MacOSX.com word association!

CaptainQuarkSo what does Mitä mean? And why can't it be long and interestingly Finnish like Uusiparvalniemi, the Finnish Curling Skip?
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It means "What" literally, in the context of an answer to "What homeric epithet would you like to attach to your three eyed fish avatar?" it means "Wha? Huh? could you ask that again I wasn't paying attention?" ;)

I love listening to the American announcers butcher the finnish names at the olympics. The get them wrong is such creative ways that I would never guess. But it was still better when the Norwegians ran the winter games because they got rid of all the umlauts in names by mapping things like "ä" to "ae". Interesting finnish names like "Häämäläinen" became the impossible "Haeaemaelaeinen".

solicitation
 
lurk said:
I love listening to the American announcers butcher the finnish names at the olympics. The get them wrong is such creative ways that I would never guess.
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Unfortunately, I don't derive any such enjoyment from hearing the British commentators do the same. I think it shows a remarkable lack of respect for anyone of any other nation, that they couldn't be bothered to track down a Finnish (for example) TV commentator in the Press Centre and ask what "those dotty things" over the "a" mean!

The French are seen by the British as very arrogant. It probably has something to do with the fact that the British, typically, travel to a foreign country and expect everyone to speak English! They complain when the French, who let us not forget, was Britain's equal on the ol' Imperial Pecking Order, think that it's awfully rude of the British not even to try to speak French! But if you try, even if you b@lls it up completely, they become friendly and helpful!

lurk said:
Interesting finnish names like "Häämäläinen" became the impossible "Haeaemaelaeinen".
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Didn't Marja-Liisa Häämäläinen win Gold in 30km Cross-Country Skiing a few Olympics back?

And wouldn't you just love to see Finland and Sweden slogging it out for the Ice Hockey Gold!? Heja Tre Kronor!!

And didn't you just leeeerv Jörn Donner's 80's ad for Clearasil: "Clearasil tar bort finnar – men inte alla sorters Finnar!"

Oh sh1t! I'm supposed to post an associated word:eek: :

prostitution
 
CaptainQuark said:
Unfortunately, I don't derive any such enjoyment from hearing the British commentators do the same. I think it shows a remarkable lack of respect for anyone of any other nation, that they couldn't be bothered to track down a Finnish (for example) TV commentator in the Press Centre and ask what "those dotty things" over the "a" mean!
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I could get fussy but no matter how hard they try they will mess it up. One of my linguist friends explained it to me once that Finnish and English are almost as opposite as languages can be with regard to what aspects of the sound you make are important. So an English/American monoglot is just doomed because they cannot even hear the difference between what they say and what the need to say.

To be fair it goes both ways, my Ph.D.-in-English-wielding-Finnish-born wife still gets tripped up on "mall" vs. "mole" after more than 10 years of living in the U.S.

So really my position in both directions is that the slight effort to try to get it right is appreciated and all anyone can expect, and then we can laugh at what was accidentally said.

CaptainQuark said:
And wouldn't you just love to see Finland and Sweden slogging it out for the Ice Hockey Gold!? Heja Tre Kronor!!
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Ya, 'cept then the Finns would choke. It is like a curse on the Finnish hockey team. Although I still have fond memories of '95 when the Finns beat Sweden in Stockholm in the world championships and can still mostly sing the Swedish theme song the composed that year. Det glider in, det glider in...

My word will be...

John
 
bbloke said:
lol
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Not really. During the war in Rhodesia there was a public information leaflet called Anatomy of a Terror, which contained some very nasty pictures of the things that the "brave freedom fighters" were doing to their own people – cutting off body parts and forcing wives and families to cook and eat them, beatings, torture, mutilation and murder.

revulsion
 
revolution

(appropriately to the previous posts, I'm reading a book on the Rwanda genocide by the Canadian General in charge of the UN forces there, a man full of revulsion and disgust... as well as disillusionment, anger with the UN etc etc)
 
French

CaptainQuark said:
Not really. During the war in Rhodesia there was a public information leaflet called Anatomy of a Terror, which contained some very nasty pictures of the things that the "brave freedom fighters" were doing to their own people – cutting off body parts and forcing wives and families to cook and eat them, beatings, torture, mutilation and murder.
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Understood, but it was the connection, at face value, between "anatomy" and "terror" that amused me! The mind boggled! I wondered: "Was there a particularly nasty anatomy or part of the anatomy you remembered seeing?"

:D
 
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