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Comment by wwortiz | Hacker News Reader

Your typing comes off with a very thick accent, something you don't find often online.

Oh, a funny American. Did you get that humor in a legal settlement?

Edit:

Let me add that what you're noticing is probably my staccato diction, filled with code-words and verbal winks to deliver mild amusement to an invisible audience of masochists who I love oh so very much.

Cultural and linguistic banter might not be appreciated in these "learned" circles; but to the objects of my affection, the working classes of the crown and its colonies, it's a delicacy best enjoyed over beer and a pool table (Warning: too much of it might lead to the real-world version of a downvote, a black eye.)

See now I can't tell if you are trying to be funny or a dick, but what I said I meant in no way to offend you. Your previous comment did indeed come off with an accent (I wasn't even trying to be funny).

And this is exactly what I meant by "piss-taking"; your comment was such a delightful jab, I was pleased to play along :-)

I stopped short of scratching others as well, my gut response was to say "Did you divorce a German and take half her humor in settlement." That would have gotten an ovation from the English crowd, but could have confused you and other festive yanks in this victorious of all occasions! Happy 4th of July, mate! No harm was meant :-D

I can't speak for him but as someone that had the exact same thought, here's the problem: it's not a "delightful jab" at all. You misinterpreted it and then went on to say things in a way that could be easily taken as being a dick or an internet troll.

I have a sense of humor and will laugh at just about anything but the written word does a poor job at conveying subtleties. If you want to be interpreted as "piss-taking" and not another internet troll, you need to do better.

EDIT: How does this get down-voted? I'm simply saying he misinterpreted a comment and then was himself misinterpreted. If the point of "piss-taking" is just to have a little fun then I would think that it would follow that it be relatively clear that's what you are doing. Clearly that didn't happen on both sides here.

It might come off wrong in writing, but it's worse in person when you're on the receiving end of banter like that, coming from an Aussie or Irishman or a Geordie with a very straight face.

I too was offended the first time it happened to me, but I dropped all pretense and self-righteousness; learn to give it back, cold, and you might earn yourself that highest label of endearment: the C-word :-) Then you shout the first round and move on.

In my original diatribe I was paying out the poms, as Aussies would say.

My standard way of answering my friends on the phone is "how's the virgin" or "I saw your mother out in town last night" or uuuhhhhoooohhh (sex noise). Makes things more interesting for the rest of the conversation. Even my boss takes the piss at work. Great way to prevent people getting 'up' themselves (Irish btw).

Oh, I get it. I'm usually the one that initiates the banter. It's not worse in person because a misinterpretation is easier to avoid and doesn't devolve into a troll-fest (maybe a fight, but if someone lets it go that far, it's not playful banter, it's being an asshole.)

> Oh, a funny American. Did you get that humor in a legal settlement?

Sure, this comment might just be banter considering the way you misinterpreted the original comment but when you take it the way it was meant, it just looks like petty trolling. That's all I am saying.

And I'm done here. I've made my point and people are down-voting.

Much, much beer.

Mahmud, amusing yourself is not the same thing as being amusing. ;)

Right, but which one? He says "us Somalis", "...the U.S (we...", mentions in his profile that he lives in Northern Virginia but also calls Sydney home yet the diction (i.e. "shopkeepers", "Chavs", "piss-taking", etc.) of his post screams British to me.

Hi, I am Amy Walker, I am 25, and I was born in Somalia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k

(make sure to not miss a second)

She's not British is she? She's definitely not Irish or Scottish, her RP seems off to me ... is she American? She [purposefully it seems] doesn't say in her CVs.

Napoleon called the English "a nation of shopkeepers".

He intended it as an insult; the English, in his mind, were too concerned with the practical matters of life and not at all with grand visions and ambitions.

This is also the man who said "You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I have no time for such nonsense."

> Napoleon called the English "a nation of shopkeepers".

Not a lot has changed, then...

Oh, so that's what A Nation of Shoplifters means! Funny. (It's a song by Carter USM).

Most of the slang is also Australian, and some, like "Chavs", is becoming more recognised outside the UK. However, I'm sure it would only take a few years living in one country to pick-up local slang. With globalisation comes comes a greater migration of the work-force, after all.

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