A thread for those questions you wouldn't dare ask in real life/normally!

I'm not bilingual by any stretch but live and work in a foreign language. I sometimes dream in the foreign language.

When I was revising for my French GCSE I started thinking in french. It was really odd.

I got an A* so it paid off :o cant remember much now though.

Going back to the bilingual thing. DH is bilingual Dutch/English.

When I first met him, he had been living in Holland and spoke Dutch in his sleep.

He's been here for 13years and now sleep talks in English.

Love that kim Am a big west wing fan.

I felt all smug when it was on, because I had a peter's projection on my wall as a student.

the song 'someone left the cake out in the rain' is meant to be v rude,why??????????????

My question is so stupid, I'm a bit asking it. Why arent people near the south pole upside down with all the blood rushing to their heads? Whenever I've asked this before, people wave their hands knowingly and talk about gravity, but I still dont understand.

Farely, I think (but I may be wrong) that men and women see colours differently. My ex especially could never see the all the shades between white and brown (off white, cream, magnolia, beige, fawn, taupe, etc) that I could. It was either white or brown to him.

We used to have the blue/green argument frequently too.

suckmabigtoe - Biting insects usually inject a small amount of an anaesthetic-type substance, so it's only when they've finished sucking your blood that you get to feel the itch, and by then they're ready to move on to their next victim anyway.

JulieAnderton I feel exactly the same way about contacting tradespeople.

I don't know if this webpage is any use in your area but you leave your details and they contact you!

juie i'd say anytime TBH. my dad gets calls all times of the day and it doesn't bother him. we were well used to him leaving the dinner table but didn't mind because if it was just asking him to come out to quote all he need to take was an address and time that would suit. if it was to discuss anything more than that he would just say "can i call you back, i'm just at my dinner" he didn't mind it at all. it's good to be busy!

Peters' projection is a real eye opener isn't it?

There was a documentary a few years ago about whether people see colours the same - article here

My question is - when is the best time to phone a tradesperson to ask them to come over to assess a job and provide a quote? If I call during the day then they are likely to doing a job and be halfway up a ladder/head under a sink, but if I phone in the evening or weekend then I'm worried that I'm interrupting their dinner/family time! (Can you tell I need to get in touch with a plumber, but keep putting it off as I hate doing this sort of thing and am making excuses that it's never a good time to phone!)

thats the same for an english person speaking german or frence amiga french people can detect an american or an english person speaking french because there is always a hangover of your own language.

i'm from NI and speak (a bit of) irish- i can tell when other irish speakers are from ulster or from say dublin. i can also tell that the father of my son's friend is irish but has spent time in SA and america because there is a hangover of each area in his accent.

amiga, it's to do with the way their mother tongue is pronounced. The vowels&consonants are spoken differently and it takes a lot of practice to get rid of the foreign accent by pronouncing English with English sounding vowels/consonants.
E.g. French and German have no "th", it's an unknown and unfamiliar/uncomfortable way to connect those consonants.

Scissor Sisters question - yes it is rather rude . Apparently it means this:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribadism

i always sort of thought that sexuality stemmed from the type of personalities you preferred to be around/were drawn to. but then i prefer to be around women but find men attractive mostly but also some women. then again i dont know what is nature and what is nurture. we're still living in a world where hetero is the 'norm'.

SIOB = sharp intake of breath (a la builders )

IYSWIM = if you see what I mean

another language question.

What is it about individual foreign languages that makes the speakers pronounce English in a particular and discernible way. e.g a French, Italian or German accent when speaking English?

Ruby, no. We have pictures we don't know who is who. And not even my mum does.

Voices sounding different when recorded: I think it's because when we hear ourselves speak, some of the sound goes via the air to our ears, and some of it gets conducted by facial bones, and there's a slight difference in timbre. Other people or recording devices only pick up the sound via air.

Chinese keyboards, according to Google.

wannabe it was probably trial and error. Eaten raw = killed them or made them very sick, maybe a potatoe accidentally rolled into a fire, was rescued, eaten = nobody sick/dead, result! Tell everyone!

God, I need my bed. Wine at lunchtime does me in. every single time. Why do I do it anyway? Where's the learning curve? Flat on the ground.