University Challenge - what do we think of Amol?

[highlandcoo]

I like him much more than Jeremy Paxman whom I found short-tempered and sneery (wish him the best re his Parkinson's obviously).

Amol seems warmer and more sympathetic. More like Bamber Gasgoigne who will always be my favourite I think. Still taking it seriously though. And he seems to get through more questions maybe?

How often has he even had cause to say the letter of the alphabet on UC, for it to offend your ears so?

I like him overall. But he looks like a child in that enormous chair, and I do think he talks a bit fast and mumbly. And I flinch when anyone says haitch. His bling struck me the first episode but I must have got used to it because it doesn’t annoy me anymore.

Yes, when has he ever said this, let alone multiple times, on UC?

The comment about the booster cushion made me laugh out loud.

My issue with AR is that, no matter how clever he is to have gone to Cambridge, he has no general knowledge and frequently balls up the pronunciation of many words. He also seems to get all the gigs. He does mumble/have unclear diction. That said, he's doing well on UC despite my misgivings.

The earlier stages usually have more questions I can answer as there's more breadth of student subjects being covered - they do tailor questions to the subject knowledge of the student teams as well as general knowledge.

Do they? Is that a fact? I don't think they should 'tailor' anything to suit different teams. I think the questions should be completely random.

He's so much better than I expected him to be as I find him mumbly on the radio and, for me, he comes across as arrogant. I was hoping for Samira Ahmed as presenter but, the disproportionate set not withstanding, he's coming across OK.
I don't doubt he's academically very impressive but he was rubbish on House of Games 😆it was also noticeable that he sulked and was sneery when others were doing better than him. Likewise I think he was once on a Christmas university challenge and wasn't as good as he seemed to think he was.

Regarding how often he needs to say letter names, at least twice, and I don’t always watch! I’m guessing for chemical formulae, perhaps.

Haitch twice on 7 August and only 5 minutes in. In every episode except one. Although I accept that some dialects say it, Ireland for instance, Amol Rajan speaks RP English and that is why his mispronunciation irritates.

Pretty sure that's not RP. Plenty of dialects say haitch.

Just listen to the questions, honestly. You don't like haitch as a personal thing but you know full well what it means.

Also... 7 August really?. Have you gone back through every episode and checked?? Are you keeping a tally?

It's South London (Tooting to be precise) English, not RP.

I find he mumbles and talks too fast.

I think he's doing very well. Don't give two hoots about the bling or haitch. He doesn't mumble, to my ears. He has a good rapport with the contestants. Great relief to be happy about this, as UC is our favourite programme!

He says "Haitch" instead of "aitch". He should be soundly whipped for that.

Other than that he's doing ok.

I can't stand him. His diction is very poor, I really struggle to understand him.

So glad the usual Mumsnet snobbery of him being hard to understand hasn't emerged....

Half the population of the UK say that. What on earth is the problem with it?

I really like him and think he’s enjoying it too and it shows. I like his “banter” with the contestants and his encouragement, he’s also funny when they clearly know their football and I like his way with them.

the new set is terrible, he needs a different desk or chair for sure.

the questions or subjects seem a bit easier now

The problem is it's incorrect pronunciation.

As for me to say "hincorrect pronunciation" would be.

Half the UK population seem unable to pronounce "th" but that doesn't mean it's correct.

Read the history of it's evolution. It's not incorrect. It's a variant. The fact that it's seen as incorrect probably goes back to colonialism and anti Irish sentiment.

It's not the same as saying 'hincorrect'. Maybe you say 'usband'? We now mock people who say 'an otel'...

*its

He's growing on me I must admit. I found I could barely understand a word he said in the first episode as he spoke so quickly but it's improving.

Hopefully he knows how to pronounce Don Quixote 😃

He’s excellent. The scores have already gone up as he puts far more questions in the time.

I don't mock anyone who says that. Why would I? It's grammatically correct, although archaic. We have a beautiful language and the constant dumbing down of it is depressing.

I know the evolution of aitch and I also know the correct way it should be pronounced.

We are not going to agree on this.

Dialect is not, emphatically not, 'dumbing down'.