Humour that will start a war amongst friends
Humour that will start a war amongst friends
"WHY IS IT THAT WE HAVE TO SPEAK ENGLISH?"
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included
admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies.
At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a group of half
dozen or so officers that included personnel from most of the countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks, but a
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many
languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked: "Why is it that
we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than
speaking French?"
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied: Maybe it's because the
Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't
have to speak German."
MarkB
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included
admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies.
At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a group of half
dozen or so officers that included personnel from most of the countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks, but a
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many
languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked: "Why is it that
we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than
speaking French?"
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied: Maybe it's because the
Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't
have to speak German."
MarkB
Everybody has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film.
- perrins57
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A French politician was bemoaning the fact that the British wont give up their EU rebate. "You Briteesh are so onreasonabule" he said to a UK TV reporter. When asked why the French were being so unreasonable about not giving up their farming subsidies he replied, with a Gallic shrug "That is not being unreasonable, that is just being French"
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
(Name's Mark btw)
(Name's Mark btw)
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Re: Humour that will start a war amongst friends
MarkB wrote:Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied: Maybe it's because the
Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't
have to speak German."
MarkB
John
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Re: Humour that will start a war amongst friends
So now everyone has to speak English. :adminok:MarkB wrote:Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied: Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German."
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Re: Humour that will start a war amongst friends
For now...jGilder wrote:So now everyone has to speak English
May the joy of music be ever thine.
(BTW, my name is John)
(BTW, my name is John)
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Re: Humour that will start a war amongst friends
So what did the Russians do? Watch from the sideline? :roll:MarkB wrote:Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied: Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German."
- perrins57
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He’s right you know, the percentage is a bit out - we have a lot of Norse words from the Danelaw period for instance - but over all he’s right! Although it gets worse, because the original structure of the English language is Germanic (where the Angles and the Saxons came from!). So to be really accurate we are all speaking German with a heavy reliance on French vocabulary.Matt_Paris wrote:Experiment:
Take a normal english dictionnary. List all the words coming directly or undirectly from french. I think those words will represent more than 60%.
So technically, while speaking english, we speak french.
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
(Name's Mark btw)
(Name's Mark btw)
- Matt_Paris
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Hey hey... On another hand, french language uses more and more english words, and more and more english grammatical structures...perrins57 wrote:He’s right you know, the percentage is a bit out - we have a lot of Norse words from the Danelaw period for instance - but over all he’s right! Although it gets worse, because the original structure of the English language is Germanic (where the Angles and the Saxons came from!). So to be really accurate we are all speaking German with a heavy reliance on French vocabulary.Matt_Paris wrote:Experiment:
Take a normal english dictionnary. List all the words coming directly or undirectly from french. I think those words will represent more than 60%.
So technically, while speaking english, we speak french.
I love language history.
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Re: Humour that will start a war amongst friends
Nobody even invited the Russians!Jens_Hoppe wrote:So what did the Russians do? Watch from the sideline? :roll:MarkB wrote:Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied: Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German."
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
(Name's Mark btw)
(Name's Mark btw)
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Re: Humour that will start a war amongst friends
...until we're required to start speaking Chinese...jbarter wrote:For now...jGilder wrote:So now everyone has to speak English
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Funny. Despite the fact that we were there from the start while the US had to get dragged in a couple of years late, I never hear this sentiment expressed by anyone but an american.Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied: Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies, and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German."
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis