In article ,
Emery Davis wrote:

More seriously, a lot of their usages are merely preservations of 17th
and 18th century English. An educated English speaker can understand
almost all of educated American, but not conversely.
The New York Yiddish dialect is pretty inscrutable, even to most
Americans, and Ebonics is more so.

As a New Yorker born and just returned from there, I couldn't be happier
to be back on this side of the pond. The funny thing with American's in
general is you never know what you'll get: on the one hand incredible
provincialism sometimes even among the very educated, on the other we met
a shoe salesman who knew Paris and London extremely well, down to
Bertrand and Boris.

Especially in California, where they are all bonkers! I worked
there for a bit and was amused by how socialist it was, and quite
flabberghasted at the mental variation. In my corridor, we had
(non-disabled) people who complained bitterly when the close-in
car park had to be resurfaced because it meant walking an extra
200 yards, and one who seriously thought that a 50 mile run was
just the thing to do on a Sunday morning!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Mon, 05 Aug 2013 15:19:33 +0100, nmm1 wrote:

Especially in California, where they are all bonkers! I worked there
for a bit and was amused by how socialist it was, and quite
flabberghasted at the mental variation. In my corridor, we had
(non-disabled) people who complained bitterly when the close-in car park
had to be resurfaced because it meant walking an extra 200 yards, and
one who seriously thought that a 50 mile run was just the thing to do on
a Sunday morning!

What struck me the most, when we lived in SF for about 4 years, was how
damn healthy everyone was. Now, I spend plenty of time out of doors, but
many of these people seemed turned towards your 50 mile run; at parties,
people talked about these cardio-adventures ad nauseum, and where they
would be hiking next weekend, whereas no one seemed to read even the odd
book. (I exaggerate of course, but that was the impression given). Nice
place really, but we felt like fish out of water most of the time.


--
Gardening in Lower Normandy