Little things that irk you.. (no swearing please)

[endo]

On that.... How come we don't call other countries' cities by their own spelling and pronounciation? like paris: we spell it the same, but they call it "pareeee". And they call us Angleterre.... er no. It's England Why is this so difficult? It would make maps easier too.

Just one of those things- most large cities and pretty much all countries will have a foreign language version and then lesser known ones won't. 'Angleterre' is basically a literal translation of England anyway- 'land of the Angles'.

If we had pronounced everywhere as the locals do, there would be plenty of places we just couldn't pronounce at all (loads of places in Poland and the Czech Republic immediately come to mind).

Have a squiz at this for more on it (actually pretty interesting):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exonym_and_endonym

[Lyris]

Japan does that the right way for nearly every country, except Britain. They talk about Pareee, Italia, Roma, etc... and then Igirisu for Britain. I always feel like a moron when I have to correct my students english even though they are actually using the correct name of each country/city.

Apparently "Igirisu" is the term for England as well as Wales, Ireland and Scotland?
That made me laugh, the average Scot would get their kilt in a twist if they heard that was the case (if it's true)!

[smouty]

Being a cyclist in London I have quite a few things that irk me but I won't start as I'll make Charlie Brooker and Jack Dee look like the chuckle brothers.

One thing that I have to get off my chest though is people who drive everywhere with their fog lights on. Our local police did start stopping people and giving them 3 points but it still goes on.

[nakamura]

Trollies. What can't people put their trollies in the trolley section?

[usman]

.....

[Darwock]

Apparently "Igirisu" is the term for England as well as Wales, Ireland and Scotland?
That made me laugh, the average Scot would get their kilt in a twist if they heard that was the case (if it's true)!

Yeah, like I said they use the name Igirisu for Britain. It does slightly annoy me as a matter of fact.

While on the subject of Japanese misconceptions that bug me... Sometimes for a laugh with my junior students when doing the fruit/vegetable vocabulary routine I like to throw out the fact that a tomato is a fruit. The kids always argue with me and think their teacher is stupid (these are the same kids that insist that penguins are capable of flight )

Thing is, every adult I've met in Japan also seems to think that I am being stupid. Including the high school teachers I work with! To defend myself I even went into great detail once about how they have seeds and grow from branches and therefore they are actually fruit... the response I got was "Hmmm. In Japan, they are a vegetable". AAARGHHHHHH!

[kryss]

I had someone once tell me that "Tomato" is a Japanese word and that in English we pronounce it "To-may-toe" (the NA way).

Naturally I slapped her, pointed out that トマト being in Katakana implies that it's NOT a Japanese word (though サボる is an amusing one, half of a non-japanese word made into a verb by adding る) and that we're not all American.

[usman]

.....

[kryss]

iii) or unconscious on the ground to slap you back in pointing out that vegetables are sometimes rendered in katakana rather than kanji

She wouldn't do that because it's not common at all. Hiragana perhaps, yes. Depends on the shop. Search "tomato" in a Japanese dictionary and it'll come up with "トマト". There are actual Japanese words for tomato but none commonly used.

a vegetable written in katakana as such is not a guaranteed indicator its name came from another language.

Actually, it pretty much is. Go to a supermarket in Japan and you'll see that.

Anyway, I'm going to dislike ad breaks where the same ad is on 3+ times. I heard you the first time!

[Spatial]

Websites that use a black background and then contrasting font colour, like white.

It only takes a few minutes of trying to read it before my vision starts to go all wobbly like the start of a migrain

[charlesr]

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread.php?t=94274

Some people actually want that. Crazy eh?

[Spatial]

*looks at who started that thread*

*tuts and rolls eyes*

He's trying to visually break the forum now!

[usman]

.....

[C']

The inability to convert a PSN sub-account into a main account.

When my brother created his PSN account he was under 18 so I was under the impression it had to be a sub-account so put it under mine. This was a couple of years ago now. He's now 18 and plans to get his own PS3 soon and should reeally have his own ability to make purchases off PSN without me having to fund a wallet for him but it appears Sony don't offer the ability to convert his current account into a main so he may have to start a new one meaning he loses his friends list, trophies, online game stats etc.

Why?

[Adam Stone]

No offence to anyone...

What irks me are people who get irked by the silliest, smallest, most meaningless things.... I'm being contradictory by posting this, but i come across so many people daily who seem to bitch, moan or complain about anything and everything. Are people's lives so boring they need to make it more interesting by creating difficult scenarios? Are some people so ignorant and blind-sighted they genuinely do get annoyed by such trivial things? Boggles my mind.