=========================================== Listening to a person from Brooklyn or Boston trying to communicate with someone from Alabama or Georgia might be the funniest thing you've ever heard. You'd think they were speaking different languages. ============================================ I can fully relate to that Cheri. In Newfoundland for example you don't even have to leave the provice to experience that. I don't know if it's as prevelant now as when I was young but if you went to one of the small fishing communities and talked to one of the old timers there you would think you were speaking to someone from some strange far off land (a mixture of English, Irish (gaelic), Scottish and French and at a pace that would rival the breeding habits of rats!). :-)

Winston, Yes, there's a bit of that on isolated islands in the Chesapeake Bay. Wonder if they would be able to understand your old fishermen? I know nothing, (and prefer to know nothing) of the breeding habits of rats :-), but I assume you mean they talk fast. (Your old fishermen, not the rats.) I not only don't talk fast, but I don't hear fast. If you talk fast to me, it takes some minutes for my brain to catch up before I can answer you, lol. You see, before we moved to southern Utah when I was a pre-teen, I was born and raised in Texas. It's usually too hot there to do anything fast, even think. There, now I've offended some Texans, but I'm on solid ground on that one, lol. Cheri

Cheri, Suffice to say. YES! LMAO!!!!

Hi Cheri: What a great conversation you started! No, that's not my dry humor. It's interesting to me to see the different opinions. I tend to say "Americans" for people in the United States of AMERICA (lol), "Mexico" for people in Mexico, etc., too. If I offend anyone in the other countries in "north america" - oh well, no offense intended. I tend to talk country, not continent. Working online for as long as I have, I feel that no matter what country we live in, we all are made of flesh and blood and have dreams, goals, fears and feelings. When things happen like borders flying up, I know (as Deb mentioned) it as "that's how *that* government handles it" and it's no reflection (to me) of the people on either side of any border. =========================================== Judy had posted her surprise that there was so much of what you mentioned, Deb. She said (not in so many words, but as near as I remember) that in the UK it was considered the height of bad manners to mix religion with business. Linda, Winston ... what say you? =========================================== Oh, what a delicious question. lol. For me, it depends on how religion is included. We had a similar conversation in another thread. It was to the effect that when people come in the door and the first words out of their mouth are "I'm a Christian" - most of us head for the hills. Personally, I have no problem with any person having strong religious beliefs. When they hold their religion out as a shield to make themselves seem "better" than others, or to claim be "leading in God" or proclaim their beliefs and then treat others shoddily - their beliefs are (to me) nothing more than a sham. In my years on this planet, one of the things I've discovered is that many of the people that are quietly doing God's work seldom use the word in relation to business. It might slip into a conversation here and there, but it's not boldly proclaimed. As one small example, look at what you and Gary have done for charitable causes. Yet, neither of you punctuate every post with religious boasting. You know? So, for me, it all depends on "how" religion and business are combined, if they are. : ) Linda

Hi: =========================================== I not only don't talk fast, but I don't hear fast. If you talk fast to me, it takes some minutes for my brain to catch up before I can answer you, lol. =========================================== So funny. That is SO me, too. When people talk fast, I often say "Okay - could you repeat everything after the first sentence? That's the only part I digested...." lol Accents are a funny thing. Often when I talk to one of my American clients, they say "Gee, you don't sound like the last Canadian I talked to...." Then I ask, "Did they live in Quebec??" lol (Quebec is very french, I am not) I grew up in the middle of nowhere on the prairies - and even here in Toronto, people tell me I have an "accent." My daughter gets the same thing. Ontarians tell us we don't talk like them.... and I've had American clients say "Gee, you sound like you're from Montana or the Dakotas" - which is strange, because the area I grew up in is just the other side of the border above the Dakotas. "Accents" and dialect are such funny things. When people ask about my "accent" my standard line is "I don't have an accent - you do..." lol : ) Linda