Poll - Where are you from? - NGC

[Bill Hagan]

There's no way any part of me came from Africa.   Don't believe everything you are told, unless that was supposed to be a joke. 

That was, I think, a reference to anthropological research and findings based on AL 288-1, aka "Lucy." 

Lots of interesting reading out there about the origins of the species and precursors.  I certainly don't believe everything I'm told -- unless, of course, it's on the internet  -- but the evidence in this instance is pretty compelling.

Bill

[Phang]

,

 Nope , although I wish we had more Europeans as members . WG is headquartered in the middle of America , well , if we had headquarters it would be 

 What I find interesting is how many members we have from Australia and New Zealand that are very active on the board , and then there is Phang , whose contributions are invaluable , and whose command of the English language is amazing , as is yours Waxi 

 Dusty

Dusty, you are just being polite 

English is my third language and it is the worst amongst the three. I find English grammar is very difficult to master, still learning it everyday.
 

[oldbike54]

Dusty, you are just being polite 

English is my third language and it is the worst amongst the three. I find English grammar is very difficult to master, still learning it everyday.

 Sounds like you attended public school in Oklahoma Phang , we aren't proficient in English grammar either 

 Polite or not , you are more than capable of expressing complete thoughts in English .

 Dusty

[twowings]

There's no way any part of me came from Africa.   Don't believe everything you are told, unless that was supposed to be a joke. 

Every single cell of everyone who ever lived on this planet is directly linked to a woman who lived in Africa @ 180,000 years ago...every schoolchild knows that.

[frans belgium]

Whatever you consider a home :)

Where my Stella is.

http://www.adhoc-recherche.com/fr/blogue/my-home-is-where-my-stella-is/

[Muzz]

You are brave lumping Australia in with New Zealand Waxi. A bit like calling Canadians Americans.

Rivalry between Oz and NZ tends to be "intense".

[frans belgium]

I appreciate that so many guys outside of the US speak enough English to be able to communicate that way.  About half of the motorcycle electronic products I sell go outside the US, and many of those go to places where I have no grasp of the language at all, yet I get emails placing orders that are very easy to understand.  I try to reply without using idioms and slang, and whenever someone apologizes for not being good at English, I thank him for being better at it than I am at his language.

And in rare cases in which the customer doesn't understand English, we have Google Translate.  :)

Thank you Jim.  We Flemish people (and many other Europeans) do not feel the need to bragg about our knowledge of foreign languages.  Otoh, perhaps we should.  As for me, I speak and write pretty fluidly Dutch (mother tongue), English, French and German.  Also a bit of Italian.  Again, nothing to bragg about, a mere observation, since A LOT of my countrymen (and other Europeans ) do.  It's just a part of our culture and school education (except for the Italian part which is rather personal). It is nice to go abroad and be understood by people that do not speak English ;-) Spanish is on my - very long- to do list. The only people I do not fully understand are Bill Hagan and Pete Roper.  Don't ask me why ;-)  Both are high on my appreciation list though.  Bill teaches me the high brow American-English lawyerish idioms that everyone ought to be familiar with .   As for Pete and other Aussies, well they speak err.... rather interesting
Of course I hope all of you understand this is highly tongue in cheek ;-)  Don' get your knickers in a knot (or was it knockers in a knit  )
Been in The States several times now, and loved every inch of it  ;-)  You people are great !  Hope to get to Australia and New Zealand soon.

[Muzz]

The only people I do not understand are Bill Hagan and Pete Roper.  Don't ask me why ;-)

Why?

I can understand  why Pete may be difficult to understand. When we were in Holland and speaking with my wife's Dutch rellies (who all speak excellent English) I had to watch my idiom, which I suppose is a bit like Pete's but not as "picturesque" There is no way I could come up with "as much fun as a bucket full of hemorrhoids" when things go bad. Very descriptive though.

Bill is exceptionally well spoken; is it perhaps the references he uses?

[waxi]

You are brave lumping Australia in with New Zealand Waxi. A bit like calling Canadians Americans.

Rivalry between Oz and NZ tends to be "intense".

Haha, will be more careful next time

It's just a part of our culture and school education...

Exactly. I had English from sixth class till college. That is 7 years and now I'm using it daily at work. We also had German class, but only for two years.
I must say that I was really surprised when Dusty and Jim commended us, who are outside US. I thought that English is kind of de facto already. But again, I can't imagine to live in such a big country where you only need THE language...

[waxi]

Nope, 77% in North America, that includes Mexico and Canada as well as the United States.

Noted!

[RANDM]

Dusty, you are just being polite 

English is my third language and it is the worst amongst the three. I find English grammar is very difficult to master, still learning it everyday.

We all have trouble with that sport - your way ahead of us.
We sometimes trouble hardly much to try.

Maurie.

[Muzz]

Dusty, you are just being polite 

English is my third language and it is the worst amongst the three. I find English grammar is very difficult to master, still learning it everyday.

You could have fooled me Phang. So, if English is your third, what's your second?

[Phang]

You could have fooled me Phang. So, if English is your third, what's your second?

It's complicated 

I was born, raised and educated up to secondary school (high school) in Malaysia in the 70s and 80s

By right, Malay is my first language and my second is Mandarin.

70s was the period when the Malaysia education system switched from English to Malay after the British left in the late 50s. I was the early batch that learnt everything in Malay and English was just a language subject.

I lived in a small town, very minimum exposure to English except tv programmes and movies, bear in mind that was 70s ~ 80s before the globe is wired up. I read Huckleberry Finn, Frankenstein, Old man and the sea, Sherlock Holmes, Count of Monte Cristo in.... Chinese, can you imagine that

[pebra]

Where my Stella is.

http://www.adhoc-recherche.com/fr/blogue/my-home-is-where-my-stella-is/

Now that was ambiguous, from a man with an Orval glass as his avatar!  ðŸ˜�

[Nic in Western NYS]

Every single cell of everyone who ever lived on this planet is directly linked to a woman who lived in Africa @ 180,000 years ago...every schoolchild knows that.

I think it's nice we're all cousins.  Here's wiki's take on Mitochondrial Eve:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_Eve
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro-haplogroup_L_(mtDNA)

In this Nature article from last year, an early Middle Eastern ancestor was the source for the predecessor to modern humans, as well as to Neanderthals and other hominids, but modern humans still evolved in Africa.

http://www.nature.com/news/how-china-is-rewriting-the-book-on-human-origins-1.20231

[fossil]

Lueneburg, Northern Germany. 60 km from Hamburg, 375 km northeast from Neanderthal.

By the way, there are a lot of resources on the net regarding the interesting history of mankind. A good start is this one: http://www.becominghuman.org/ .

[RANDM]

Thanks for the links - interesting : )

Maurie.

[Chuck in Indiana]

A good friend from Mexico once asked me.."What do you call someone that speaks 3 languages?" I said, "Multilingual." Then he said, "What do you call someone that speaks 2 languages?" Uh.."Bilingual." "Ok, what do you call someone that only speaks one language?" <thinking> "Uhh, I don't know."
<Laughing> " 'Merican." 

[Muzz]

By right, Malay is my first language and my second is Mandarin.

Ha. I assumed that Mandarin would be your first. Got that wrong.

[Bill Hagan]

Ha. I assumed that Mandarin would be your first. Got that wrong.

Actually, I assumed English, given the interesting history of Singapore and the lower half of the Malayan Peninsula. 

I, too, got that wrong.   

Oh, well, it is March, and one mistake in 2017 isn't bad.   

Bill

[oldbike54]

Actually, I assumed English, given the interesting history of Singapore and the lower half of the Malayan Peninsula. 

I, too, got that wrong.   

Oh, well, it is March, and one mistake in 2017 isn't bad.   

Bill

 Heck Bill , I've had friends from England and Georgia that appeared to be speaking something other than English 

 Dusty

[Muzz]

Actually, I assumed English, given the interesting history of Singapore and the lower half of the Malayan Peninsula. 
Bill

It was only because Phang had said English was his third that I asked what was his second. Until then I assumed English was his first.

Our daughter and her family live in Singapore; there is certainly an eclectic mix of people. The granddaughters both have a pretty good grasp of Mandarin, especially the 7 year old.

[Phang]

Actually, I assumed English, given the interesting history of Singapore and the lower half of the Malayan Peninsula. 

I, too, got that wrong.   

Oh, well, it is March, and one mistake in 2017 isn't bad.   

Bill

Bill, I am equally confused like you too.

Languages of Singapore

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Singapore

Many times, I couldn't remember the language of a phrase I heard or read during the day, my brain will auto translate different languages that I read/heard and store them in its own way.

I am not born and raised in Singapore but stay long enough to call it home 

[scubasimon]

hello! looks like i am #2 in the "Asia with Middle East and Russia" category :-) very glad to see there is someone living in singapore active in this community...and hopefully meet with you one day :-)

[Phang]

hello! looks like i am #2 in the "Asia with Middle East and Russia" category :-) very glad to see there is someone living in singapore active in this community...and hopefully meet with you one day :-)

Welcome Simon 

I post in this forum more often than I ride my Guzzi.

There is a very active Guzzi whatsapp group in Singapore, you should join if you haven't done so yet.

[waxi]

Who is from Africa?

[scubasimon]

Welcome Simon 

I post in this forum more often than I ride my Guzzi.

There is a very active Guzzi whatsapp group in Singapore, you should join if you haven't done so yet.

i would love to join. how do i sign up?

[Phang]

i would love to join. how do i sign up?

PM your phone number to me, I will pass it to the guys there to add you in the group.

[vstevens]

There's no way any part of me came from Africa.   Don't believe everything you are told, unless that was supposed to be a joke. 

Don't worry Arizona Wayne.  Most European-Americans are more than 45000 years removed from the "Mother land" of East Africa.  But its true our species evolved and migrated from East African (around the great rift valley).  Genetic, Fossil, and anthropological and geological evidence abounds. 

[Tom]