The IIQD.

Interesting Quote.

Holla.

Semmana.

Is that like a week of Sundays?

Hola is a popular Spanish periodical. So is Semana.

Hello. Week.

Sure.

You know what is a truly awful cartoon? Sonic Underground

That's basically all I remember from my Spanish classes. The rest I just reacquire each time I visit someplace Spanish.

Also, all cartoons with Sonic in the title.

@RegDwightѬſ道 I remember a few cheesy songs, including Cielito Lindo.

And "Otra cerveza, por favor."

Or something close enough to that to result in getting another beer.

En Barcelona hay una fábrica de coches, la Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo.

Wow. That is an incredibly boring factoid.

Well last time I visited Spain I had to come up with way more original sentences.

En el mar, la vida es mas sabrosa.

Doesn't sound very Catalan to me?

So an hour later or so I had to go back and explain the situation and get my peas back.

In Spanish.

Ugh. Which means your conjugations had to be just right.

I hate that.

Haha yes.

That's why I prefer Chinese.

But actually that wasn't the problem.

What is a glass of peas, actually?

The problem was looking up and memorizing "peas" and "glass"

"No tengo mis cosas verde y bolo."

"Que pueden comer con arroz."

@RegDwightѬſ道 Jar. Jar of peas.

See. I don't even know the English word.

brain hurts

And you expect me to know it in Spanish.

I expect you to know it in English. I feel very weird that you made a mistake just now.

Your English is so natural.

Hehe.

But you can see how wonderful my Spanish is.

I probably would have just gotten another and pointed at it. "Como eso."

So basically I think it was something along the lines of, hoy por la tarde he comprado un vero de arroz y lo he olvidado blabla.

See, i can't put it back together.

"Que?"

Oh, that would have been funnier if I knew the code for the upside down question mark.

But there in Spain, it was perfect. No ques or anything.

I would expect as much from you. I don't think you could actually impress me more.

I also spoke decent Portuguese in Madeira.

OK, maybe you could.

But right now I couldn't so much as say hello.

@RegDwightѬſ道 a whole lot of stuff, perhaps. No s.

I used to know how to say "I don't speak Portugese."

It's more useful to say "I only speak English".

"Je voudrais une baguette, s'il vous plait."

Then, at least, they know what to try to communicate with you.

Except that isn't entirely true.

Well see, @Kit, now I am getting corrected on obvious jokes.

Corrected? Who's correcting you?

Once you make a genuine error, people will start correcting you on stuffs you do on purpose as well.

Stuff and nonsense.

I wasn't correcting you.

@KitFox I'll write it down and review it the next time I'm in France.

@KitFox Non, ce sont mes baguettes.

Last time I was in Argentina, I asked a woman (in Spanish) where she was from, hoping that she might speak a language that I speak better than I speak Spanish. When she answered with her name, I didn't know what to ask next.

Pense que non. Ce sont les miennes.

@Kitfox it was I.

@KitFox Je pense que non?

@DavidWallace That is very funny.

I heard that Argentinian Spanish was influenced by Italian, and that the accent sounds a bit like Italian: more tonal variation.

Actually, sadly, I reverted to English. I said "Sorry Brigitte, I didn't ask your name, I asked where you're from". She replied "Sorry, my English no is good".

Brigitte is such a typical Spanish name.

Like Maria in China.

BRB

@RegDwightѬſ道 Please don't.

Holla atcha David.

Et toi aussi, @Mahnax.

@KitFox Oh, kiitos.

I somehow got it out of her that she was Swiss. So I asked - Est-ce que vous preferrer parler en francais ou en allemande? She then launched into a rapid torrent of Schweizerdeutsch from which there was no recovery.

Did you shut her up by making out with her?

That always works for me.

...And that's how he met his wife!

;D

Hehe.

@Kitfox - I'll remember that if I ever see you in Argentina.

makes note not to disclose Macchu Picchu itinerary

> States like Wyoming, Illinois, Maryland, and Colorado are all considering similar laws that would make a clean drug test a prerequisite for food stamps, welfare, and other forms of government aid

continuing the quotes

What quotations?

I post random but interesting quotations in chat today.

Hmm. I don't remember that.

You were Away.

I see.

@KitFox I think you're fairly safe. I have no plans to go to Peru.

> The Earth has a roughly 12 percent chance of experiencing an enormous megaflare erupting from the sun in the next decade. This event could potentially cause trillions of dollars’ worth of damage and take up to a decade to recover from.

@Cerberus Bullshit

Seconded.

wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/massive-solar-flare

@DavidWallace I don't know what you mean. I am not traveling to Peru. Or anywhere else in South America.

or if I do, just don't speak to me in Schweizerdeutsch.

Oh yeah. We're in a period of high solar activity.

@DavidWallace Maybe. I have no idea.

Obviously, 1 in 8 = 12.5%, which rounds to 13%, so it is BS.

Much greater percentage of superhumans expected, due to the increase in gamma radiation.

@KitFox snorts derisively

Hey. Respect your elders, whippersnapper.

Yeah, she's twice your age!

Yes Mrs. Kit. Sorry, Mrs. Kit.

Better.

@Cerberus I don't know, but it certainly sounds different from the Spanish variety.

@Mahnax So now, young man. Where exactly do you think metahumans come from?

@DavidWallace Yeah, when I listened to it later, it sounded much more like Italian than does Mexican or Castilian. A Mexican friend confirmed this.

@KitFox Uh... Nevada?

lol

Nice.

@KitFox Where do you think metahumans come from?

@Cerberus then I bow to your superior experience.

@Mahnax Well, some are just born that way.

I would say most are, actually.

Others are exposed to gamma rays, or get bitten by spiders.

Or are turned into metas by Galactus.

Then again, my knowledge on the topic is all from a one-hour Discovery Channel documentary.

@DavidWallace My superior experience consists mostly of a few videos.

@Mahnax spittake

@KitFox Pardon?

I thought that was very funny.

Wipes water from monitor

It made me nearly spit out my coffee.

Oh, dear.

OK, coffee then.

hahaha

@Cerberus but I'm sure they were superior videos.

Oh noes.

I haz teh w-rkz.

oh sad panda.

teh w-rkz iz no fun.

No fun at all, especially with this new manager.

i haz boy to get to sleep.

@Mahnax Ugh. Riding you?

@KitFox Riding everyone. She's put some new policies in place that have slowed down our production time a lot.

That bites.

And you are so responsible. She should really appreciate that more.

For example, last night, the least busy night of the week, we were backed up with orders for an hour.

That's ridiculous.

@KitFox Well, thanks! She doesn't know most of us yet.

You must have had a lot of upset customers.

Heh, yeah.

I think she had to give out eight refunds or something outrageous like that.

Anyways, I really must be going.

I remember one day at the BK having a 45 minute wait in the drive thru because nobody knew what they were doing.

Farewell!

Bye!

Does M work at BK?

@DavidWallace Where do you think this guy is from? Australia/NZ?

@DavidWallace No, KFC.

youtube.com/…

@Cerberus Can't listen right now; my wife is watching a movie on TV, in the same room as my computer. Sorry. I'll listen later and let you know.

Heh OK.

Sounds Australian-ish. Especially the way he says "area."

And I just had to go and chase a cat out of my yard. Not the same one as yesterday.

But I have to put my son to bed. Back later.

My guess would be Australian, but I really don't know much about NZ accents, except what you told me about certain Scottish influences in the south.

@KitFox Bye!

The combination of non-rhotic r and voiced /d/ in "cities" also sounds Australian to me.

@DavidWallace Aww life is tough in the Wellingtonian suburbs!

OK, listen for the short i sounds, like "fish". Australians say "feesh". NZers use a shwa.

Oh!

That schwa is weird: I would probably notice it.

In any case, he is later doing an Argentinian accent.

The Italin-style tone is striking, and the /ʃ/ instead of /j/.

Look, the southern rhotic accent is only spoken by a tiny minority of NZers. The majority of us are completely non-rhotic.

It sounds soft and flowing compared to other accents, especially Castillian.

@DavidWallace Yeah OK I knew you were going to say that. But I had to come up with something: I didn't know anything else.

Also, the long A, as in "day" is much clearer in an NZ accent than an Australian one.

Aussies tend to say "doy" or something like it.

And the pronunciation of LL in Spanish seems to be different all over.

In Buenos Aires, they say either sh (like fish) or zh (like beige); but in the north of Argentina, they say LY. I think Mexicans say Y; and some Spaniards make that palatised L sound that doesn't exist in English.

Sorry, I don't know how to type the phonetic symbols here.

The other characteristic of Argentine Spanish is the tendency to drop an S before a T, or at least turn it into a faint aspiration. So they might say "como ehtas" for "how are you".

(Suddenly not sure whether aspiration is the right word, but I think you know what I meant).

@DavidWallace Oh, yes, I recognize doy, but I think that also exists in Cockney? I had idea you islanders didn't have it, though.

@DavidWallace Hmm so could there be a light /θ/ is their version of "estas", as in /e(θ)tas/?

No, not even that. Just a faint hint of breath.

A very gentle h, not a theta.

And thinking about it, the Australian "day" might be more like "die" than like "doy". Hard to express; it's somewhere in the middle of the three.

Yeah I get what you mean.

But that's the origin of the word "Strine", meaning Australian English.

Oh, yes, they swallow their Ls.

Oh haha, the -stralian part?