@dumdristig Yes I know they say it all over the world, although I know some people that are more particular about it like me. The "USAmericans" only works when writing, and referring to you as Americans isn't wrong because you are from that continent (so i do use that term in spoken language). But it is just me being a bit weird probably. Because whenever I hear or read "America" I always assume the whole continent... as we do with Africa...
Well calling things differently has always been an English thing. The whole "Dutch/Netherlands" "German/Deutch" is a good example. English makes it complicated even though it doesn't have to be at all. Original/natural names are always simpler...
It is not so much the related thing I meant, as the use of sounds. Phonetically speaking they're closer to English than we are. I've been a lot in Denmark, in rural places, in bigger cities and things in between. My Danish isn't so good because my Danish boyfriend at the time wanted to speak English mostly. As our languages are quite similar it wasn't hard to understand Danish, so people didn't took too much effort in speaking English to me. They did in the cities, but in the countryside/smaller towns they seemed to talk to my boyfriend in Danish rather than to me in English (even though he usually let me do all the talking).
Well, we Dutch like to make ourselves understandable. But I hear a lot of "steenkolen Engels" or "Dunglish" around me. It's the accent, but also the fact that we love to literately translate our sayings into English. Which make for hilarious nonsense. Like "Make that the cat wise" or "You bake there nothing from". All very meaningful and clear in Dutch...But just weird in English ;)
I'm actually quite good at it, but I've been practicing a lot. Most difficult I find the differences between Australian and New Zealand accents, And I'm quite bad at telling most accents from countries in Africa apart...
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@dumdristig Yes I know they say it all over the world, although I know some people that are more particular about it like me. The "USAmericans" only works when writing, and referring to you as Americans isn't wrong because you are from that continent (so i do use that term in spoken language). But it is just me being a bit weird probably. Because whenever I hear or read "America" I always assume the whole continent... as we do with Africa...
Well calling things differently has always been an English thing. The whole "Dutch/Netherlands" "German/Deutch" is a good example. English makes it complicated even though it doesn't have to be at all. Original/natural names are always simpler...
It is not so much the related thing I meant, as the use of sounds. Phonetically speaking they're closer to English than we are. I've been a lot in Denmark, in rural places, in bigger cities and things in between. My Danish isn't so good because my Danish boyfriend at the time wanted to speak English mostly. As our languages are quite similar it wasn't hard to understand Danish, so people didn't took too much effort in speaking English to me. They did in the cities, but in the countryside/smaller towns they seemed to talk to my boyfriend in Danish rather than to me in English (even though he usually let me do all the talking).
Well, we Dutch like to make ourselves understandable. But I hear a lot of "steenkolen Engels" or "Dunglish" around me. It's the accent, but also the fact that we love to literately translate our sayings into English. Which make for hilarious nonsense. Like "Make that the cat wise" or "You bake there nothing from". All very meaningful and clear in Dutch...But just weird in English ;)
I'm actually quite good at it, but I've been practicing a lot. Most difficult I find the differences between Australian and New Zealand accents, And I'm quite bad at telling most accents from countries in Africa apart...