Boris, Mr Fun, red_jon, (possibly Fez, no offence if not)

[Bereta_Eder]

my english are not the best though, i consent.

[Asher]

A better question is why anyone would want to join the army when you're not at war.

[Bereta_Eder]

so that there is not one.

sometimes it works like this you know. dterrance and all that.


of course if BOTH sides didnt go to the army things would be much better

[Bereta_Eder]

In any case, Greece is developing an 100% professional army and due to the fact that machines can kill many more people than a soldier, obligatory military service will be canceled within the next few years. (and will be on a voluntery basis). It would have happened sooner but we have a small population in comparison with the "danger from the east" (where it will strangely enough remain obligatory).

[Provost Harrison]

Well we have a potent military but national service ended decades ago (potent unless they are in a desert )

Gaydar eh? Hmmmm, dunno, I never seem to get hit on, male or female, nor do I generally try and identify people by their sexuality, so even if I have an effective one, it is generally switched off

[mindseye]

I'm sure "gaydar" (I prefer "G-Scope") uses lots of cues, many subliminal. I'm certain the most powerful is the eyes, especially eye contact. For instance, I've noticed that my eye contact with other gay guys is usually a split second longer than that with straight guys.

Humans and other animals seem hardwired to detect very subtle cues from reading each other's eyes. For example, have you ever noticed how easy it is to detect someone looking directly at you, even in a crowd, even at quite a distance, regardless of whether their head is turned towards you?

Re: gaydar criteria, walking style seems pretty low on the list for me. Most gay guys walk like most other guys.

Gaydar can get messed up when you cross cultural lines. The criteria shifts. I have a heckuva time here in China, where people tend to look at me a lot more. I can make extended eye contact with a handsome guy on the subway, nod at him, get a big smile in return, move closer, exchange some friendly chat, maybe he will ask me for my phone number. Then he will start talking about his wife. Turns out he was just another friendly, straight Chinese guy. Shanghainese are often very friendly towards white foreigners.

Also, straight guys have a lot more physical contact here, so if you see two guys holding hands in public, or hanging around each other's necks, it probably means they are just good friends. Actually, it's quite nice to see, it's too bad American guys have so little physical contact with their friends - seems unnatural.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Frogger
I'm okay when it comes o discriminating between European or Asian countries of origin, though (can easily tell the difference between an Englishman, a Frenchman and a German).

Americans often get my country of origin confused. I've been told that I sound like I am from : Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and South Afica.

I'm curious at how good you are at telingl the difference between an Englishman and an Australian.

[Ethelred]

Englishman and an Australian.

Australian is pretty much all the same. I can tell an Ausie with high degree of accuracy IF they haven't ditched their accents which is popular for them when they move to the US. Brits however are highly variable and some come close to Ausie occasionally. Ausies have the vowels shifted pretty strongly but at least they don't shift from person to person. I sound for A for instance. Hard R's as well, even harder than here in America. Hard Rs are rare for Brits. I haven't heard enough New Zealanders though to tell them from Ausies and it annoys the New Zealanders to be mistaken for Ausies.

British South Africans have British style accents but its like a characature its so much stonger than most Brits. I have met a couple Black South Africans but the guy was a profressor at Cal State Long Beach so he had little accent from staying here so long and his son spoke American. Don't know about the Boers.

Lots of Americans aren't very good at hearing accents. This may be because they don't change much over large areas and people mostly come into contact with Standard American like you hear on TV. I developed a knack because I really liked impresionists when I was kid and I imitated them. My brother's French (what little he knows) sounds American to me. He can't do it. Can't sing either. I think its related.

Canadians are hard to tell from Americans unless the American has a regional accent like Southern or one of the New York Accents. I did work with a guy from New Jersey who sounded British of all things. Said he had never been there. Definitly not the New Wark toid and toidy stweet accent. British Columbians sound almost exactly like Southern Californians except those Californians with affected accents like surfers and Val girls that mostly are used by teenagers and not by adults.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by Ethelred

Hard R's as well, even harder than here in America. Hard Rs are rare for Brits. I haven't heard enough New Zealanders though to tell them from Ausies and it annoys the New Zealanders to be mistaken for Ausies.

The West Country accent, which covers a lot of south-west England (but particularly Somerset, Devon and Cornwall) has "R's" as hard as flint.

It's an accent you rarely hear in the media as it's considered laughably agricultural. That's how I talk.

[Dauphin]

It's an accent you rarely hear in the media as it's considered laughably agricultural. That's how I talk

Words often associated with the accent include fertiliser and combine harvester.

[Ethelred]

I don't think I have heard that one very often. Never been to England so I only hear the people that come hear and on the Telly.

Sounds like you must enunciate more with the back of your tongue instead of the front like Brits do for movies and TV. Where and how you place your tongue and the shape of the back of the mouth and throat are main items in English accents, this even effects the rhythm of speech as it will slow down when the back of the tongue is doing more of the work possibly because of the greater mass and thickness involved.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Ethelred
Sounds like you must enunciate more with the back of your tongue instead of the front like Brits do for movies and TV.

If you are talking about American movies and TV, then hardly any English people talk like that. I often find English accents in American films/tv very annoying. Hugh Grant is a prime example.

[Ethelred]

I have heard that accent reffered to as Mid-Atlantic. It is easier for an American to make out without a lot of experience.

I haven't seen any of Hugh Grants films so I can't comment on his accent.

It took me a while to be hear all the details of Monty Python. Especially since the first time I heard them was on a record that was never released in the US. Live at Drewry Lane. My brother won it in a writing contest in a diplomacy game 'zine. I do mean record and not CD. Vinyl and all. No CDs existed then. Its easier to make out words when there are visuals.

First time I saw them on TV I turned it off. ABC had edited sketches together for late night and most of what they showed were pepper pot women sketches. Got annoying real fast all on its own. Python just didn't work that way because they linked instead of ending sketches with punch lines. It has to be seen as a full episode not in unrelated bits and pieces.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Asher
A better question is why anyone would want to join the army when you're not at war.

Um, hello, that's the best time to be in the army. Nobody shooting at you, and all that...

Gaydar: Mine runs about 65%, I'd say. Certainly the flamboyant gays are easy to spot, and beyond that there are the typical ways of dressing and style, although that's becoming muddled due to you heteros stealing our good fashion sense.

I think mindseye is right with the eye contact scenario. A heterosexual will not make much eye contact, particularly if he is being scoped by a guy. If there's more eye contact, you can tell something is up.

I think fg's post was just him being very facetious. At least, I hope so...

Another thing to consider is that, in ages past, gays didn't have any other way of identifying each other except through dress and mannerisms. It became a calling card. Now that times have thankfully changed and gays can be out and "normal" acting at the same time, it's becoming harder to identify gays, since so many are just normal guys.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
If you are talking about American movies and TV, then hardly any English people talk like that. I often find English accents in American films/tv very annoying. Hugh Grant is a prime example.

That's Hollywood for you. They hav an idea of what Enlgish sounds like, so that's what people have to sound like, even if they're from England and don't sound that way.

It's the same way with the Southern accent. There are a variety of different Southern accents. The Florida accent is understated, while the Texas accent has a pronounced twang. Some places sound like Deputy Dawg, others like Bill Clinton.