Hey Jack,
You go ahead and keep laughing buddy. Well here in America I live in the northern most region and it would be the southern folk who are the Yanks. It's a bit too north for me to be a Yankee. Especially for the fact that my grandparents are all from Scandinavia and Germany. Very Nordic I'd say. Actually when I lived in Kentucky for a year people thought I was from Canada by my northern accent. Really, my uncles sound like they are from Canada. Eh.

Yeh- it would be a very interesting seminar. However, I'm getting my therapy on this forum these days. The closest I'm gettin' to Australia is clowning around with you two. It's going to have to do for now.

I'll work on the lingo, but if I get it wrong keep letting me know the right way to use the word or phrase. Mate. See that sounds strange to me because in the U.S. it's your married partner,etc. It's a good example of how something get's engraned into your brain to mean something in a single way. Even when someone tells you it can be seen in a different way and be OK, it feels odd to say it. I think we are actually keeping with the topic. As long as I'm learning something new I'm gonna keep posting. All I know is that I'm smiling more these days because I'm meeting kind people like you guys.
ff

Of course there are always some Americanisms that are slightly disturbing. Like when you guys say that you are rooting for your team.

In Australia, rooting (or to have a root) is a ... shall we say ... a sexual thing. (NB: Also known here as "throwing a leg over")

So you can only imagine the things that innocently come to mind at times. Ahh ... the joys of cultural exchange. :-)

John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2008 02:57PM by John Fox.

FF, what Scandinavian parts exactly? Although I'm as Aussie as the next white fella, I was born in Finland... With regard to 'mate', we'd never call our 'better half' a mate - it's strictly reserved as a term between blokes, usually.

John, yeah it's always been kind of embarrassing when Americans use that 'rooting for ya' term. And there supposed to be such puritans!

That puritan description would apply to my upbringing. Sick, sick, sick. I hate that female Hitler. She stole my youth! Whew, I'm glad I got that out. >-[

Quote by Jack: "FF, what Scandinavian parts exactly?"

Haven't you been told the story of the birds and the bees yet? :-) Hee Hee

Seriously now: My dad's Mother was from Sweden. His Father was from Norway.
My mom's mom was from Finland. Her father was from Germany.
That would make me a quarter of each. Welcome to the melting pot of America.

My Gramma Anne as we called her was pure Finnish. She was 9 when they came to America. She almost died, on the boat over, from a flu.

They lived in northern MN and had a sauna in there house and they used it all the time. It was my favorite place to go as a kid. They had 50 achers of land-plenty of room to run and play. This was precult days when I was a carefree happy kid.

Do you ever visit Finland? I have relatives over there that I've never met.
ff

John

I can't imagine it comes so innocently to mind... within the joys of cultural exchange. ;-)

FF

Quote
freedom fighter
Seriously now: My dad's Mother was from Sweden. His Father was from Norway. My mom's mom was from Finland. Her father was from Germany. That would make me a quarter of each. Welcome to the melting pot of America.
My Gramma Anne as we called her was pure Finnish. She was 9 when they came to America. She almost died, on the boat over, from a flu.

Do you ever visit Finland? I have relatives over there that I've never met.

I hate to say it >lol< but I'm pure Finnish - both parents Finnish and it goes back about 600-700 years. After that I'm supposed to have some French...

I visited the land of great forests and lakes and saunas back in 1999. It was fantastic, except much of the time was catching up with relatives. So much hospitality that my stomach was bursting with fish, sausage and potatoes...and loads of beer! I definitely want to visit again but kind of secretly next time (if you know what I mean). Actually, I'd love to hike in Lapland and play with the reindeer and bears and wolves and artic fox!

Quote
freedom fighter
Hey Jack,
You go ahead and keep laughing buddy. Well here in America I live in the northern most region and it would be the southern folk who are the Yanks. It's a bit too north for me to be a Yankee.

I've lived in the States all my life and I've never ever ever known someone from the South to be called a Yankee.

The North, especially where you seem to describe, would be Yankee territory.

Something smells funny about your story, dude, especially if you're confusing a basic fact about America.

I think he simply misspelled "redneck".

:-)

John

Hey Vic-Luc,
I was cringing today because I realized my bad case of dislexia(sp?) and couldn't wait until I could get a chance to post the correction. Example: New York Yankees. Hee Hee.

Yes I'm a yankee. The south is confederate according to the civil war. I'm embarressed at my blunder. You all can laugh now. Especially Jack.

Well you see, which is the honost truth here is that sometimes I get my history mixed up. I've lived here in the land of the free for my whole life but I often feel like a foriener in my own country cause I was tucked away in this pitiful small cult for my entire youth and young adult life. Sure I had gone to public schools but concidering what was being drilled into our heads in the cult for so many years I didn't feel like it was worth anything to pay attention to history at the time in school. I was so depressed at what was happening to me that so much of the time I just scimmed through school on certain subjects.

What did the world mean to me when all I was told that it was in total darkness. Sad but true.

So there you have it. I plane old get history mixed up sometimes. These Aussie boys I've been chattin with know more than I do about America. That's a bit embarressing, but you should only know my background then you'd get it. I really did feel like an alien in my own country after escaping the cult. It's an eerie feeling.
I do love history though. I love the real history that isn't in the books as often.
Thanks, FF



Thanks for the correction I was expecting one by the time I got to posting today.

Jack,
That is so cool. My gramma's dad was a ship builder over there. And a great, great(not sure how many greats actually) grandpa was a General in the Finnish Army. If I'm correct they were alway having it out with the Russians. He then became a farmer and took on the name of the area he lived in-Lappitilinan(sp?).
FF