Things You Don't "Get"

[Davkaus]

1 minute ago, bickster said:

It's just an honour. it's the academic institution recognising people for things they've done. It absolutely has nothing to do with the real degrees people study for. Mings can't just apply for jobs as a teacher now he has that and it isn't insulting to those who have "proper" degrees. Sometimes it's those very students stuying for proper degrees that nominate people for honourary degrees. Bath Spa is big on Sports Science isn't it? So it kind of fits that they award the odd sports person an honorary degree.

I'd be a lot more tolerant of it if it were the "This instiutition thinks that the nominee is a swell guy" award, rather than impersonating a real academic honour. 

[bickster]

5 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I'd be a lot more tolerant of it if it were the "This instiutition thinks that the nominee is a swell guy" award, rather than impersonating a real academic honour. 

It's just the way they do it, Universities have always done it that way, I guess they've never thought about it. I'd also say you're the first person I've ever heard express that view. Congratulations on a unique thought

EDIT: I've just remembered back in my day, it was always the topic of conversation as to who was getting an honorary degree at your ceremony. People used to moan about the boring ones and be really happy if it was someone interesting.

EDIT2: I have no idea who was at mine, I didn't go

[TheAuthority]

When I was a student at the Royal Academy of Music (sounds a lot posher and better than it is in reality) they gave Elton bloody John a Honorary degree. I couldn't believe as I watched my fellow students run with glee to the ceremony to catch a glimpse of that talentless gimp.

I boycotted the event in protest. Those were my student activist days - smash the system man.

Edited November 25, 2021 by TheAuthority

[sidcow]

4 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

When I was a student at the Royal Academy of Music (sounds a lot posher and better than it is in reality) they gave Elton bloody John a Honorary degree. I couldn't believe as I watched my fellow students run with glee to the ceremony to catch a glimpse of that talentless gimp.

I boycotted the event in protest. Those were my student activist days - smash the system man.

Sounds like you gave them a right rocket man. 

[StefanAVFC]

5 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

talentless gimp.

I cannot get my head around a professional musician having this opinion.

You might not like his music but he's an exceptional musician.

[villa4europe]

10 hours ago, bickster said:

It's just an honour. it's the academic institution recognising people for things they've done. It absolutely has nothing to do with the real degrees people study for. Mings can't just apply for jobs as a teacher now he has that and it isn't insulting to those who have "proper" degrees. Sometimes it's those very students stuying for proper degrees that nominate people for honourary degrees. Bath Spa is big on Sports Science isn't it? So it kind of fits that they award the odd sports person an honorary degree.

Yeah I always thought they were more of an advert type thing for the uni rather than meaning anything to the recipient 

Bath will get more out of the association than mings will 

[Stevo985]

On 24/11/2021 at 08:57, sidcow said:

Nah, I'm not having that.

I went on a French camping holiday years ago.  The showers were absolutely crap.

1) I asked the holiday rep if she would have a word with the owner.  She said she would dig out her phrase book.....great, your a holiday rep in France and can't even speak French?  Saw her a couple of days later and asked if she had had a word and she said no.  She said if she complained he would likely just close the shower block down instead.

2) Went to the bar at the campsite and met said owner.  I was trying to order "Brown Beer" which was the closest thing to Bitter they have in France.  I was asking for "Bier Brun" and he just kept looking at me with a blank face, shrugging his shoulders muttering.   So I pointed at the bottle on the shelf, he said "Ahhh, Biere DU Brun" (or something similar).  I thought, yeah like you didn't know what I was trying to ask for, really?

 

As @HanoiVillan has already mentioned the Burkha ban.  I am pretty sure there are bigger problems there than here.

This reminds me of when I went to Italy with work once. 
 

Got in the cab and just said “Grand Sitea hotel per favore”

He just looked at me. I repeated it and he said something in Italian that clearly meant he didn’t understand. 
 

Then I showed him the address on my phone and he said

”Ah! Grand Hotel Sitea!” And knew exactly where it was. 
 

I mean come on!

 

(by the way Italians are mostly lovely. This was just a funny experience)

[HanoiVillan]

34 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

This reminds me of when I went to Italy with work once. 
 

Got in the cab and just said “Grand Sitea hotel per favore”

He just looked at me. I repeated it and he said something in Italian that clearly meant he didn’t understand. 
 

Then I showed him the address on my phone and he said

”Ah! Grand Hotel Sitea!” And knew exactly where it was. 
 

I mean come on!

 

(by the way Italians are mostly lovely. This was just a funny experience)

I'm sure everyone can relate to this experience. In Korea I lived near a supermarket called Lotte Mart, so every taxi journey began with me saying 'Lo-tay-MAH-tuh' and them looking blank, and then 30 seconds of repetition and pleading eye contact and then them eventually going 'Ahhhh LO-tay-MAh-tuh' or whatever. In Hanoi I lived on a street called Van Kiep, but however I tried to pronounce it taxi drivers wanted to take me to Hoan Kiem Lake, no doubt reasonably guessing I was a tourist.

Just a challenge of travel I suppose.

[Stevo985]

40 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I'm sure everyone can relate to this experience. In Korea I lived near a supermarket called Lotte Mart, so every taxi journey began with me saying 'Lo-tay-MAH-tuh' and them looking blank, and then 30 seconds of repetition and pleading eye contact and then them eventually going 'Ahhhh LO-tay-MAh-tuh' or whatever. In Hanoi I lived on a street called Van Kiep, but however I tried to pronounce it taxi drivers wanted to take me to Hoan Kiem Lake, no doubt reasonably guessing I was a tourist.

Just a challenge of travel I suppose.

Thing is the pronunciation of Grand Hotel Sitea is basically how you’d read it in English. 

The only difference I could tell was I got two of the words the wrong way round. 

 

If someone asked me where the Hotel Ritz was I’d know what they meant 

[BOF]

44 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I'm sure everyone can relate to this experience. In Korea I lived near a supermarket called Lotte Mart, so every taxi journey began with me saying 'Lo-tay-MAH-tuh' and them looking blank, and then 30 seconds of repetition and pleading eye contact and then them eventually going 'Ahhhh LO-tay-MAh-tuh' or whatever. In Hanoi I lived on a street called Van Kiep, but however I tried to pronounce it taxi drivers wanted to take me to Hoan Kiem Lake, no doubt reasonably guessing I was a tourist.

Just a challenge of travel I suppose.

Isn't intonation and emphasis more important in the likes of Korean, Chinese, Japanese etc than it is in Western languages? As in, the wrong intonation can change the meaning or intent of words?

[Rodders]

Yeah, I briefly learned Japanese for a while and with some words it's just a slight inflection of emphasis away from being a totally different word. 

That said, you'd think some context might clue the driver up, probable tourist, what could he be trying to say instead etc  

[HanoiVillan]

2 minutes ago, BOF said:

Isn't intonation and emphasis more important in the likes of Korean, Chinese, Japanese etc than it is in Western languages? As in, the wrong intonation can change the meaning or intent of words?

Yes, very much so. And as you can see, I struggled to master them

But I think we can underestimate how far off our pronunciation of other European languages can be too. Strong memories of the time as a kid when we were staying in Paris, and the guy working in the parking garage caught me and asked 'werish yo fadder' and we had an excruciatingly long back and forth before I realised he was asking where my dad was (he'd forgotten to put his ticket on the dash).

[BOF]

23 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Yes, very much so. And as you can see, I struggled to master them

But I think we can underestimate how far off our pronunciation of other European languages can be too. Strong memories of the time as a kid when we were staying in Paris, and the guy working in the parking garage caught me and asked 'werish yo fadder' and we had an excruciatingly long back and forth before I realised he was asking where my dad was (he'd forgotten to put his ticket on the dash).

I hope he didn't show you his goldmember.

[il_serpente]

My hovercraft is full of eels.

[bobzy]

Football fans who purely celebrate by turning to the opposition fans and making rocket polisher signs, swearing at them etc.  Nothing about enjoying the moment in relation to their team, sole purpose is to "rub it in".

Do not understand.  I guess it sums up a sad amount of society, though  

[choffer]

15 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Football fans who purely celebrate by turning to the opposition fans and making rocket polisher signs, swearing at them etc.  Nothing about enjoying the moment in relation to their team, sole purpose is to "rub it in".

Do not understand.  I guess it sums up a sad amount of society, though  

Reminds me of villa/swans a few years ago. I was in the Swansea disabled section (as I was cater for a young mate) in the corner of the family section which oddly was right next to the away fans. From the first minute one villa fan was shouting, swearing and gesticulating at the nearest Swansea fan - a dad with three young kids. He kept it up throughout and the dad kept imploring him to stop for the sake of his kids. Needless to say it didn’t stop for 90 minutes. At the final whistle, the villa fan offered his hand to the Swansea dad and tried to explain it was all just part of the game - no hard feelings and all that.
It was disgusting and I can’t believe no steward stepped in. I tried to have a quiet word at half time and was called a taffy clearing in the woods (despite my clear Scottish accent). 
I know we all get a bit carried away at the match and I know every team has their own morons but to think these actions are actually part of the experience and to be denied the opportunity to abuse opposition fans would ruin his experience was just baffling to me. 

[sidcow]

22 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Football fans who purely celebrate by turning to the opposition fans and making rocket polisher signs, swearing at them etc.  Nothing about enjoying the moment in relation to their team, sole purpose is to "rub it in".

Do not understand.  I guess it sums up a sad amount of society, though  

There is a lot about football fans that I really don't get, this is right up there.

The other one which I feel sure I have probably mentioned before is when there is a bit of aggro on the pitch and they rush forward screaming "**** punch him one."    I can't comprehend that you would want and indeed actually encourage one of our players to do something that would inevitably lead to their dismissal.  Witnessing some act of violence is preferable to them to us actually trying to win the game.  I've witnessed this in some really important games.  What kind of tiny intellect can you have to desire that?  

If watching people punch each others lights out is what you want to see, go watch a boxing match not a football game.

Utter madness.

[Rugeley Villa]

Not all of them obviously but football fans, or should I say a lot of them are awful . I know it’s brought the worst out in me over the years especially when drink is involved . Something about being with a load of your fans pissed up that turns you into a knob . I think the tribalism is good and should remain. I mean it’s nothing like it used to be but the fans nowadays are more cringe than the ones that just wanted a good old fashioned tear up years ago no show boating . The songs nowadays are utter crap .

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, Rugeley Villa said:

Not all of them obviously but football fans, or should I say a lot of them are awful . I know it’s brought the worst out in me over the years especially when drink is involved . Something about being with a load of your fans pissed up that turns you into a knob . I think the tribalism is good and should remain. I mean it’s nothing like it used to be but the fans nowadays are more cringe than the ones that just wanted a good old fashioned tear up years ago no show boating . The songs nowadays are utter crap .

im convinced football is just something that happens during a proper drinking session, some of the drinking i was doing at away games would put stag dos to shame, never got much aggro but then i dont get much aggro on nights out either, if being a bit naughty on a saturday was your thing then its just transferred to saturday afternoon

dunno if its lads who cant be bothered with the clubbing scene and dont have a place of their own to get smashed with mates mixed with middle aged men who get a free pass from the wife for football and then i experienced almost banter between us as to who can do what, going to games with 2 "young uns" and then the father in law and uncle and you'd see who could drink what

i also think its getting worse, link it to the games gone thread, its not about footballing success anymore, there's an element of not actually caring (i did a 40+ away game streak of not watching villa win) its the day out with your mates on the piss 

would also add that same as saturday nights out the coke scene is getting bigger at football

[Rugeley Villa]

3 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

im convinced football is just something that happens during a proper drinking session, some of the drinking i was doing at away games would put stag dos to shame, never got much aggro but then i dont get much aggro on nights out either, if being a bit naughty on a saturday was your thing then its just transferred to saturday afternoon

dunno if its lads who cant be bothered with the clubbing scene and dont have a place of their own to get smashed with mates mixed with middle aged men who get a free pass from the wife for football and then i experienced almost banter between us as to who can do what, going to games with 2 "young uns" and then the father in law and uncle and you'd see who could drink what

i also think its getting worse, link it to the games gone thread, its not about footballing success anymore, there's an element of not actually caring (i did a 40+ away game streak of not watching villa win) its the day out with your mates on the piss 

would also add that same as saturday nights out the coke scene is getting bigger at football

Totally agree with this. In the end the footy is an excuse to go and get pissed and coked up whilst acting all laddish. 9/10 I had a better time pre match in the pubs than I did watching the game.