[barmar]

 ggwhiz, on 2012-November-12, 11:14, said:

I believe it is "formerly known as" not "also". That has been confirmed by Prince.

The newscasters here always say "also", not "formerly". But maybe it's just an NPR policy -- that's where I get most of my news.

[kenberg]

Possibly I am fantasizing or maybe just not paying close attention, but I think that I have recently also heard "Burma, also known as Myanmar". Maybe even on NPR, since that is also where I most often hear radio news.

[Vampyr]

 kenberg, on 2012-November-12, 13:26, said:

Possibly I am fantasizing or maybe just not paying close attention, but I think that I have recently also heard "Burma, also known as Myanmar". Maybe even on NPR, since that is also where I most often hear radio news.

That's what it is here, although the "also known as Myanmar" is often omitted.

Mind you, we still use "Bombay" over here.

[gwnn]

It is an interesting phenomenon, though. Alma Ata changed its name to Almaty and asked all countries to change. Also Czech Republic used to insist on being called Chechia. But why can't I call your country in my language whichever way I please? Of course I can understand why Belarus doesn't like being called "Whiterussia" as it is in many languages. But our language is our language, we decide what we call your land (as long as it's not openly offensive, like Fascist Puppet State of Masochistan or something), thanks.

edit: on that note, "the Ukraine" is quite insulting to my ears. Please stop it.

[barmar]

 gwnn, on 2012-November-13, 08:25, said:

But our language is our language, we decide what we call your land (as long as it's not openly offensive, like Fascist Puppet State of Masochistan or something), thanks.

I have exactly the opposite opinion. Our name is our name, why can't you call us what we want to be called? You don't translate people's names into your own language -- it's Jacque, not Jack or John. So why should it be different with countries? At most you may need to adjust the pronunciation to fit your own phonology.

Much of it is traditional, the names we use for other countries goes back hundreds of years. At the time, we weren't chatting with people in other countries, so no one really noticed what we called each other. But the world has gotten smaller, and everything is global now, so it's more noticeable. We're unlikely to change age-old habits, but newly-formed and renamed countries should be called by their chosen names.

[dwar0123]

 gwnn, on 2012-November-13, 08:25, said:

But why can't I call your country in my language whichever way I please? ...our language is our language, we decide what we call your land (as long as it's not openly offensive, like Fascist Puppet State of Masochistan or something), thanks.

I am with Barmar on this one, any name that isn't our name(or at least an honest attempt to pronounce our name) is openly offensive.

Spelling isn't as relevant as getting it phonetically as close to right as reasonable.

Now countries that change their name I am far more meh about.

[gordontd]

 Vampyr, on 2012-November-13, 08:21, said:

Mind you, we still use "Bombay" over here.

You, John Crinnion & who else?

[kenberg]

Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali to me just as soon as he wanted to be, and I pretty much feel that same about countries. Still, I would feel I am being a little pretentious to speak of Espana instead of Spain (and I don't know how to get the twiddle over the n). I recall that there was some issue about Macedonia a while back, and there are ongoing issues with Taiwan. My default would be that if there is a stable recognized government that announce that the name of their country is such and such, then such and such it is. I can imagine a little fuzziness around the edges here, for example someone has to interpret stable and recognized.

My daughter, when she was thirteen, proclaimed that she would henceforth be Nicole. Fortunately that did not last. I got nothing against all you Nicoles out there, but we named her Ruth.

Reminds me of an old Tom Lehrer line, c. 1960:

China, which we call Red China, exploded a bomb, which we called a device.

[Phil]

Annoying titles on business cards:

"Chief Creativity Officer"

"Corporate Evangelist"

or certainly anything with "guru" in it.

[Cyberyeti]

 dwar0123, on 2012-November-13, 11:41, said:

Now countries that change their name I am far more meh about.

I don't understand why some are universally adopted pretty quickly (you don't see Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Leningrad (St Petersburg) or Peking (Beijing) any more, and they went away almost instantly in the UK), but some still persist (Burma being the obvious one). Mumbai/Bombay are both in use, as I think are Kolkata/Calcutta and Chennai/Madras.

[dwar0123]

 Cyberyeti, on 2012-November-13, 18:43, said:

I don't understand why some are universally adopted pretty quickly (you don't see Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Leningrad (St Petersburg) or Peking (Beijing) any more, and they went away almost instantly in the UK), but some still persist (Burma being the obvious one). Mumbai/Bombay are both in use, as I think are Kolkata/Calcutta and Chennai/Madras.

Well Burma is easy, the government that instituted the change is not fully recognized by many nations, including the USA and UK.

I would imagine Bombay/Mumbai has to do with the city being very well known by those slow to adopt its new name. Familiarity breeds resistance to change, but honestly I think many British resent the name change. Not their right to change the name, just that they would.

[gwnn]

Peking is absolutely standard in Hungarian and German and I imagine many other languages (edit: a quick scroll through the left hand side of the wikipedia entry confirms this). It just sounds better. It's just a transliteration anyway, so that one is not a big deal (or??).

[jillybean]

Opponents who ask about an alert and then stop you before you have given the complete description of your methods.

Opponents who do not have a completed CC.

Opponents who comment on our bidding or play and tell us how we could have done better.

Opponents in general

[kenberg]

 gwnn, on 2012-November-14, 03:15, said:

Peking is absolutely standard in Hungarian and German and I imagine many other languages (edit: a quick scroll through the left hand side of the wikipedia entry confirms this). It just sounds better. It's just a transliteration anyway, so that one is not a big deal (or??).

Beijing, except when I want a duck.

[Thiros]

Threads that just won't die.

[jjbrr]

 Phil, on 2012-November-13, 15:20, said:

Annoying titles on business cards:

"Chief Creativity Officer"

"Corporate Evangelist"

or certainly anything with "guru" in it.

Yes.

"Champion" kills me.

[jjbrr]

 Thiros, on 2012-November-14, 21:50, said:

Threads that just won't die.

People who can't distinguish good threads from bad.

[Cyberyeti]

 Vampyr, on 2012-November-13, 08:21, said:

That's what it is here, although the "also known as Myanmar" is often omitted.

Mind you, we still use "Bombay" over here.

Just listened to ex indian cricketer Farokh Engineer saying he still calls it Bombay, so it's not universally Mumbai.

[helene_t]

The locals refered to their bidding system as "Bombay Club"

[Zelandakh]

Grammar: you ought to absolute love this sentence, set to increasing be a part of modern English. My favourite in this area is the message that regularly goes out that "The system will return to normal operation until 4pm" or "We estimate that the problem will be solved until 11am". This is a classic mistake for native German speakers.

TV License: it is not illegal to own a TV in Britain without a license provided that you can show it is not connected to a TV feed. So, for example, you can buy a huge TV to play your DVDs on and this is not a problem. Having watched a fair bit of German Fernseher now, I don't blame Michael for not having a TV at all.

Americans: US-ian? What is wrong with using US American? In German I often hear US-Amerikaner.

10000 posts: Is becoming the 4th member of the 500 Club also a pet pevve thing gwnn? For goodness sake, write one of your super-cool messages already so we can start the fireworks and open the beer!