What are your unpopular opinions?
Discussion
ntiz said:
Evanivitch said:
And whilst you've highlighted 10km events, I find tough mudders (and other such obstacle events) baffling. Why do people pay significant amounts of money to run and climb an artificial obstacle course? Find a cross country event. Do some orienteering. Don't run through tyres, inflatables and mud pits.
If it’s not at an organised event did it even happen? How can you brag on Facebook.It’s like going to the gym without taking 200 selfies did you even work out.
I do agree they're a bit expensive for what they are but the couple I've done are quite well organised, are fun to do and some money goes to charity from the entrance fee. I agree with others that I wouldn't bother trying to get people to sponsor me for anything like that though.
t again..
DocJock said:
67Dino said:
slopes said:
Countdown said:
In a similar vein I would make car horns sound really camp. It would cut down on road rage massively if the horn sounded like a cross between Frankie Howard and Charles hawtrey.
that's genius 
Chrysler paid Warner Brothers something like nine dollars per car to license the name and the slightly efette meep meep it emitted still seems hugely incongruous on a steroidal muscle car that might well have been packing seven litres of Hemi monster
Saying to someone "You don't own the road outside your house" is not a decent response when someone is moaning about non-local vehicles being parked outside their house for days/weeks/months on end without moving. The people who leave their cars in such places because they are too cheap to pay for parking at an airport/railway station/permit area are inconsiderate pricks and should be outed as such, rather than lauded and praised by others as seems to be common
Something I have noticed working (in the UK) with people from all over the world:
People who learn English as a second language know they cannot already speak English and therefore make an effort to do it properly so that they can both understand and be understood.
People from the Indian subcontinent* think they can speak English already, even if their English language skill is actually terrible, and don't bother trying to improve. Consequently half the time they fail to understand or be understood.
(*I mean people who actually come to Britain from India, Sri Lanka, etc, as opposed to British Asians.)
People who learn English as a second language know they cannot already speak English and therefore make an effort to do it properly so that they can both understand and be understood.
People from the Indian subcontinent* think they can speak English already, even if their English language skill is actually terrible, and don't bother trying to improve. Consequently half the time they fail to understand or be understood.
(*I mean people who actually come to Britain from India, Sri Lanka, etc, as opposed to British Asians.)
Sebastian Tombs said:
Something I have noticed working (in the UK) with people from all over the world:
People who learn English as a second language know they cannot already speak English and therefore make an effort to do it properly so that they can both understand and be understood.
People from the Indian subcontinent* think they can speak English already, even if their English language skill is actually terrible, and don't bother trying to improve. Consequently half the time they fail to understand or be understood.
(*I mean people who actually come to Britain from India, Sri Lanka, etc, as opposed to British Asians.)
I think there are two camps here - my missus in Indian - Bombay lass, she speaks perfect English, however, it sometimes comes across quite archaic rather than colloquial. A classic example would be an event we were at where a very famous Bollywood actress was hosting. A performance was about to start and rather than say something like, '..and please put you hands together for...', she said, 'Please do not be miserly with your appreciation...' - technically correct, but not something a Brit would every imagine saying.People who learn English as a second language know they cannot already speak English and therefore make an effort to do it properly so that they can both understand and be understood.
People from the Indian subcontinent* think they can speak English already, even if their English language skill is actually terrible, and don't bother trying to improve. Consequently half the time they fail to understand or be understood.
(*I mean people who actually come to Britain from India, Sri Lanka, etc, as opposed to British Asians.)
Also remember that English is often dropped into Hindi, Punjabi etc.. in a real mishmash and this gets dragged over to the other way.
DoubleD said:
j_4m said:
227bhp said:
Facebook and internet forums are largely inhabited by the unintelligent, the time wasters and/or a combination of the two.
Common knowledge and not unpopular opinion surely?Sebastian Tombs said:
Something I have noticed working (in the UK) with people from all over the world:
People who learn English as a second language know they cannot already speak English and therefore make an effort to do it properly so that they can both understand and be understood.
I'd say that is mostly the opposite. People who learn English as a second language know they cannot already speak English and therefore make an effort to do it properly so that they can both understand and be understood.
Having spent a lot of time in South East Asia, most of them do not speak English to a passable degree in a western nation. For the most part they are transferring their sentence structure, grammar, concepts from their native language into English. A Thai will ask to "open the TV" as the concept of activating or turning on is the same as opening for them.
The only exceptions are countries where English has been taught from a very young age as it's in common use, like Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines (the first two were former British colonies, the latter American)
With other European languages, they usually come from a common root language (Greek or Latin) so there isn't that much drift and it's mainly English that has drifted.
Sebastian Tombs said:
People from the Indian subcontinent* think they can speak English already, even if their English language skill is actually terrible, and don't bother trying to improve. Consequently half the time they fail to understand or be understood.
As above, they're speaking the way they would with their native languages but using English words... And the brilliance of English is that you can completely mangle the language and still understand it. If you're struggling, that would be a failure of your English, I could completely sausage the wrong bacon and you still what I meant. Some Indian accents can often be impenetrable though.
227bhp said:
Facebook and internet forums are largely inhabited by the unintelligent, the time wasters and/or a combination of the two.
Yes. Taking it a step further, I'd say that those of us who spend a considerable amount of time in both (like me, a regular time waster): the types of people who frequent car-based Facebook pages and car-tv-based pages are amongst the worst for arguments and division.
The level of seething hatred and puerile name calling directed towards people like Mike Brewer from Wheeler Dealers, or the new Top Gear team, is so much worse than that which seems to surround other similarly tribal/divisive types such as football fans or music/bands.
If Gary Lineker was to leave Match of the Day, I don't think it would be half as big a "problem" in the comments sections of the internet as when Clarkson left Top Gear. And sure, lots of people didn't like when Simon Cowell wasn't on The X Factor, but it wasn't the same level of rage etc.
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