Confidence in foreign language skills

You could just use "Regards"

The scale of intimacy (low to high) being:-

Regards,
Kind regards,
Kindest regards,
Fond regards,

Maybe even adding "and Best Wishes" after any of those.
 
So I put my foot in it with this expression, sorry. I deeply respect any orientation.

Totally unnecessary to apologize. Your grasp of the English language is excellent.

"Queer" used to mean odd or unusual. The word was used quite frequently in those instances. But our new yuppie mentality decided that since it was occasionally used to describe someone who was homosexual, it's been deemed derogatory, and we should no longer use it. "Gay", which used to mean happy or joyous, fell to the same demise.

I was raised amid a fairly large group of people from Mexico, who were quite comfortable with being called Mexican (just as you could be called a German). But for some reason the younger generation has taken it upon themselves to make "Mexican" a derogatory word, and is rarely used any more.

Sad, but that's the way our language is now.
 
"Queer" used to mean odd or unusual. The word was used quite frequently in those instances. But our new yuppie mentality decided that since it was occasionally used to describe someone who was homosexual, it's been deemed derogatory, and we should no longer use it. "Gay", which used to mean happy or joyous, fell to the same demise.
I agree and also decry the hijacking of words or phrases by special interest groups. However, the fact remains that these words have different meanings than they used to and those who unwittingly use them are letting themselves in for a world of pain, regardless of the innocence of their intentions.

Perhaps there should be a chapter in every foreign-language translation book, "Things You Can't Say Anymore Without Causing Hurt Feelings."
 
Totally unnecessary to apologize. Your grasp of the English language is excellent.

"Queer" used to mean odd or unusual. The word was used quite frequently in those instances. But our new yuppie mentality decided that since it was occasionally used to describe someone who was homosexual, it's been deemed derogatory, and we should no longer use it. "Gay", which used to mean happy or joyous, fell to the same demise.

I was raised amid a fairly large group of people from Mexico, who were quite comfortable with being called Mexican (just as you could be called a German). But for some reason the younger generation has taken it upon themselves to make "Mexican" a derogatory word, and is rarely used any more.

Sad, but that's the way our language is now.

The language has always evolved. One particular pattern is that any word commonly used for a group that is often reviled tends to acquire derogatory connotations over time. Therefore it eventually will be replaced by a new word for use when bad will is not intended. What's the replacement for 'Mexican?'
 
I love these recordings, but it is so difficult to understand Bing's comments. Why is this so? :idea: Does he speak a special slang or dialect? It is a bit frustrating, it is as if the English language was almost entirely new to me...

(I'm listening to it in this very moment, it is so beautiful!)


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This could be fun to discuss, as I suspect it involves some playful 1940s era slang, so give us some examples.
 
"Gay", which used to mean happy or joyous, fell to the same demise.

"Gay" seems to be etymolgically related to our German "Geil" which exists for more than 600 years. It used to mean happy or joyous as well, but in the last decades it's meaning has been corrupted. First it's meaning changed to "horny" but now it just means "great".

Perhaps corruption is not the correct word - because a language is a lively character and just follows (like everything) the most basic of all prinicples: change.
 
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This could be fun to discuss, as I suspect it involves some playful 1940s era slang, so give us some examples.

Bing introduces every song on this album with a memory, or a little anecdote or something like that, very nice. But he is speaking very fast and his pronunciation sounds unusual to me. And he uses expressions and words which are unknown to me.
 
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Bing introduces every song on this album with a memory, or a little anecdote or something like that, very nice. But he is speaking very fast and his pronunciation sounds unusual to me. And he uses expressions and words which are unknown to me.
Yeah, as something of an old movie aficionado, I can tell you this: they talked weird in the 1940s.
 
I think most of the songs Bing is presenting on this album are from the 1930s and 1940s but the album itself - and his comments - is from 1954.
 
Chris, you are right, he is speaking rapidly but softly; without careful enunciation, as he might to a friend who is familiar with him. I think your problem is similar to an American listening to an East Indian speaking English - the rhythm and length of the syllables is very different.
 
I looked up "Eierlikör" and I found eggnog. But according to a pic in the YGTLW thread it is egg nog. Is eggnog false?
 
I've often seen the word spelled both ways. Neither is wrong, with the difference being more of a regional convention. Kind of like how catsup and ketchup are both used.
 
I wish that the English language (in general) was not so unambiguous.

Just noticed your signature, Guy.

Neuman is interesting. I am familiar with Neumann and Newman, but Neuman (here the comics pal) is probably pretty rare, right?
 
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Ambiguous. Holy crap. How embarrassing.
I wouldn't worry about it. A little while ago, I edited a post of mine in a different thread that read something like this: "I sometimes think that (... such-and-such a thing is the case ...) sometimes."

I've never seen YOU spout nonsense like that!
 
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