YSaC, Vol. 601: ¿Que?
Bi-Lingual (Everywhere)
Iam getting so sick and tired of all these job posting on Craigslist, you must be Bi-Lingual.
This is the United States of America, we speak English.
If I was in another country to seek Employment, I would learn there native language.
So for all you Employers that are hireing, Iam on a quest to everyone out there in the seeking employment world to flag all post that require Bi-lingual. Thank you very much.
If you were in another country, and you — by some miracle — were able to learn their native language, wouldn’t that make you … bilingual? Although, since you haven’t even technically learned ENGLISH yet, Sparky, that would be a stretch.
Damn it, there I go bringing logic into it again. I have to stop doing that.
But now I’ve got this song in my head, and that makes it kind of worth it:
Edited to add: I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner!
Thanks for the submission, SLiver of Jade!
Yeah! What’s up with these demanding employers? Next they’ll be requiring cooks that can cook, accountants that can count, a seamstress that can sew……..
I have to say, I’m bemused by the hint this guy dropped that his entire job hunting pool appears to be Craigslist. Apparently a diversified job hunt is right up there with being Bi-Lingual: Americans* don’t need it, and are insulted when it seems necessary.
*And by Americans I mean the ugly kind that make all the other Americans say they’re from Canada when visiting Europe. I’m guilty of that one myself.
TacoWaaaaaaaah:
You said “bemused”….how bemusing…
And regarding that job hunting pool, my guess is this guy did a cannonball from the shallow end and now he needs to be netted off the bottom.
Wanna see the pic I took in Pizza with me standing there pretending to try to prop up that leaning tower? Wait till I tell you what I did with that nekkid David statue! I am so bemusingly funny and clever for being so ugly.
Regards,
mudsy
Mudsy, based on the photo of you (?) from your former avatar and your sense of humor (particularly as evinced here), I am convinced that you are the spiritual – if not genetic – mother of a good friend of mine. She’s great – and when I’m in public with her I don’t know which I’m going to die of first, laughing or embarrassment. If she could see the David statue and managed to climb up on the plinth, she would. And insist I take her picture with her mouth open.
Hee hee hee, Taker her to Disneyland, Lola. There’s a bronze statue of Goofy in the circle just outside the Sleeping Beauty Castle ™ that gives us chuckles. Women can stand just so, and it looks like their chest area is in Goofy’s open mouth. Ah, good times.
Windrose, if you hear about that on the news, I’m the one wearing the paper bag + cut-out eyeholes. 8)
Lola and Windrose: you two made me smile and giggle this morning.
I’m not so sure that Goofy would provide the same high-brow-ugliness that only ancient art & architecture can bring to TacoWaaaaahs slinking away in a pool of mortified Canuck-maple-leaf-flag-waving-drool (you do know that country is the donut eating capital of the world, don’t you?).
*fig leaves all around*
by the hint this guy dropped that his entire job hunting pool appears to be Craigslist
Perhaps it is the form of “Bi-” rather than “bilingual” that suggests this poster has more to be angry about than merely an alleged lack of communication diversity inthe Jobs section . . .
I’m having a flashback to the Ten-Bears soliquey in Outlaw Josie Wales
http://www.whysanity.net/monos/outlaw.html “It’s sad that governments are chiefed by the double-tongues.”
Maybe OP just needs REAL!!!!!!FUN and is tired of –
It’s amazing how much thought you put
I’m a Canadian who has provided Maple Leaf pins to American friends to wear when they travel.
Nothing snarky…yet…just wanted to be first so I could claim the Neener-Neener Award for the day.
Dammit….can’t even get a Neener since B…..beat me to it.
I’ll go pout now. *sulks to corner and waits Windrose’s comfy pillow and glass of water*
ELEBENTIETH!!!11!!elebenty+
*hands over comfy pillow and glass of water with significant impurities in it*
Sorry CJ – I’m such a party pooper…..
‘S-Okay, B…. Every party needs a pooper, looks like today it’s you. 😉
Gee, I wished I spoke Idiot so I could understand what Sparky was saying. I’m only fluent in English and Snark.
Well, I’m fluent in English and Sesame Street, Yo Gabba Gabba, Wonder Pets, and Backyardigans (2 yr. old grandson shares the house with us now).
Hey now, throw in some Handy Manny and Dora, and you’ll be on your way to being bi-lingual.
Lest we forget! How about Diego, while we’re at it?
My daughter knows more Spanish than I do thanks to Dora.
If anysmurf needs to smurf a smurfy smurf, I’m smurf.
Ahhh…”quest”….which naturally brings me to……
Oh we’re tough and able
Quite indefatigable
Between our quests we sequin vests
And impersonate Clark Gable
I love a good Monty Python first thing in the morning.
I really need to watch me some more Monty Python. It used to make me cringe more than laugh. I have a strong “oooohhh, that’s goofy in a really embarrassing way” cringe reaction. I’m just learning to leave it at the door.
An absolute must where MP is concerned.
Have you seen Python’s Camelot Interlude by Kirk and Crew?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QSaM5gQ9vo
(Apologies if this has already been posted several times — I’m new here.)
Bi-lingual…
You keep using that word, but I do not think it means what you think it means.
That’s inconceivable
Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You seek bilingual applicants. Prepare to hire.
I can hear this in my head in his voice and it is AWESOME ♥
I think they were trying to spell Bai Lingual – an adjective pertaining to describing Bai Ling.
http://www.askmen.com/celebs/women/actress_250/279_bai_ling.html
I’m allergic to Bai Ling.
Remind me not to sit next to you in a sinking lifeboat, then, drmk…
… nor to call you with my single phone call after I’ve been arrested.
I’m allergic to Tila Tequila. Headache, nausea, etc.
I think you’re thinking of Bai-Lingus, muddy.
::shudder:: like oral sex with a mummy ::shudder::
Thanks, Meredith, just did a bit of sick in my mouth, there. 8)
…or they were trying to describe those people who get their tongues cut and forked. Damn kids, get off my lawn with your rock music and your piercings and your fancypants tongues!
I’d like to nominate “FancyPants Tongues” as today’s band name.
Am I the only one who doesn’t get the appeal of Bai Ling? Thanks, btw, for linking to askmen.com, where they gave her an 84% sexiness rating for being “Asian.”
Oh, wait. Of course I’m not the only one. The OP is just plain sick of her.
Oh, I dunno Taco…I’ve read the ad a few times and I’d have to say this gentleman is definitely a cunning linguist.
I wouldn’t say that… he seems a bit, well, anal.
“Paging Dr. Freud … Dr. Freud, please report to the internet.”
I don’t know what you all are talking about, but for some reason I’m reminded of that time way back when that I saw Miff Mole at the Blue Note in Chicago. Miff was great, but he was a bit out of practice, sort of needed to warm up, oh what’s the word?
Before you complain about people who speak more than one language or maybe having to learn one, you really should learn your native tongue a lot better.
It seems to me he speeks Stupid pretty fluently. I’m not seeing the issue with his native language.
If he only speaks the native language, wouldn’t that be something like Tsalagi?
Does that Tsalagi come with meatballs?
Sorry ’bout that – Tsalagi is the Cherokee language. One of those obscure things I’m not sure why I know.
Oh he’s fluent in Stupid. Certainly doesn’t seem fluent in English, that’s for sure.
He submitted this Craigslist ad in Crayon font 24 pt.
Awww, come on guys, don’t be so hard on him. He just wants a job so he can Git-R-Done.
I actually gagged when I re-read that. Somebody sock me in the jaw for writing those words.
::extends jaw for punching:: please?
*steals Windrose’s puncher*
WHACK!
Thank you. Much better.
Reminds me of that thing that went around the web a few years ago after Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics. It was a series of Q and As aimed at Americans. One of the questions was “Will I be able to speak English anywhere I go in Canada?” And the answer was: “Yes, but you’ll need to learn it first.”
And while we’re on the subject, I’m really really tired of muscling through my six years of schooling just so I can feed you people drugs. Everyone flag all the pharmacist openings that require a degree. This is America and we avoid books at all cost here.
You could skip all that school nonsense and just open a free-lance operation on any corner downtown.
Be sure to stock up on health insurance.
And those jobs that demand you have “experience” really irk me, too. Like, if I HAD a job, why would I look for a job?
And the whole “No working or living or socializing withing 150 feet of my ex” thing is really F%&cking stupid, too! It’s not my fault I’m always nearby, he’s always near all the best jobs!
And it’s his fault for leading me on! He’s always near a window; in his cubicle, at that restaurant with that little blond b…witch with the plastic knockers, “forgetting” to close his blinds all the way, when he was tumbling his delicates at the laundromat… and that’s just leading me on!
And I suppose it was just an “accident” that he ducked into that store with the 25% off sale on binoculars the other day when I was following…I mean, when we were out shopping. It’s destiny.
Asschapeau. (Oh noes! Bilingual portmanteau* word!)
*wonder if Sparky here knows what that means. ‘Cause it’s not English, but we don’t really have an equivalent word.
I love how he doesn’t specify what language or languages it is that they are requesting, he just goes after “Bi-Lingual” like it’s equivalent to “certified,” “bonded,” or “licensed.”
Probably refers to portmanteau as “those smushed together words”.
Amy I the only one geeky enough to want the plural to be portes manteau and not portmanteaux?
Or am I overstuffing the tete bag?
I heard a lot of women overstuff their tete bags. Try going up a size, and you’ll get a much more natural shape.
Is that anywhere near Port Jervis?
In my work environment, we must provide customers with forms in any language they speak. And no, you can’t go to another country and get catered to like that, but that is what makes America different and in my opinion, better. I have had to train myself to talk about workers as being bilingual and monolingual, instead of Spanish speaking and English speaking. We also have folks bilingual in Tagalog, Farsi, French, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), and Vietnamese. I revel in the different cultures and experiences that come together in my office. As someone who would like to travel but probably won’t get the chance, this is my window on a larger world. *blink* Hey, CJ, check that comfy pillow. I seem to have left my snark there.
*Hands Windrose the snark she left behind* Here ya go, have fun but don’t be late for dinner!
In Finland I’ve been fairly lucky that most government offices that have contact with foreigners will do business in English even though they’re not required to (only Finnish and Swedish, and in some areas Sami, are required). The younger generations generally speak English well, and people are very eager to practice it with you. I still get spoken to in English at stores sometimes when they overhear me speaking English to my daughter (she’s bilingual in English and Finnish) even though I speak Finnish pretty well now. I’ve also been mistaken for being Swedish (not sure why), French (my full first name is Jacqueline), and Russian (I look it).
When I moved here 12 years ago I was thoroughly unqualified for jobs like fast food worker, cleaner, etc. because of the language barrier. I have a degree in Spanish, but I couldn’t get certified to teach because the teacher certification courses and exams were in Finnish. I ended up getting into technical writing by accident just because I was generally a good writer, and most companies wanted their documentation in English. It wasn’t a career path I intended to take, but I’ve stuck with it because it’s turned out to be interesting.
Here in Toronto you’ll hear about 70 different languages spoken. I consider it one of the most endearing things about our city. But I get annoyed sometimes too because when the conversation sounds really interesting (raised voices etc.) I really wish I knew what was being said 🙂
Iam? What’s his second language, Dog Food?
I think you meant “dawg fud”.
Well, since the U.S. as a whole doesn’t have an official language, why does this person care so much? Freedom, baby! We can speak whatever we want to here!
Except Latin! Damn Romans think they’re so clever.
*Shakes Fist*
I can too speak Latin! Semper ubi sub ubi.*
* First Latin joke I learned. Only funny if you’re 12.
Camille, apparently my mental age is 12, because that one still makes me giggle.
Ditto!
I also giggle at anything with the word “cum”[pronounced KOO-m] in it.
I doubt he would be impressed that I can speak Spanish(poorly), Latin(even worse), and sign language(sort-of). Dammit, all that effort wasted.
I direct you to the headline of the post from several days ago:
http://www.yousuckatcraigslist.com/?p=4130
I THINK I got the Latin right.
Fiat…..You mean Fix It Again Tony?
Snarkiness overcometh me *apologies*.
Did you mean to say “Make the big light work”…?
It looks correct to me, although I’m not positive about the ending on operari–should be 3rd person singular ( he/she/it) and that looks 1st person to me. Ancient Greek was my Mediterranean ancient language of torture.
Actually that was supposed to be genitive case – “Let there be a big light belonging to a worker.”
I thought the official languages of the US were English and Spanish. Am I wrong?
ong-wray!
Did you just put the bacon back into Latin emesis?
*oink*
Nope it’s Americanese.
I think Sparky should spend the time he is devoting to flagging all the “Bi-Lingual” ads to learning another language instead. I suggest English.
Iam que consigue tan enfermo y cansado de todos estos fijación de trabajo en Craigslist, usted debe ser bilingüe. Éste es los Estados Unidos de América, nosotros habla inglés. Si estuviera en otro país para buscar el empleo, aprendería allí lengua materna. Tan para todos usted patrones que hireing, Iam en una búsqueda a cada uno hacia fuera allí en el mundo del empleo que busca para señalar todo el poste por medio de una bandera que requiere al bilingüe. Gracias mucho.
Just helping Sparky out so he can cover both sides of the bi-lingual issue. Mustn’t let those employers get away with posting a non-English ad.
Penguin, mucho gusto!
I often wonder if my Spanish would be better if I had not been in Texas and learning Spanglish by contact instead.
Makes me fear I will degenerate into the pidgin of Sparky-speak (or, Philip Dick’s streetspeak in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?)
FLAG! FLAG THIS! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!? FLAG FLAG FLAG!!!!
Wow, you sound so FUN!!!!!!! and REAL!!!!!!!
I’m very ‘ish, too!!! I have [Female Traits 3] and [Female Traits 4]!!!
Is Sparky perhaps unaware that the people who apply for jobs requiring that they be bi-lingual DO speak English? Or is it the existence of the presumably non-English speakers to whom they will have to speak that has him/her so hot and bothered? If the non-English speakers are his/her problem, how on earth will flagging these ads make the non-English speakers go away?
Camille, now you are getting in to logic! Tsk, tsk. Back away slowly, and return to the YSaC area.
Logic has no place on CraigsList.
Logic especially has no place on YSaC.
The amount of Stupid in this ad is making my head hurt.
Not to mention it makes me want to cry because when I lived in the States I knew people like this.
(I might even know people like this here too but I don’t know because I don’t speak the language. Awkward.)
What strikes me about this ad is that lots of other countries have more than one official language. Here in Canada it’s English and French (you don’t have to be bilingual EVERYWHERE but there are plenty of jobs where it’s recommended or required). I believe throughout most of Europe all the signs are in like 8 languages.
I’m starting to think the only country where Sparky WOULDN’T ever have to be bilingual to get a job is…England.
Even then he would probably want people to “stop talking so funny.”
Finland’s official languages are Finnish and Swedish. Oddly enough, I was just thinking this morning that I should work on learning Swedish so that I could qualify for government jobs (a lot of them require both Finnish and Swedish, and some require Finnish, Swedish, and English).
I wonder which European country has the largest number of official languages. I know Spain has 1 official and 4 co-official languages, but with the exception of Basque, they’re all somewhat similar to each other. Switzerland has an interesting mix of 4 official languages.
Jackie, can you get a government grant to study this? I’d be interested in the findings.
I could ask for a government grant, but I suspect I could do all the research needed on Wikipedia. Actually, that would mean I could use the grant money to take a paid vacation. I think you may be onto something.
drmk:
As a curiosity, in what part of the country was this ad placed?
Pacific Northwest.
*cringes in contact shame from having lived there for a couple of decades*
Sparky best never move to Texas then. English is the second language. I live in suburbia and it is very multicultural here. Spanish is predominant – everything from help wanted signs to food packages displayed with the Spanish worded side out. Chinese is also commonly overheard as well as other languages. There’s a Mexican eatery not far from my house that is smart enough to keep one person that can also speak English for us gringos that wander in. The gas station on the corner has two regular employees – one from Albania and one from India. Both are fluent in English but, if they are on the phone or a friend stops by, it is back to their mother tongue and I haven’t a clue to what they are saying.
And I like it.
I loved living in Austin and hearing people switch back and forth between English and Spanish within the same sentence. My daughter and I both do that with Finnish when we can’t immediately think of a good English word for the concept we have in mind. It only works when speaking with other bilingual speakers though.
My father worked in road construction for years. Many of their workers were Mexican. Dad picked up enough to get by, but he observed that many of the workers actually spoke different dialects of Spanish. You had Tex-Mex, Border Spanish, and regular Mexican Spanish. Add in Natives from the nearby Reservation and you had people who could use the same word to mean five different things.
And don’t get me started on the guy who was into black magic and kept a dead snake in the fridge.
Dammit.
Say it isn’t so!!! I’m getting more stupider by proxy.
I suddenly feel slightly better about where I live.
That and it’s a glorious 67 degrees outside right now.
We had 65 and I got a sunburn the other day. However, the next day it snowed for the first time this year.
71º at 1125 this morning, if at 65%RH
Hmmm, I’m suprised. I would have guessed West or East Coast, honestly.
Tanks McNamara…
There’s nothing wrong with being Bi-lingual. I am so good with languages, I’ve been called a cunning linguist….
But seriously, when I went to high school in the Dark Days, I took two years of French because it was the language to take, even though I went to a school where English really was a second language and most everybody spoke Spanish. (Yes, they offered Spanish as well. No, don’t ask why I didn’t take Spanish for what would have been an easy ‘A’.)
I did learn (almost wrote ‘picked up’) some Spanish. My greatest accomplishment probably has been walking into a McDonald’s in Cancun and ordering: “Numero uno, por favor” and walking out with a Big Mac extra value meal. How do you feel about that, Craigslist poster?
Hartster, I took Spanish in Grade School because that was all that was offered, so in High School I took German. But between the years of Spanish and living in So. Cal, I knew enough Spanish to ask customers at the fast food restaurant where I worked if they wanted their Yumbo Yacks con queso. 8)
Jummy!
You must have worked at that kosher Mongolian place – Yak in the Lox
Got it in one, Sarajean!
Oh..you worked at Yack in the Vox…
I did. I worked in Goleta, Canoga Park, El Cajon, and Ramona. I even spent one shift on loan to the Santa Barbara store. And I did some OT in the clown suit, handing out balloons to kiddies. As mascot outfits go, it wasn’t bad. Just a regular clown suit, but a huge plastic bubble for the head. Poorly ventilated, and difficult to see out of. Headaches were a natural hazard of that gig.
I hope this guy gets stopped at every random airport security search he ever encounters.
The irony of all of this is that more employers have to accomodate stupidity and ignorance than do employers that have to accomodate multi-lingual persons making an honest effort to conform to their respective situations. Jackassery seems to be the order of the day. What an ignoramus.
*I generally try to stay away from attacking people’s character, but in this case I’ll make an exception.
**This comment seems to be very grammatically poor, so feel free to red pen it while I try to catch a little shut eye between calls.
Damn it.
I don’t know if it was intended, but I keep hearing the post title in Manuel’s (“he’s from Barcelona”) accent.
Oh, yes, me, too. “There is too much butter on those trays!”
But my pedant neurological condition insists that I point out that when qué is being used in a question, it is supposed to pick up an accent mark. Que with no accent mark is sort of a relative pronoun: Son los mosquitos que me molestan; but ¿Qué quieres en tus tacos?.
Probably right up there where my ear is attuned to the Mexican habit of using “Como” where “Que” (or Qué) might be by an Iberian.
But I may have a bit more exposure to various New World pecadillos with Old World languages.
Which has to include attempting to assist a person from France communicate with an Acadian (“cajun”) and the nearby Québécois only complicated matters. Passers-by probably assumed we were some sort of street-perfomance installation. Unless it was Sparky, who would have had to hasten off to greater mental analgesia, higher brain functions being broken.
Damn it.
*shows up for interview* *Akward Aardvark ensues*
Oh. So, uuuuhh, I guess I read your ad wrong. Oh, come on, I was only a couple of letters off! No, don’t call security, I’ll find my way out. No, I’m not available for parties.
Iam on a quest
Pet food can spontaneously demonstrate not only volition but compulsion to seek out the unseek-able?
C M Dux? Iam B at quest-end, n’est ce pas?
Wakarimasu bakka gaijin
This would appear relevant (and dear lord, when I first read it, I never thought it would appear relevant to ANYTHING):
The Kitty’s Journey: Joseph Campbell and Friskies
Oh.My.Goodness.
It’s always going to come back to CatMath, isn’t it?
Cat Math is rule 67!!! Congrats on a new internet rule, folks!
Rule 67: If, by SOME miracle, something on the internet does NOT involve rule 34, it WILL involve Cat Math.
Rule 68: Rule 34 most likely applies to rule 67 by this time.
Oh. My. Unspecified-deity.
That was…different.
I loved it, but I missed the part where Heracatkles was supposed to clean out the Augean Litter Boxes.
I would like to see him slay the Nymean Not.A.Tiger.
thank you so much for that link. I’ll never look at a can of Friskies the same way again.
Does speaking with a forked tongue make one bilingual? If so, then I’m over qualified.
We once got a reply like this when we listed a job online. This despite the job being located in a bilingual neighbourhood…in Canada…and the ability to speak both French and English being a legal requirement of the position. And yes, the guy told us to GET OUT OF AMERICA, capslock as in original.
That’s so sad. Everyone knows Canada is part of Belgium. See, they are they same color on my map!
*Holds up child’s placemat from restaurant covered in crayon scrawls*
Look, I drew a pony!
Someone once called information (way back in the old days of landlines and telephone books) to get a phone number in New Mexico. The operator informed him that they only had U.S. phone numbers.
I lived in New Mexico for a little while. When I called my credit card company to give them the change of address, they told me to make sure to leave time for international mail, and to make sure that I was paying my credit card bill in American dollars.
please, please tell me you’re making that up. You are, aren’t you? Please?
No, I guess you’re not
*headdesk*
I’m a born-and-raised New Mexican. I’ve lost count of how many stories I’ve heard along this vein. Probably my favorite is when a resident of Albuquerque called to request tickets to Olympics competitions when they were held in Atlanta. The operator told the New Mexican that he would have to go through his country’s (Mexico) consulate or embassy. The New Mexican asked to speak to the operator’s supervisor, who repeated what the operator said. The next day one of our long-serving Congressmen took the floor of his house (don’t remember if it was Senate or HR, maybe even joint session) and gave a geography/history lesson of the Southwest.
I did an internship for IBM in California and I studied for a year in Montana. Ran into similar problems in both places. It’s really eye-opening how many people insist NM is not one of the 50. Some times we’ll be watching national news and they’ll mention “Texas and Arizona”. I guess there’s this huge empty space between the two.
Speaking of languages, people have insisted that residents in NM speak English, the first European language brought here. They’re unaware that NM had Spanish settlers nearly 200 years before the United States rebelled against Britain.
Yancy, I think there’s a huge empty space between people’s ears.
Yay, I filled in all the comment boxes! It’s a row of little yawning Fireflies ♥
Yeah! This is America! Speak the language of the land!
… Osiyo, dohitsu?
Qu’est-ce que c’est?
Tsalagi. 😀
just one of the many, many languages that were in the *original* America … 🙂
Well, this is all fine and dandy for those “real Americans” the Republicans speak of, but us “fake Americans” in “urban centers (those areas with a population density allowing you to see your neighbor’s house)”, we need to be bi-lingual thanks to the influx into U.S. of the MexiCanadians.
I had a call today from a Canadian who now lives in Mexico. Would he be a MexiCanadian or a CanaMexican? Probably neither. He had a “Canadian” and not a “French Canadian” accent and said he lived in an area with a whole bunch of ex-pats so I am guessing his French and Spanish are minimal.
Perfect! There’s only one ad up top, and it’s for Bilingual Spanish Jobs! Wish we could send the link to Sparky!
I love the people who believe we should only speak English in the US when they can’t speak it themselves! I wonder what they will think in 30 years when white people will be the minorities. Either way, it makes me think of this protest sign from another favorite site: http://godhatesprotesters.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/respect-are-country.jpg
You know, I have a problem with all this “Bi-lingual” business too. I mean, what was the point of me spending all that time in highschool learning to swear fluently in several different languages* only to find out that prospective employers see this not as “ambitious” but rather as a risk not worth taking?
*not actually true, but I sure did try. I’d list my accomplishments but alas, I never learned to spell any of them.
There is really only one word you need to learn…
merde
Scheiße
たわごと
gówno
дерьмо
粪
Its truly multipurpose, multitasking, and bridges all cultures. Because, yeah, its all that.
Yep, got those. Youtube “German mtv Scheiße (or scheize)” for proof that American tv isn’t the wierdest out there.
Again, disregard my spelling, but bakka is pretty universal, and “manga ma tugats” is fun, but my favorite semi-cuss comes from the movie Killing Zoe: “Sus ma taub…Dr. Seuss ma taub!”
And now I believe that I have just put more swear words in this comment than I have ever used in total on the internet. Not that I don’t have a colorful vocabulary, I just prefer to feign innocence online.
My first thought upon seeing this guy rant about English being the language of the land was this comic:
http://xkcd.com/84/
By the way, while some states have official languages, the US has no federal official language.
Here’re some interesting anecdotes about our lack of an official language, too:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/955/did-hebrew-almost-become-the-official-u-s-language
hah! I think I’ve added yet another site to my growing list of favorite places to hang out (this having reached first place)
Am I the only one who has a desire to go to Taco Bell and take along a rat posing as a dog? And I don’t even like Taco Bell.
(No offense to chiuaua lovers – I’m just a cat person)
Ahem. Chihuahua. Chi-who-ah-who-ah.
That is the proper pronounciation in my house, but we spell it “cha-hoo-a-hoo-a 🙂
r-a-t
sorry. i will hang my head in shame and slink off now
lmao I’m with you penguin … heeheh
Growing up, “Chi-who-ah-who-ah” is how we knew you meant the mexican state/province, and not a dog breed.
Lest I forget, and forever hang my head in shame, Bavec, please come to the office and get your card punched! Time to do the Dance Of Joy! Oh, wait, that’s Balki.
Here in Europe, we know that there must be some Merkins who aren’t undereducated, chauvinistic, culturally ignorant and fat, but every time we see a self-righteous dork proselytize nation-wide ignorance “because we don’t need this* here in the greatest country of all the world**” we seriously consider putting the civilized American on the ICUN list of endangered species.
*”this” could be anything from evolution theory to real cheese (the kind which doesn’t come out of a bottle) – or learning a second language, as we can see in the gorgeous specimen you uncovered.
** hearing such a statement in an unofficial context, we just laugh out loud, mocking the utterer in a language of our choice – possibly English, as we cannot get a job here without fluent English.
In an official context, it is something else altogether. If a German teacher told his pupils that Germany (or any other country) is greater than the rest of the world, he’d be committing professional suicide.
—
This kind of suckery may be new to you, but it is fairly well known in the rest of the world. The occasion with the biggest cultural impact was when LiveJournal user scottishtiger complained about the existence of a LiveJournal page written in an language he mistook for Albanian. It was actually Russian.
The mistake in itself is a good example of why we consider Americans philistine – Russian is written in Cyrillic, while Albanian uses the Latin alphabet, so you don’t have to know a single word of any of the languages to be able to distinguish between them. But then he posted the epic comment:
“Because? It’s LIVEJOURNAL. An American website. Not an albanian; (#*!@()! site.
Plus, being an American means that the rest of the world should have to cater to me. But that’s just mypointofview.”
[source: http://onepamop.livejournal.com/240305.html?thread=2071473#t2071473%5D.
Since then, Russian Internet slang (which existed before this watershed event) is generally referred to as “олбанский” (a corrupted form of the word for “Albanian”). Originally this word was just a highly successful meme, but meanwhile it has entered mainstream language, even being used in print press discussion of slang. I haven’t read any official research on Russian linguistics, but I don’t doubt the term is accepted there as well.
The CL poster doesn’t appreciate how lucky he is, being born in a country where he doesn’t have to learn a separate slang just to be able to read blogs.
Oddly enough, isn’t LiveJournal now owned by a Russian company?
wtf? this is a lil racial to me.
why dont you get up and and actually go look for a job.
or better yet go learn some spanish ;]
Not so clear on the concept of You Suck at Craigslist, are you, Bxtchh?