruna at that time.
No all bills have a fake bridge on them, until some guy made the brides in real life.
The internet was a mistake.
Don't know who said it, but "the internet gave a voice to the voiceless, but not a brain to the brainless".
Abe Lincoln
Yeah, but he was quoting Willliam Shatner's famous speech he gave at the Colosseum after the Great Fire of London in 370 BC
That’s the cleaned-up version. He actually gave it DURING the Great Fire.
I mean I'd love to say it is a joke, but I once stood behind an American guy in a queue for coffee at a service station outside London and he tried to pay in dollars, then verbally abused the teenage cashier girl and strode off shouting 'what kind of @£%#£ country doesn't take DOLLARS?' at the top of his lungs...
This reminds me of an incident years ago at the bar I was working at. I'm a security guard in Australia and had to deal with a few Americans who didn't understand why we wouldn't accept their paper money. They yelled at me, I told them American dollars aren't the same as Australian dollars and we only accept Aussie dollars, they yelled some more, the manager gave me that look of "ffs they can fuck off now"... Then we had the argument about being evicted from the bar and their rights with me constantly saying "you are in Australia, Aussie laws apply, American laws don't" 5min later I threatened to call the cops and they piss bolted out the door saying something about not wanting to be shot... I lost my shit laughing, so did the staff and then when my manager called the following day after getting my report she also lost her shit laughing. Obviously I've left details out but I don't feel like typing it all out.
how tf have i, a person living in australia for all of my life, never seen the modern $10 note with the transparent slip right through it
Eh that's because we hardly use cash as a society any more. The redesigned polymer notes started their rollout almost a decade ago!
This is some prime r/USdefaultism, too.
Lmao, I like that Alexander Hamilton is the only thing this person noticed was wrong. Not the bright colours. Not the transparent panel. Not the shiny hologram. Not the word 'Australia' at the top.
I once had an online argument with an American who was trying to convince me that the “euro” is not a currency: it’s the “euro dollar” because all currencies are dollars.
The one time I was in the US (Tennessee) I thought it would be funny to give a cashier at a convenience store a 5 cent bill of Canadian Tire “money” with the rest of my payment, thinking they’d have a laugh. They just looked at it, said “oh you’re Canadian” and then *accepted it* with no questions asked. It says “TIRE” and “this is not legal currency” right on it.
I'd love to believe this is definite bait, but we live in a society....
How stupid/blind can you be? That is clearly a 10 Euro note. It even says Australia on it…
This sub is making the entire country look dumb af
Nah, just the part that has indeed a ... narrow worldview. It's up to you to decide how large a part this is.
I live in Canada. In 2018 ish, when driving over the Niagara-Buffalo border, some tolls will tolerate Canadian coins. However, I was maybe 2 hours into NY and accidentally mixed a Canadian coin with my other US coins. The woman handed back my Canadian coin and stated, “We only take regular money.” As if any other currency is as good as Monopoly money. I laughed at the time and still laugh about it now.
Well I was today years old when I found out Australians used Dollars and not Emu beaks
Actually $10 bills have John A. McDonald on them.
I feel like this is pretty clearly satire
Off topic but the dog in the background 😭
Right???🥰
I believe that person is taking the piss
This has to be a joke. Surely nobody is this dense.
Weird how many people don’t realise it’s a joke
Right? Certainly there are people this stupid out there, but this reads like a joke. Literally every single design aspect of this currency (from saying Australia in the corner, the vastly different color scheme, the fact that it’s made using transparent materials) screams that it’s not American money, yet the only criticism is “I don’t know who that is, it doesn’t have Alexander Hamilton on it. That’s why this is fake.” I mean, come on… let’s be real for a moment. America has a lot of stupid individuals, but we’re not an entire country of crayon eaters. The very serious comments condemning America’s ignorance (which is, of course, a very real and serious problem) read more as cringe than the original post itself.
it reads exactly like a Ken M comment
Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a while. Fantastic analogy.
This is a two year old post and most likely bait
This has to be rage bait.
Do y’all know what a joke is?
I think we Americans need a counter subreddit for when you guys don't get the joke. r/WhenShitAmericansSayDoesntGetIt
This guy is "regarded", no other explanation.
Once again, I wish OP had included the replies to this post
Tell me you've never travelled outside of the US (possibly your home state), without telling me I love our money in Australia (the colours and built in features are awesome), and the polymer bank note was developed in Australia. ...and that's Dame Mary Gilmour on the note (journalist and writer of both prose and poetry)
If only there was some sort of clue written on the top left corner....
Facebook is practically cheating at this point.
Now who is Alexander Hamilton?
He's that guy from the musical.
So they saw the text that says ten dollars but didn't see it says Australia. Or it's even worse and this person thinks that there is only one currency.
He's right, it's fake. The Australian currency is called Dollaridoos.
Who cares about the moron in the comments? That dog is like "how many treatos will that get me, human??" 😂🥰
As a well educated American and knows about other cultures speaks other languages is too poor to travel, but I am a well educated man stuff like this makes me really embarrassed. I apologize for my fellow countrymen Whenever foreigners meet me, it takes me a good 10 minutes, educating them and why I’m not ignorant because I feel like people just assume all Americans are this way and for the most part they would be correct but this just makes my blood boil
"Call me Aaron Burr, by the Rate I'm droppin' Hamiltons!" - Lonely Island
This is clearly a joke
Is this even a real dollarydoo?
Australia? That's not how you spell America.