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[Dex]

Interesting link there, old34

OK then mae - I'm sure this'll tickle ya. When I went to Glasgow some years back -to walk the magnificent West Highland Way (7 days hiking and far too many midges!)- I had to get to Milngavie.

Now, it is not pronounced as it seems - much to the amusement of local taxi drivers.

Can anyone guess, in a written form, how this village might actually be pronounced?

[Day Dreamer]

I'll try, if I'm right I have no odea, I've never heard of the place before

Min - haiv

[Con ate dog]

"Detroit"

[MK]

I know, but I am Scottish!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milngavie

More place name fun:

http://www.rampantscotland.com/features/pronounce.htm

[mae]

  .................It reminds me of my time in a middle school last year and getting the kids to say "loch". Some of them were very good with the pronunciation, better than some English friends. I was telling them about the Loch Ness monster with the help of a souvenir soft toy I'd picked up in Edinburgh. Nessie would often choose a pupil to answer any questions I had given them. 

[Escaped Lunatic]

I would love to extend some guid auld Glaswegian Scottish hospitality to you.    Cheerio the noo and lang may yer lum reek! 

Did she just put a spell on us?

You can test that several ways:

1.  Wrap a plaid tablecloth around your waist and see if you think it makes you look manly.
2.  Browse the web for images of sheep.  Do they make you feel aroused?
3.  Mix some rotted meat with oats and decide if you really would eat it on a dare.

 

[Day Dreamer]

You can test that several ways:

1.  Wrap a plaid tablecloth around your waist and see if you think it makes you look manly.
2.  Browse the web for images of sheep.  Do they make you feel aroused?
3.  Mix some rotted meat with oats and decide if you really would eat it on a dare.

Oh NO! I've been Scottish all these years and I didn't even know it  

 

All this time I thought I was a lesbian too

[El Macho]

My mother's come to Scotland to visit. She's been here since Wednesday morning and it's only just stopped raining now.

WHAT'S UP WITH SCOTLAND?!?!?!

Blue skies at the moment, fingers crossed they'll last a few days.

[ilunga]

Anyone see anything of 'The Scheme'?  Docu-soap thing set in Kilmarnock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSQvIvfeQ3A

Real car-crash tv.  'Poverty porn' is the best review I've seen.

[old34]

I followed the link to "the Scheme" and spent the morning watching as much of Episodes 1 and 2 as were online at Youtube.

Despite the language barrier, I couldn't stop watching.

Yeah, I'm a damn yank, and I had a really difficult time understanding the language, although it was English. Some of the "characters" (they're actually real people) I could understand about 10% of what they were saying. Seriously! The ex-heroin addict's recently-released-from-prison girlfriend-I understood about 1 word every other sentence she spoke. Part of it may have been because she was often on methadone when she was speaking, but still....

It occurred to me about 10 minutes in to the ninety or so minutes I watched, that here was I, a native speaker of one kind of English struggling very hard to even understand 50% of the dialogue other than key words. The narrator (Brit English) helped with the story lines (of which there are many), but the documentary dialogue, at best, I grasped at a 50% level. So the rest of the time I spent watching it, mesmerized, I was contemplating that THIS is how Chinese English learners see English movies without sub-titles. Pick up key words, follow the action and the visual cues onscreen.

I'm embarrassed to say, and I apologize to all Scots, that I wasn't able to catch more than 50% of what was said in "The Scheme." Laugh at me if you will. I've had a few Scottish friends here in China over the years and language was never a problem, but in this scheme, I'd have been lost.

On the other hand, AS A TEACHING TOOL, my language difficulties with the language in "The Scheme" mirrors (I think) similar language difficulties that our own students have in watching English movies. If you want to know what it feels like for even fluent Chinese students to watch English movies without sub-titles, and you're not Scottish, watch "The Scheme" with that in mind.

Ilunga, thanks for the link.

[MK]

"He kneed me in the stomach, but I don't think he meant it.  He was on valium when he hit me and kneed me in the stomach. I'm pregnant, and after that I couldn't walk.  When he gets out, he will need to change, it's me or the blues."

 

Poverty porn indeed.

As I said above, I am Scottish, but after a few years away even I find it hard to tune in to the really heavy accents and use of dialect (I'd probably get battered for the way I speak now if I was back home). 

For a small country the UK has really thick and obvious regional accents, although the wealthier people get the more 'standard' their speech tends to become.

It's pretty much like learning standard Beijing putonghua and then being chucked into rural Sichuan or something.  People will understand you for the most part (and think you are a tosser) but you wont be able to understand them, unless they want you to.

[old34]

"He kneed me in the stomach, but I don't think he meant it.  He was on valium when he hit me and kneed me in the stomach. I'm pregnant, and after that I couldn't walk.  When he gets out, he will need to change, it's me or the blues."

MK, Thanks for the literal translation of Danya's words. I watched it 3 times and all I understood were; "in the stomach", "pregnant", and "when he gets out."
The narrator mentioned something about a punch up on a bus, and that Danya's guy was in jail for the weekend.

Go back up to me my previous post as to why I find this series a useful tool for a native English teacher putting themself in the place of their L2 students watching original "English" movies.

[MK]

Go back up to my previous post as to why I find this series a useful tool for a native English teacher putting themself in the place of their L2 students watching original "English" movies.

I got ya.

[fox]

the scheme documentary  isnt particular to scotland but in every uk city there are areas just like these. What i find quite sad is that there seems to be no real way out for these families, and it will take a few generations of proper education that will give these kids any hope of a decent future. cant see how to use this documentary in an english class, even some scottish folks would struggle to understand it all, i lived just down the road from kilmarnock for 20 years so the ear is accustomed.

[Pashley]

If you're looking for TV stories about the British working class, try this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_from_the_Blackstuff

Utterly brilliant. It's 20-odd years since I've seen it and I still remember it.

One odd thing about accents. I'm a Canadian without a particularly good ear. As a general rule, Scots & Irish accents are easier for me than North of England. Educated people from any of those places, I understand just fine. However, some others are almost incomprehensible.

For example, I have no real difficulty with Billy Conelley's pronunciation, though there's the odd expression that throws me. Fred Dibnah, the Yorkshire steeplejack, is more difficult and Jasper Carrot, the Birmingham comedian, is really difficult.