What brings foreigners to the HTF? (2 Viewers)

[Thik Nongyow]

A question after reading posts made by foreigners (which is not a negative term), especially on American driving and Indonesia:

I noticed that some people posting on the HTF are not from the United States. Some came from Canada. Some came from countries south of the U.S. Some came from Europe. Some came from Asia. Even though this web site and its forums are maintained by an American, what brings you non-Americans here?

Interesting thought: the thought of foreigners coming to the HTF is like immigrants coming to the United States. Hmm..an interesting analogy.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Even though this web site and its forums are maintained by an American, what brings you non-Americans here? Does the Americanisms and cultural nuisances pose a problem to you?

why should the fact that the forum is sited and maintained in USA make a difference? the common ground of ALL members is that they are HT enthusiasts, which is the same worldwide. certainly there is an American bias, since Hollywood's output is global, but there have been lots of interesting discussions on movies from other countries.
as for Americanisms, watching lots of US output pretty much gives us "foreigners" a decent grasp of them, even if we may miss the nuances sometimes.
"cultural nuisances"? don't really see them as "nuisances", IMHO. we're all different and have our own idiosyncrasies, as long as we're all tolerant and understand where the other person is coming from, I don't see it as a nuisance, just as part of the diversity that makes life richer.
as an aside, thanks to this forum I was introduced to SVS, an American company, which I otherwise would not have come across at all. I am now happily sitting next to my shiny (well, it doesn't really shine ) new 25-31 PCi in my office and enjoying music a lot more on my anaemic mini-compo, which has very little bass output. no doubt when I finally get it into my new apartment with my new HT gear (when it finally arrives :frowning I will really enjoy movies.

 

[Rachael B]

The more fur-iner's that come here the more I like the forum. I really enjoy learning about the world beyond Maynardville and Bugtussle!

 

[Nigel McN]

since I am pretty much boycotting region 4, it doesn't make much difference to me

 

[Maurice McCone]

I thought the World Wide Web was for everyone..?
Actually, I was just wondering why there were so many Americans posting here ?

 

[TheoGB]

Yeah, this is surely a British site, but the web just foils our attempt to keep the 'elite' on board.
Seriously, Maurice and I are both on a UK DVD board that I know of and I'm sure most 'foreign' posters have similar home-grown boards they use in conjunction.
Yep, it sure does get confusing when football gets mentioned and everyone seems to be talking about armoured-rugby!!!

 

[Steve Christou]

Does the Americanisms and cultural nuisances pose a problem to you?

Naah not in the slightest, and those naughty cultural nuisances better keep out of my way if they know whats good for them!! (could that be nuances?)
Since I've been here I have noticed my Queens English morphing into American English now and than, i.e thru instead of through and color rather than colour, scary I know, but at least I've tried to keep my Britslang intact.

 

[felix_suwarno]

"Does the Americanisms and cultural nuisances pose a problem to you? "

no. it is fun to learn their culture. i have been to about 7 to 8 different countries in my life. but, not one of them was as "colorful" as united states.

 

[Jack Briggs]

We like to think of Home Theater Forum as an international community. The site may be based in the United States, but note the make-up of the membership and the administration. Among the moderators, we have representatives from the U.K., Australia, and Canada.

One of the greatest joys of my participating at HTF has been to develop friendships with people from all over the world.

"American nuisances": Please describe. Would that be, among other things, threads about baseball and such? Curious.

Everyone is welcome here.

 

[Blaine Skerry]

Even though this web site and its forums are maintained by an American, what brings you non-Americans here?

The free gifts.

 

[Paul_D]

Among the moderators, we have representatives from the U.K., Australia, and Canada.

Isn't Cees Alons Dutch? Shoot me if I'm wrong.

 

[Jack Briggs]

And, yes, we have a "Thread Killer"-killing administrator who hails from the Netherlands. But I wouldn't shoot you, Paul--that could get me booted off the Forum!

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

thru instead of through

Actually "thru" is incorrect even in America. And yes Dr. Alons runs some hospital in Amsterdam last time I checked.

HT gear is fairly cosmopolitan. My Marquee projector is made in Canada with Japanese CRTs and American semiconductors. And even for HT software, "Hollywood" is more a state of mind than a place. Dr. Zhivago was shot in Canada and Spain. Star Wars was shot in California and Tunisia.

The Internet was developed by the US Department of Defense to be a survivable communications path for fighting an all-out nuclear war with the USSR. It was made commercially feasible to use when some Euro physicists at CERN developed HTML, spawning the web.

 

[andrew markworthy]

One of the great joys of this forum is the cosmopolitan nature of it all.

Plus, if you don't understand a colloquial use of english, just ask! Nobody will think badly of you; in fact, there's a fairly steady stream of enquiries about British and American linguistic usage and other customs. I think I speak for all of us who take part in saying that we enjoy doing it.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

"English" is such a local language anyway. I've discovered that in America a "case" of beer is 24 cans or bottles. But in Australia, a "case" of beer is only 12 cans or bottles, whereas a "slab" of beer is 24.

In America "to table a motion" means to put it aside for resolution at some later date, whereas in the UK it means to put it on the table for immediate resolution. Churchill in his WWII memoirs tells a funny tale about a group of US and UK generals getting at cross purposes over the use of the phrase.

 

[andrew markworthy]

But in Australia, a "case" of beer is only 12 cans or bottles, whereas a "slab" of beer is 24.

I thought a collection of 24 cans of beer was called a 'light aperetif' in Oz.
I've heard of another potentially v. awkward double meaning between Oz and Brit english, but I've never found out if it's true. As far as I'm aware, the name 'Durex' refers to a brand of Australian sticky tape, but in the UK, it's the brand name of our best known rubber prophylactic. Is this true (about the brand name of the tape, I mean - I know about the latter:b ).

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Steve, eliminating extraneous letters is the first step to recovering from Britism
Now repeat after me: Center is not spelled Center, it's the trunk, not the boot, and nothing's a fag unless you want to get punched

 

[Francois Caron]

I'm not a foreigner. I'm a Canadian who lives in Canada.

 

[Steve Christou]

Steve, eliminating extraneous letters is the first step to recovering from Britism

Jeff, I'm a lazy bastage eliminating extraneous letters is a boon to me..
Oh yes what u call sidewalk, I call pavement... pants are trousers where you are, over here its underwear and in Britslang if something is pants it means its crap.

 

[Lars Larsen]

"American nuisances": Please describe. Would that be, among other things, threads about baseball and such? Curious.

The threads about what gas guzzling SUV to buy next, or the increase in gas prices which btw are still way way lower than European prices always gets me on a rant. But, hey, I'm here for HT discussion, so I don't mind the small nuisances.