h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wasn't suggesting actually trying it.

Maybe it did work when the book was written, after all, they also have tips on how to re-use your plane tickets that "only work in airports that don't use the boarding card system"

Pierce's strategy just reminded me of it.

Does he re-use his plane tickets?

No, the phone thing!

Ah, never mind.

Actually, I didn't understand what you meant by the phone tip being legal.

It was nice to talk to you Bel, and it wasn't your fault I couldn't understand. It was a combination of Mal's phone and the wrong kind of beer. I was drinking Czech stuff, so my mind wasn't attuned to German.

wonders about Bel's accent
...I know a few ladies who are in the England for atleast 2 decades, if not more. they still speak with German accent. they often speak German to each other. one always starts in German with me and than remembers that understand some and continues in English.

It's nice you blame the phone and the beer. :_D

I tried to decipher the label, but as it's turned away, I have no chance.

The funniest accent I have heard was a German woman who lived in Dublin for about ten years and had a complete Dublin accent, so much so that she spoke German with a Dublin accent too.

I think that is how it should be. I know many people, though, who have lived in a different area of Germany for decades and still have the accent of the area they were born in.

The way to tell if you are truly fluent in a language is if you curse in that language automatically when you drop a brick on your toe.

That's a very poetic way of putting it...

I'm not in any danger of dropping a brick on my toe, so I guess I'll never find out.

hands Bel extra strength shoes...if ever starts raining bricks...

Well, I suppose catching it in a bicycle chain would work equally well.

Thanks, pheloxi.

I don't think that danger is imminent, KB.

my mum-in-law has lived in dk for several decades and still has a heavy accent, while my mum never lived in dk but speaks dk to perfection

i think pronunciation is deeply connected with musicality

*drops brick on toe* holy #€&%!!!

When I was in college (in US), I was in the studio of a Portuguese music professor. One day, he got upset at another student and began to bawl her out. When he realized he was speaking Portuguese, he switched to French. She didn't speak either, so was just standing there looking blank. By the time he could think in English, all the wind was gone from his sails.

Pierce, I agree. Being a musician, I can hear how to pronounce nearly anything. (Just don't ask me the meaning of what I'm singing.) However, I will confess that after a dozen years of summering near Cleveland, OH, I still can barely understand the natives.

well, they are american after all. what did you expect?

Oh, but I can't sing at people, can I? That would just be strange. They'd probably call for the men in white.

oh that is so smart, than the men in white will sing back up!