Smalltalk

@sator
You hear music at work? Are you a DJ or something?! :D

@Grymnir

ok. we switched back to crap music (radio).

we have smartphones, and some colleagues have bluetooth speakers.

@sator

Lucky you, at my factory its too loud for listening to music.
But thats probably better for my coworkers :}

@Grymnir

i wouldnt say it isnt noisy... its tollerable. we dont have to wear ear protection.

@sator
We neither. But its pretty impossible to listen to music. And i think the Bosses wouldnt tolerate it.

@Grymnir

during late and night shift nobody cares how high the volume is turned up.


well... except when antenne bayern is running. i cant stand it.

A few days ago I heard in some regions of the US you can say "bader" and "badest" instead of "worse" and "worst".

Does anybody here know something about this?

I heard a song containing the word "baddest" some time ago. Don't remember which song that was though. Language keeps changing. I can still vividly recall how I thought my cousin was kidding me when he first mentioned this song called "The Way I Are".

@Strigoaica
Ok...interesting.
I should read more informal English.

It must have been David Guetta's song "Sexy B*tch" I heard. Quote: "The baddest thing around town". :D

@Strigoaica
Thank you

Hi - I'd like to join the smalltalk thread to improve my spoken english.

Maybe you can relate:

@vonHekate

You just need more experience :) so feel free and share your thoughts ;)

@tuttut
Okay - here we go.

About a month ago, answering a call from Texas at work. The customer at the end of the line kept calling me "Ma'am" and it made me feel really uncomfortable and kind of offended - it sounded just like a sheep's "Määh"?!

When I hear "Ma'am" the thing that immediately pops up in my mind is an image of an elderly, very strict teacher. Much like Frau Mahlzahn from Jim Knopf :{

I'm not sure if he trolled me or if he was being serious about the "Ma'am"-thing, or maybe it's just me - idk.

@vonHekate
I think its pretty common for native English speakers to call women ,,Ma'am", and he didnt use it to offend you.
What else should he have said? Madam? Young Women? Miss?

@Grymnir
Yeah, I thought about that for quite a while and did not really come to a conclusion. I think "Mrs." would have been more appropriate but I also think feeling offended had a lot to do with the image of Frau Mahlzahn popping up in my head. Well... Girls :D
Apart from that he was a really nice guy!

@vonHekate

Uhm... ok ^^ i just wonder who Frau Mahlzahn is?!

After all, i think it would always be ok to use Ma'am for an native Speaker, and it would never be ment in a offensive way.
And if he was a nice Guy at all, i believe he didnt want to offend you :ok:

@Grymnir
Frau Mahlzahn is a character in the Augsburger Puppenkiste - a marionette from the Jim Knopf play. Shes a mean teacher, a dragon:

@vonHekate
OK, i see :D

For her, Mrs. would definitely be the appropriate Term - or maybe ,,Fuehrerette" :o:

Yeah, "Führerette" is close - "Sklaventreiberin" would also be a good word to describe her :D