Popular Post bickster Posted May 27, 2021 Moderator Popular Post Share Posted May 27, 2021 38 minutes ago, mjmooney said: I bet Australian starlings are carnivorous and venomous. And hide under the bog seat 2 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A'Villan Posted May 27, 2021 Share Posted May 27, 2021 1 hour ago, bickster said: And hide under the bog seat Quote Thirsty snakes slither into Australian toilets as dry season bites This article is more than 5 years old Queensland snake catcher charms two pythons out of Townsville bathrooms after one found coiled in a toilet bowl and the other lodged in a U-bend https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/16/snakes-slither-into-australian-toilets-as-dry-season-bites Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villan-scott Posted May 27, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted May 27, 2021 18 minutes ago, A'Villan said: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/16/snakes-slither-into-australian-toilets-as-dry-season-bites 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhatAboutTheFinish Posted May 28, 2021 Share Posted May 28, 2021 Is 'tutting' in disappointment/frustration/anger peculiar to English speakers or does everybody do it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted May 28, 2021 Share Posted May 28, 2021 (edited) 23 minutes ago, WhatAboutTheFinish said: Is 'tutting' in disappointment/frustration/anger peculiar to English speakers or does everybody do it? Paging @El Zen I just had a thought. I thought el zen was scandinavian due to his previous user name and now I am doubting it. Edited May 28, 2021 by Seat68 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Zen Posted May 28, 2021 Share Posted May 28, 2021 59 minutes ago, Seat68 said: Paging @El Zen I just had a thought. I thought el zen was scandinavian due to his previous user name and now I am doubting it. No, I am. We also «tut». 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted May 28, 2021 Moderator Share Posted May 28, 2021 I was KEGS Aston. Temperley. Dinner tickets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted May 28, 2021 Author VT Supporter Share Posted May 28, 2021 1 hour ago, Seat68 said: Paging @El Zen I just had a thought. I thought el zen was scandinavian due to his previous user name and now I am doubting it. He is, but you might not know it, his English is so annoyingly perfect... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mottaloo Posted May 28, 2021 Share Posted May 28, 2021 1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said: I was KEGS Aston. Temperley. Dinner tickets. I was a Manton boy. There were only 3 houses, us,you and Floyd. When i was there, we were the best sporting house, apart from in swimming which Floyd always (not literally) peed on the other two houses. Temperley were where all the swotty egg head brainboxes were. 76 - 81. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted May 28, 2021 Author VT Supporter Share Posted May 28, 2021 22 minutes ago, mottaloo said: I was a Manton boy. There were only 3 houses, us,you and Floyd. When i was there, we were the best sporting house, apart from in swimming which Floyd always (not literally) peed on the other two houses. Temperley were where all the swotty egg head brainboxes were. 76 - 81. The house system is a really odd leftover from boarding schools, never really saw the point of it. Our houses at Moseley Grammar were Mansfield, Midgeley, James and Glover. Nobody had a clue what the names meant, nobody (outside of a few weirdos) gave a shit about them. Do they still exist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Albrighton Posted May 28, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted May 28, 2021 It was really only used for sports day I think? My middle school (ages 9-13) houses are more memorable than my high school (13-16) equivalent. Middle school I was in Boscobel, and the other two were Shugborough and Wightwick. High school I was in Wrottesley, can’t remember the others. It wasn’t really pushed on us at all in those years, no idea why they bothered. The middle school I think they might have done a running total of how many “house points” a house got for the class, year and school as a whole. Pretty sure it’s still done now in lots of schools. You see stories about how outrageous it is that a school has had the audacity to change a house name from Churchill/Nightingale to something not approved by Mark Francois. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted May 28, 2021 Moderator Share Posted May 28, 2021 5 minutes ago, mjmooney said: The house system is a really odd leftover from boarding schools, never really saw the point of it. Our houses at Moseley Grammar were Mansfield, Midgeley, James and Glover. Nobody had a clue what the names meant, nobody (outside of a few weirdos) gave a shit about them. Do they still exist? We had a house system in our Comp. 8 Houses across the school and we knew who every house was named after. Sutherland, Elgar, Churchill, Nuffield, Fleming, Kennedy, Hilary and Curie. The houses mainly served as administrative units but were also used for sporting competitions. The School was divided into two halves with four houses in each and that did have an effect on the way you were taught too. In the first year for example if you were in the A half you did French and in the B Half you did Spanish. PE lessons again were done by which half of the school you were in. Also it meant until you'd done your options at least you never had any lessons with the opposite half of the school, so only in the fourth and fifth form did you get a limited opportunity to mix with the other half academically I never really had much of a problem with it, it was just what it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted May 28, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted May 28, 2021 (edited) My kids school now has houses. Same thing, sports competition and cross age group interaction etc. Named after famous inventors. Edited May 28, 2021 by sidcow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seat68 Posted May 28, 2021 Share Posted May 28, 2021 Scott, Hilary, Shackleton and Hunt. My school was The John Hunt School. I was in Scott, we treated houses fairly seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mottaloo Posted May 28, 2021 Share Posted May 28, 2021 Our houses were named after ex headmasters of the school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted May 28, 2021 Share Posted May 28, 2021 Ours were names after saints. I was in Benedict house. The others were Francis, Dominic, Augustine and Ignatius. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted May 28, 2021 Share Posted May 28, 2021 4 hours ago, mjmooney said: He is, but you might not know it, his English is so annoyingly perfect... I’ve said this before to friends but in my experience a lot of Scandinavians speak better English than many English people. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post El Zen Posted May 28, 2021 Popular Post Share Posted May 28, 2021 7 minutes ago, Genie said: I’ve said this before to friends but in my experience a lot of Scandinavians speak better English than many English people. Thænk yø væri møtsj. 1 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted May 28, 2021 Share Posted May 28, 2021 11 minutes ago, Genie said: I’ve said this before to friends but in my experience a lot of Scandinavians speak better English than many English people. As someone who lives abroad it can be **** embarrassing, there's at least 5 germans in my office who speak better English than me Lots of them speak really good clear English but then have 1 or 2 comical mistakes like a guy who says monthses rather than months things like that 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
il_serpente Posted May 28, 2021 VT Supporter Share Posted May 28, 2021 My older Norwegian relatives always did quite well with English despite, in some cases, never having any formal classes. But I was floored a dozen years ago when I was visiting and a 15 year-old cousin not only didn't have a Scandinavian accent but sounded much closer to American than British and had never been to the US in her life. She even had the idiom down. If people spoke with her and my dad, who has lived in the US for ~55 years, they would think she was the one who had been living over here for most of her life and he was visiting. I'm sure it has to do with the bombardment by US culture since the advent of cable/satellite TV and the internet. My dad's generation could easily carry on a conversation, but some of their word/phrase choices could induce a chuckle. i remember the word "clever" did a lot of heavy lifting for my aunt. If she was saying something nice about someone, chances are she'd call them clever. Smart, talented, resourceful, creative, skillful, knowledgeable? Don't need all those words. Clever will do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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