Funny Music Video of How Americans Sound to Foreigners

From Denny: This is so funny, mainly because the lampooning Italians have us accurately nailed to the wall. If you have ever wondered what Americans sound like to others who speak different languages you will laugh at this. An Italian singer decided to write a song with nothing but gibberish to sound like it was intelligible English.

Of course, the funniest thing of all is that often today's music sounds unintelligible to us as well! :) But hey, pop music is really all about the beat that makes you want to dance and have fun! ("That's my story and I'm sticking to it!" as the saying goes in America...) I guess Americans can remind ourselves of the other saying: "Imitation is the greatest form of flattery." Anyway, you look at it, this little musical spoof is great fun!






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Cheeky Quote Day! 17 June 2009

Photo in Paris by Dragunsk @ flickr

From Denny: Have you been to the Quote Garden site that’s been around for over a decade on the web? There is so much going on over there! Here are some of their funny quotes about language usage:

The quantity of consonants in the English language is constant. If omitted in one place, they turn up in another. When a Bostonian "pahks" his "cah," the lost r's migrate southwest, causing a Texan to "warsh" his car and invest in "erl wells." ~ Author Unknown



Photo by PinkMoose @ flickr

English is a funny language; that explains why we park our car on the driveway and drive our car on the parkway. ~ Author Unknown

No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous. ~ Henry Brooks Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, 1907

Language forces us to perceive the world as man presents it to us. ~ Julia Penelope

Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes; and thanks to words, we have often sunk to the level of the demons. ~ Aldous Huxley

The great thing about human language is that it prevents us from sticking to the matter at hand. ~ Lewis Thomas

Language is the most imperfect and expensive means yet discovered for communicating thought. ~ William James



Photo by eye2eye @ flickr

One man's frankness is another man's vulgarity. ~ Kevin Smith

I personally believe we developed language because of our deep inner need to complain. ~ Jane Wagner

Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne. ~ Quentin Crisp

At no time is freedom of speech more precious than when a man hits his thumb with a hammer. ~ Marshall Lumsden



Photo by respres @ flickr

Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work. ~ Carl Sandburg, New York Times, 13 February 1959

In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer. ~ Mark Twain

It's a strange world of language in which skating on thin ice can get you into hot water. ~ Franklin P. Jones



Photo by ibanda @ flickr

Man is a creature who lives not upon bread alone, but primarily by catchwords. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

A good catchword can obscure analysis for fifty years. ~ Wendell L. Willkie

Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions. ~ Edward R. Murrow

I like the word "indolence." It makes my laziness seem classy. ~ Bern Williams

Language is the dress of thought. ~ Samuel Johnson

If you can speak three languages you're trilingual. If you can speak two languages you're bilingual. If you can speak only one language you're an American. ~ Author Unknown

Do you have any favorites? Let me know what you think! Quotes are always a great launching point for a post...

Update: Read the Iranians Twitter Stream on the Latest News!

Image by Salon de Maria via Flickr

Update: BTW, here's Change_for_Iran @ Twitter, written in English, with over 21,000 followers. Twitter was asked by the U.S. gov't not to go down for maintenance as the Iranis are using Twitter to communicate among themselves. This Twitter stream reads like a the military out in the field coordinating efforts! Wow!

New Link Added to Interesting Mountain Climbing Blog

From Denny: Since I have a number of readers from Poland I thought you might enjoy checking out this guy's site. He is a friendly, smart guy who writes well in English so anyone can enjoy his unusual blog. He teaches beginner mountain climbing.

What I like about his blog is that from a spiritual or writing perspective it really is a metaphor for life as he teaches how to overcome obstacles that seem immovable! An enjoyable read worth the time to visit again and again. To visit his blog, Himalman's Weblog, go here.

Added him to the The Social Poets Fav Bloggers blog roll list so you have a permanent link to find him. He is also linked on The Social Poets Fav Links under the Travel section.