Those might, of course, be questions regular ADAs get, but I'm from England so I get different ones.
First is usually, "Dude, what's up with soccer? It's soooo boring," which produces a rant from me about baseball and a threat to make the questioner sit down and watch a five-day cricket match.
Next is, "What's the difference between England and Britain?"
It used to be, when I told people I had boy-girl twins, "Cool, are they identical?"
I'm dead serious, people used to ask that all the time, and I'm talking intelligent people with advanced degrees. I got fed-up being nice about it after a while, and responded with, "No, one of them has a penis," which (a) shut them up and (b) really seemed to highlight the idiocy of the question for anyone listening to the conversation.
Anyway, back to the England v. Britain thing. All you ever wanted to know about it, actually, thanks to the suggestion of a reader. Here's the simple version:
And if you want to really get into it, try this on for size (credit to Grey's Blog):
Any more questions?
wow, you guys ruled much of the world at one time, eh? btw, thanks for making it so pretty much everyone else learns english as a second language so we don't have to bother with anyone else's:) but i guess you missed a few. i recently overheard a woman at a book fair say to a teenage boy who was speaking to his mother on the phone in hindi, 'BUT DON'T ALL INDIANS SPEAK ENGLISH?!'.
ReplyDeleteAlex: you are more than welcome. I believe the "Empire" now consists of those islands closest to us, plus a small termite stack just south of Madagascar. We are proud.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that English people say everything in the form of a question? Instead of saying, "It's raining.", they have to say "It's raining, isn't it?" Are you supposed to answer? "Why yes, yes it is."
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 2/11: I wasn't aware English people did that. Do we really?!
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