@tchrist: You might get a kick out of this.

@RegDwigнt: Also, did you see Punch Drunk Love in German? That might be enough insulation to block all the Adam Sandler cooties.

She sounds like she's from Spain, perhaps?

Yeah, I think definitely. She also drops the /s/ in words like España, which becomes E'paña.

Hi everyone, which one is correct? "Due to my penchant for badminton, I found tennis intriguing and secured a position in tennis team" OR "Because of my penchant for badminton, I found tennis intriguing and secured a position in tennis team"?

@Robusto Yes, she's clearly from Spain. Her intonation pattern or phrasal prosody gives her away. It's straight/flat in pitch. Some American Spanish is too, though, but it would have other distinguishing characteristics if it were.

@Robusto well, prepare your mind to be blown again. I saw it in both English and German.

She's super obviously andaluza because she's a seseo speaker. The conversion of esses in the syllable coda into an open vowel and a bit of aspiration instead of a close vowel plus an s is typical of Sevilla and other southern area whence the American colonists originated.

Including las Islas Canarias. It's not Caribbean, who also do that, because her intonation is that of Spain, not sing-song.

@RahulJain "due to" sounds just a tad more formal and stiff. Other than that, they are both equally correct and are both saying the exact same thing.

(Should be "a tennis team" or "the tennis team", though. Depending on context.)

@RegDwigнt I thing 100 or 200 years ago some style guides prescribed one over the other for clauses but it was always a fake rule that didn't correspond to actual speech.

Is that so.

Well, Tom, not all of us are vampires.

Though I did live to see a millenium to its end.

Of course it is so: I wasn't born 200 years ago, you know! I judge only by my own speechmaking. :)

Of course you weren't born 200 years ago. What a preposterous thing to say. You were born 1200 years ago. That's why you know what kerning is.

I think this use of due is relatively new.

They've not taught kerning in school for the last 1157 years.

And hence condemned as unnecessarily contrived.

You're condemned as unnecessarily contrived.

@RahulJain By the way, you might want to add an article before tennis team.

What with the 3 to 100 heads and all.

Why, thank you.

That's why you live in hell. Because of the condemnation.

How do you feel about my brother Orthrus?

Sounds like Parodonthosis.

You mean this?

I didn't, but now that you say, I should've.

@RegDwigнt Writing Statement of Purpose for Graduate school. So I think Due to would be better as it is more formal. Also, tennis and all is not there, I just used tennis for example, it is something else in real.

Hi, I am preparing Statement of Purpose for Grad school. Which one is correct? "I developed this habit during my Bachelor's at XYZ University" or "I developed this habit during my Bachelor's from XYZ University"?

@RahulJain In that particular context, definitely "at".

@RegDwigнt Thanks