Re: YAPT: Dutch ij and ui

Carsten Becker wrote:

>On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 21:34:38 +1000, Tristan Mc Leay <kesuari@...>
>wrote:
>
>
>>You know how confused you made me here? When I finally worked out that
>>you meant you not only decided to visit another country, but *you did
>>it* within a few days, perhaps even hours, I decided that I have to hate
>>you.
>>
>>
>Wait! My English (sometimes) sucks and is (sometimes) unintelligible, I
>know. Let me explain in detail, giving the date sof the days: During lunch
>on Wednesday, July 21st, 2004, my parents came up with the idea of having
>an one-day excursion to the Netherlands at my brother's 13th birthday (July
>29). Because I'm not at home on this day and I'd like to come with them
>(you don't have the chance to visit another country every day after all),
>they decided to do it on Thursday, July 22nd, 2004 which was yesterday. So
>yesterday, my family and me have been to the Netherlands. We were back home
>yesterday at ~10pm, so I'm at home in Germany again today. Why hating me?
>
>
Because you can go to another country in a day! Having a one-day
excursion to another country from Australia would be a tiring task and
would involve lots of airport and not much country.

>I've never been to America as well. If things run badly, I'll never come to
>visit America. Or do you live in Australia?
>
It's very hard to live in America and have christmas/summer holidays
(meaning holidays that include both summer and christmas), though I'm
sure a lot of people would like to have them :)

>Then you have a problem indeed ;) But no need to hate someone!
>
>
'Hate' is such a harsh word that I have no idea of what concept it
expresses. Rather than letting a perfectly useable word go to waste, I*
have re-applied it as a euphamism for something that is normally
expressed using words like 'jealous' or 'envious' but isn't quite that.
It's always clear what it means in person because it's said with a happy
tone of voice but English doesn't have written tones of voice... Please
do not feel offended, I wouldn't hate anyone I didn't like!

*: I didn't do it consciously. I have no idea whether it's common or if
I invented it or something else, but I do it and it normally doesn't
cause misunderstanding, so I keep doing it.

--
| Tristan.               |       To be nobody-but-yourself in a world
| kesuari@yahoo!.com.au  |  which is doing its best to, night and day,
|                        |                 to make you everybody else---
|                        |          means to fight the hardest battle
|                        |            which any human being can fight;
|                        |                    and never stop fighting.
|                        |      --- E. E. Cummings, "A Miscellany"
|                        |
|                        |     In the fight between you and the world,
|                        |                             back the world.
|                        |      --- Franz Kafka,
|                        |         "RS's 1974 Expectation of Days"

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