Like and Dislike about my country

Originally posted by FMF
Words are getting merged, lost, narrowed, widened and invented all the time. That's all we're talking about here really. If self-effacing and self-deprecating now mean the same to large numbers of native English speakers, then so be it. I find it an interesting topic. Here is a lecture series I was listening to just before Christmas. http://avaxhome.ws/ebooks/audiobook/2350993.html

Originally posted by FMF
Would you describe Bristish humour as "self-effacing"? I would not.

It sounds as if the meaning of "self-effacing" and "self-deprecating" - in the context of 'taking the mickey out of oneself' - may have merged in many English speakers' minds.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
Again it depend entirely upon context, Shadwell the Welsh poet relied entirely upon his self effacing character for comic effect. Its futile to engage in generalisations without reference to context.

Originally posted by FMF
So you do not know whether you would describe British humour as "self-effacing"?

I would say that making jokes about one's own self effacing character would be an example of "self-deprecating" humour.

[b]Its futile to engage in generalisations without reference to context.

The "context" is an attempt to encapsulate the humour in England: whether it ...[text shortened]... cvs57 and I have expressed our take on it. You think expressing a view is "futile"?[/b]

There are ways of getting along with self-effacing people, just as
there are ways of getting along with self-deprecating people.

It's the self-aggrandizing people that give us trouble. 😉

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
I certainly know from experience that engaging you in any type of 'meaningful ', discussion is a futile exercise. Thanks for proving it to me again, it had simply slipped my mind.

USA: 1773 Tea Party (in Boston Harbor)

That sounds like something Bobby would get behind.

USA: Liberty Bell (in Philadelphia)

You're making a list of USA likes, GB, that goes in the other thread. Here we're more cosmopolitan and even-handed.

Australia:
like: empty beaches
dislike: developers of empty beaches into places where nobody would want to go

Australia:
Like: The people, especially my dear university friend who lived near Ascot, Brisbane and wrote poetry (one about tea, "Oh, Albion, does it still taste the same?); Barry Byrnes also played piano (from/to paintings in place sheet music as if in Carnegie Hall). Also, loved the whimsical skies painted by Marc Chagall. Barry died @ the age of 35. Wrote an elegy a year later, playful as he was and not the least mournful or verbose. Title: For Barry Byrnes (poet, lover, seeker and clown). Last lines, "... died down under in his mid thirties without hurting the week. / Earth beneath Brisbane, inherit the meek."
Dislike: 0.
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Originally posted by Kewpie
You're making a list of USA likes, GB, that goes in the other thread. Here we're more cosmopolitan and even-handed.

Australia:
like: empty beaches
dislike: developers of empty beaches into places where nobody would want to go

Originally posted by johnnylongwoody
Empty beaches?????

Originally posted by Kewpie
http://getaway.ninemsn.com.au/fsaustraliavic/gippsland/17633/ninety-mile-beach

Didn't you know? Half a dozen very tiny towns, along 94 miles of undisturbed sand. Leave your footprints today, they'll still be there in a week or maybe a year.

Originally posted by johnnylongwoody
Don't tell the Germans.

There is a standing joke here and in Britain also
that when you go on holiday, the Germans get up at the
crack of dawn and they get all the best places by the hotel pool
and on the beaches.

Does that joke translate to other parts of the world as well?