Language

[grandma]

No, John, you are Russian. You mother language is Russian. But you children are American. My children are Basque. They speak Basque better than another languages, they feel Basque. There are two things - one is the language, another is the people you live with and feel as a part of this group. My son say me when see the green-red-white flag: it is the flag of MY country. What flag has Ukrain?

[grandma]

Another thing, John - are American culture Italian? Russian? etc. Not, this is one of anglo-saxon culture.

[johnstruthers]

I think you made my point for me, in a roundabout way. I am an ethnic Russian who never lived in Russia, only Ukraine and the US. Now I speak English every day. I have never spoken Ukrainian in my life. I have an American passport with a stamp from OVIR that says I have Ukrainian citizenship. I have a Ukrainian passport that has an entry that says I have American citizenship. My daughter has a Ukrainian husband. My grandchildren are Ukrainian. They have never spoken Ukrainian, only Russian. If you ask them what they all are, daughter, son-in-law, grandchildren and, yes, me, we would all say Ukrainian. I don't go to the Russian Cultural Center (there isn't one anyway), I go to the Ukrainian Cultural Center. I attend a Russian Orthodox church because it's too far to drive to the Ukrainian Orthodox church. Note Orthodox, not Eastern Rite Catholic.

We are who we are. We speak the local language, whatever that is. We learn to enjoy local foods, but make and eat borshch at home. In the US, with my pretty Scotch surname, I'm an American. And in the background is the concealed Jewish blood.

There are bigger issues than the language.

[grandma]

John, I was 50/50 Ukrain and Bielorusian, as you know. My mother language is Ukrain. I know perfectly Spanish, I havent slavic accent in this language, etc. But it dont make me Spanish. I can have a Spanish passport, but steel everybody will ask me who am I (my accent is from South America). Em... must I say that I am Spanish? I lived a lot of time in Bielorusia, and studied there in school. So Ukrain is my first language, but a big part of my life passed away from this language. But when my children was born, I understood that it is MY language. I can speak with them only in Ukrain. They live in this country and speak better Basque. It was their first language. Are they Ukrain??? Of course, no.

[Johnson123]

StasUA,

In the south here in the USA the language has stayed the same generally from generation on down and this is due to rural settings and farming areas of the past. Unlike larger east coast cities where immigration was large there is a large amount of dialect variation.
Seems in any country slang ways heavy in most cases. Like Australia where the "a" at the end of a sentence is usually replaced by "er" (vodka becomes vodker) Yes may also become Yeaa mate or something similar. All in all Kings English is held dearly by the English and little few others maintain there strict language guidlines.
I have seen no English egion of speech that is all too consistent in terms of rules therein. Australia has an English language of it's own as well.

Rex xx

[Phillip]

I think that what John123 is speaking about is much the same as Stas because as part of our national identities we all like to own our own speach.

Proper English is rare. In England the differences in speach is far greater then in Australia and America. If you go to Liverpool and hear the scouser or if you visit Scottland it is very obvious. The only reason why English isn't more distorted is because we all like having a common tongue.

The English language changes all the time. So many new words come from so many different places but they are all embraced. Some countries own certain phrases like 'no-worries mate' or 'damn straight', but most of them spread very fast and they endure on all the continents. Even accents standardise in the more cosmopolitan cities.

For example, when I was in Ireland I spoke with a couple from London who I thought sure were from Melbourne. When I was in England they thought I had a posh accent. I explained that, that is how we speak in Melbourne??!!

[Phillip]

Con't...

When I am around English people I find myself speaking in colloquialisms as do they. It becomes a tug of war about whose we use. Soon I find myself saying 'Shall we do one', to the reply of 'no-worries'. It is fun, but it shows how quickly words circulate. It becomes a competition about who has the coolest words - and admiration goes to the winner.

And John123 Vodka is vodka - the er thing isn't true. We put 'a' at the end. I can't think of any examples that show otherwise.

Now put that in your pipe and smoke it
Cause if ya don't, I'm gonna open up a can of woop ass