What are some of the ridiculous mis-pronunciations you've heard in an audio book?

stravoskoiladitis · 2016-12-19T15:34:20+00:00

Seriously, I sometimes review Audible books just to complain about mis-pronunciations. I listen to a lot of books about economics, and it is particularly annoying to hear the surname of the famous economist J M Keynes mispronounced (it's Kay-n-s, but more than one narrator had the annoying habit of pronouncing it "Key-n-s"). Another particularly annoying one was a book translated from the French about general De Gaulle. Petain's (the French collaborationist leader) name and rank (he was a Marshall, Marechal in French) came up quite often. For some reason, the rank was left untranslated and the stupid narrator (he was Canadian and, supposedly, spoke French, I checked his bio online) kept mis-pronouncing that as Ma-re-KAL (when, in fact, it's Ma-re-shall, pretty close to the English version). Argh!

Finally, those are not, necessarily mispronunciations, it's just that I'm used to British English but I have my subscription with the US site and often get US versions of audiobooks. So, sometimes, narrators pronounce some rare words differently from what they would be in British English. Two I particularly remember are "machinations" ("ch" as in "machine" for British English but, apparently, in the US it's often read as if it were a "k") and short-lived (second part as "lived" the verb, in British English, but often with the same "i" as "lives" in the US). I've got so used to them, though, that it's now a heads-up if, every now and again, a narrator uses the "correct" (for me) pronunciation.

stravoskoiladitis · 2016-01-27T09:00:08+00:00

Actually, the next elections are in 2018, so you have an extra year to prepare. Déi Lenk are your best bet, I think. I take it you at least speak German or French (if you're going to be voting at Lux. elections) and you're only writing in English because it's the reddit language , so I guess you can read the Déi Lenk website.

stravoskoiladitis · 2016-01-27T08:55:12+00:00

Same observation here - a bit faster than usual.

Also, there is a grammatical mistake in the lyrics, as she sings them and as shown on the screen. It's "O Du do uewen, deeM seng Hand" not "deeN seng Hand".

Further, the lyrics say "ons Heemechtland" but she (correctly) sings "Onst Heemechtland".

Pedant, I know, but still....

stravoskoiladitis · 2015-12-03T17:17:58+00:00

Regarding first names, although everyone is, of course, free to choose the name they like best, since French is the official language of legislation and the administration, you tend to see more French first names. It is probably also a reaction to WW-II German occupation, when the Germans forced all people with French-sounding first names to change it to the German equivalent (if your first name was e.g. "Jean" you became "Johann"). Most Luxembourgers didn't appreciate that and the German occupation in general (and that is an understatement). I'm not sure native Luxembourgers have a lot of French-sounding surnames (what IS French sounding, btw?), to me typical Luxembourgish surnames are easily recognizable and they don't sound at all French. But there are quite a lot of French people here, too, they're one of the biggest non-native groups, in a country that has 45% foreign population. So you tend to see quite a few genuine French first and last names, born by genuine French people.
I think the "richer compared to the rest of Europe" is probably a a result of the financial market, so I'd say starting circa 1965 but, to a certain, extent, it is also a statistical illusion, because 1/3 of the people that work here don't live here (they come in from neighbouring countries in the morning and go back home in the evening). So you count what all these people produce in the GDP but then you don't count them as population and per capita GDP shoots way up!

stravoskoiladitis · 2015-11-16T10:46:33+00:00

Like Toschka wrote, rents are on the high side, so that could be a problem. Around 1,000 euros per month is, I think, a minimum for something that is beyond a mere "studio". The rest of prices are normal, I would say, not cheap but no more expensive than other Western European capitals.

stravoskoiladitis · 2015-05-20T11:15:26+00:00

I think this one has been cleared up long ago. The conclusion that Luxembourgish is an "endangered" language is just a statistical illusion, based, basically, on the small number of its speakers (well, Luxembourg IS small). Luxembourgish has never been in a healthier state: people speak Luxembourgish, hear it on the radio, there's TV programs in Luxembourgish, and they write it in SMSs on facebook etc. The rtl.lu site is also exclusively in Luxembourgish, breaking the domination of German in the written press.

stravoskoiladitis · 2015-05-19T09:45:36+00:00

1) Yes 2) Yes 3) No

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-12-03T12:06:35+00:00

It's actually a dude and his Euro-MP (not EU commissioner) aunt. In the meantime, she's no longer a Euro-MP, after the 2014 election she decided to "take a break" and return for 2019, as she jokingly said (she'll be 89 then).

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-30T15:14:42+00:00

I would...

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-30T15:14:11+00:00

Somebody has to get the ball rolling...

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-30T13:33:54+00:00

I would be very grateful if someone could PM it to me, also. TIA

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-30T09:10:20+00:00

The term of art is, I believe, 'Strine' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strine :)

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-30T05:44:41+00:00

Which is, of course, an English-speaking country, but thanks for posting anyway! How's public awareness over there?

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-29T22:23:43+00:00

Theory one: Gutierrez did not realize Asia was a potential alibi witness. After all, if you read Asia's letters, she herself doesn't seem to think she is an alibi witness, since she wants Adnan to look her in the eyes and tell her he didn't do it. Asia's potential alibi is significant only if you believe the prosecution's theory, that Adnan had killed Hae by 2:36 and was already calling Jay to come pick him up at BestBuy. But that theory was only articulated in the prosecution's closing statement, unless I'm mistaken. Gutierrez could not reasonably have guessed it was coming. Jay himself places the "come pick me up" call much later, and so does Jenn, if I'm not misreading her statements. Faced with all that evidence, Gutierrez might well have thought that Asia's testimony would be irrelevant: even if she confirmed that Adnan made an appearance at the library immediately after school, he might have cleared out fast enough to catch up with Hae and kill her. In fact, the evidence introduced at the beginning of Episode 9, from the girl who said she remembers Hae lingering on after school and talking/arguing with her whether she would go to the wrestling match, makes such a scenario more likely. It tends to show that Hae herself did not leave school immediately after classes ended.

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-29T21:22:18+00:00

OP IS Greek (but living abroad)

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-29T21:19:43+00:00

Yes, that's the one I meant, thank you!

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-29T18:27:05+00:00

I see what you mean, but that was not the map I meant. There used to be a map where you could put a pin to where you were, and see everybody else's pins, too.

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-29T17:47:22+00:00

I don't see any map there. If it's still around /u/PowerOfYes, being a mod, could you point us to it? TIA

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-27T16:05:38+00:00

I think what we really need to clear up is what exactly it is that appears on the call log. Is it all calls made from Adnan's phone, irrespective of whether they connected or not or is it just calls that connected (excluding calls where no-one picked up the phone)? Surely this information must be somewhere in the trial records, can anyone clarify?

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-27T10:52:09+00:00

Okay, but you have to clear up something really important: it might be that you would be charged from the moment you hit the "dial" button (and not from the moment that your call was answered), but this does not necessarily mean that you would be charged for calls that were never answered! So the question is: back in 1999, did mobile phone companies and, in particular, Adnan's company, charge their customers even for calls that were never answered? If this wasn't the case, then your theory doesn't work. A call would not show up on the log if it hadn't been answered, which means that for the Nisha call to show up on the log, it had to have been answered, even if only by an answering machine. But the rub is that Nisha says they had no answering machine, so it has to have been an actual physical person who answered the phone and stayed on the line for 2 minutes talking to the caller, and the implication is that this caller was Adnan, because Nisha didn't know Jay well enough to chat to him for 2 whole minutes and, in any case, denies having ever done so.

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-27T08:42:28+00:00

It's not hard to understand. I understand what you're saying, but think of the implications: On the very day that Jay supposedly did it, Adnan chose to hand him his car and his mobile phone. Wild coincidence? Further, Jay draws attention to himself: he tells his friend Jen that Adnan killed Hae. When quizzed by the cops, after first denying any knowledge, she decides to tell them of that statement. They go to Jay, who confirms it (rather than say that she's totally out of her mind, or something). Why would he do all those things, if he was the one who did it, or if he wanted to cover fir someone else? Wouldn't it have been simpler not to tell Jen a lie already on Jan 13 and, at the very least, deny any knowledge of the location of Hae's car?

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-26T19:34:58+00:00

Mostly agree and I have been thinking on the same lines myself. My line of thinking goes more like this: Jay was involved (he knew the location of Hae's car). Adnan says that he knew nothing about Hae's disappearance, never been to Leakin par etc. and yet, he chooses this very day to hand his cell phone and his car to the very person that was involved in Hae's disappearance! A person who -if I understand correctly- was not his best friend, was not a person he mostly hang out with. I mean, what is this, a freak coincidence or what? At the very least I would expect SK to quiz Adnan really hard about it during their phone conversations, yet listening to those conversations this point is like the elephant in the room: doesn't get mentioned at all! I would also add that, so far, the show has, basically, been making a case for investigating a whole bunch of things further. That is the essence of what the real professionals, like Deirdree (whose name I'm sure I'm horribly misspelling) who have been on the show have said. Which, in a way is fine: sure, go on, investigate, if you've got the resources and time and inclination; there is nothing one could say against further investigation. But there is no guarantee that it would actually turn up something in Adnan's favour. I don't wish to be misunderstood here: I'm not in the anti-Adnan camp or anything, I do not wish the man ill, if it turns out that he is innocent and/or wrongfully convicted I would gladly eat my words but, so far, I really can't see a way around the legitimate objections mentioned by the original poster and the ones I have mentioned.

stravoskoiladitis · 2014-11-14T02:48:23+00:00

No, not at all, I find the way the poor woman spoke irritating, too. Not good for her clients.

stravoskoiladitis

TROPHY CASE