twobears

Dan, do you speak from experience or do you work for a credit card provider? I'm quite willing to believe you because what you say makes total sense but I just want to check if you are absolutely certain Don't think it will harm my record to do the pre application check so will get back to that now

Andy, that's the thing that is worrying me. I don't want to get any black marks on my record but I don't want it to wither and die either. I wish the system was a bit more transparent. Will continue with the 'pre application' on Martin Lewis' site and see if I can find out without committing myself.

But will they? I am going to fill in the pre application form I've just found on Martin Lewis' website and see if I can find out that way.I thought that since I've had credit cards for decades and never missed a single payment (I pay off in full every month) that they might take household income into account? The credit card I currently have is in my name like I said so I am guessing I have a fairly ok credit record at the moment? Next didn't hesitate to give me a loan. Although, having said all that, I don't want to spoil my rating and that's why I asked the question

This might be another of my silly questions but can you apply for a credit card if you have no income? I am not working at the moment due to ill health but my husband has a full time job. He normally applies for any credit that we need but I did apply for an interest free deal on a sofa and some other furniture from Next the a few week ago and they approved the request based, I am sure, on Mr Twobears' earnings. My current credit card provider (where I am the main card holder and Mr and Miss Twobears are named card holders) has just written to inform me that they will no longer be paying cash back from the end of next month so I thought I would swap to an M&S card instead so I could still get some rewards. I am sure that they would approve the application if Mr Twobears completed it but I would like a card account of my own and am also wondering if my credit rating will slip back to nothing if I have no credit in my name which will happen if I cancel my current credit card and pay off the Next interest free deal?

That's really funny DoogyRev

I respect your views but I don't feel any antipathy towards America or Americans. I like a lot of their culture just as much as that of the UK. A couple of years ago I kept trying to get Mr Twobears to get a job in the US because I wanted to live there. I've got no quarrel at all with American English. I just don't want to lose the unique nature of our language with its myriad ways of saying the same thing (SynonymsRUs?) and whacky spellings JetSet, that's what I love as well, regional variations in spelling/pronunciation/words. I love a bit of South Derbyshire talk myself because my Nan was from there and she used to make me laugh with some of her expressions. I try to keep them alive in her memory

SMD, that is hilarious but MrTwobears made me turn it off before the end because he's on a conference call in the same room

Great video. Horrible dress though I've seen him live a couple of times and he was dressed as a man and I felt cheated! I'm a big Hello Kitty fan. My bad? I used to love inserting random words into work conversations when I worked in an office. One team member thought they'd got the better of me when they nominated me to say 'supernova' in the next meeting but they hadn't factored in that the office was situated on top of a car park and it was the 1980s

Glad you are ok

To me a vacation definitely means going on holiday That's the thing I don't like about these types of linguistic changes because they obfuscate matters. I prefer to use language like a scalpel, using it to say exactly what I mean rather than being ambiguous. I think that is why a lot of email exchanges, texts and forum posts end in confusion, because the words used can be read in different ways.

Ha ha, Mr Twobears and I often perambulate around our grounds (well, garden anyway) We also have regular conflagrations whereas some people only have bonfires I believe?

I should probably admit to being a big fan of Stephen Fry (whose views I think are somewhat similar to mine?) and Will Self. I revel in the use of language, am not averse to sprinkling my conversation with abstruse words or those which definitely belong to another language (most often French or Latin but will sometimes use Italian, Spanish or German) and am against the dumbing down of language in any way. I think I have spectacularly failed to put my point across but I know what I mean. Must learn to speak better English in order to be understood perhaps?

Bring back 'perambulate' I say Brilliant word and one which I have used myself on a regular basis ... or have I? I think I mourn the loss of subtlety because that will disappear in some instances if we lose too many words that have precise meanings. I think there are words we need to shed and new ones that we can benefit from adding but not by adopting wholesale, as I said, American English expressions.

I agree with the first part of your post and that is what I've been trying to say i.e. that if we have a perfectly good word or phrase for something in our own language then we should either continue to use it or, if it no longer pleases us or is inaccurate, let's invent a new word of our own. Regarding the American fast food and coffee outlets though - I love them! I don't think americanos or cappucinos are American though. Just Wiki'd it (another new word but one that is perfectly good ) and it says that americano might have come from American Spanish and I know that cappuccino is definitely Italian. I wouldn't be without 'foreign' food and drink I have to say. We have nice food in the UK but other countries also have some brilliant dishes and drinks

I am not saying that I (or we) are right) but I don't want to lose the richness and variety of words that we have enjoyed for so long. I suspect that I am the only one though, having read all the responses on this thread. I've always been out of step with the majority though so I'll just carry on in my own sweet way

Ha ha, I am an oldie KyleR, I will grant you that I have no problem at all with English adopting words from other languages and I'd be an odd sort of linguist if I did. Some 'foreign' words are necessary and very welcome because they encapsulate ideas so succinctly, far better than long-winded English phrases and others, "schadenfreude" being an oft quoted example, express sentiments for which we, in England, have no single word. All I am saying is that the wholesale takeover of American English words and phrases seems reductive. I don't want to lose all our English words because variety is essential to keep our language vibrant. We have a lot more words than most other languages (all other languages? not sure on that one) don't we? We should invent new words and phrases of our own rather than just relying on what we hear in the movies (did you see what I did there)

Mr Twobears works for a global company so I too have experience of many different nationalities speaking English, even if it is not their first language. Most of Mr Twobears' Lync calls sound absolutely wonderful with a huge mix of accents and ways of speaking. I love all this and am quite a keen linguist with, obviously, an interest in languages including, but not confined to my own native tongue. I am not advocating a standardised form of English, quite the opposite. I just feel concerned that we may lose the rich variety of our language if we adopt standard Americanisms instead. Does that make sense? Re the cow who laughed (modified that one for a family audience I love the Spanish phrase 'ponerse como una sopa'.

"Language evolves, it's a two way street as my American colleagues all use british colloquialism's. Mainly "cheers" when ending a call " I don't doubt that language evolves and that is not a bad thing but simply adopting the words and phrases of America seems a bit dull to me. Why not coin our own neologisms? Much more interesting and I'd volunteer for the post of "Neologiser in Chief" if it were advertised

Whilst we are on the subject of language usage, does the use of multiple Americanisms set anyone else's teeth on edge or is that an intolerance peculiar to me? I know that language changes over time and I don't have a problem with that. Who would have thought we'd have the verbs 'to Google' or 'to Skype' a few years back and yet now they are almost universally understood. I have to confess to being less keen on those words whose meaning changes in such a way that it becomes confusing since you no longer know whether people are using the word in the old or new sense e.g. 'disinterested'. Does the speaker mean 'unbiased' or 'uninterested'? To my way of thinking, if you mean 'uninterested' then say 'uninterested'. When we adopt Americanisms willy nilly (now there's a lovely old English term ) I think we do English a disservice because, to me at least, English and American English should retain their differences as well as their commonalities. If we all end up speaking American English it will be a shame as we will have lost something valuable. Words and phrases I dislike, but which seem to have been adopted by many native English speakers over the last few years include - "Working a job" (we have jobs or we work surely? - anything else is tautology), "gotten" (which I can only assume sounds more impressive than 'got' to some people?), 'passed' instead of 'passed away' and I've even heard 'pi**ed' as in "he was really pi**ed with me" which takes away one of the most common English expressions for drunkenness and may lead us all to adopting Michael McIntyre's term "gazebo-ed" instead

You might not need to punch me then because whilst I say 'garaje' I definitely don't go to Gay Paree! Phew, I can come out of hiding now

I'd been blissfully ignorant of the hyper foreign thing until reading this thread but I may have a problem with it because now I don't know how to pronounce foreign words when speaking English. Incidentally, should English have a capital letter? I've been learning Spanish (similar question!!) for a long time now and they have different rules altogether about capital letters when referring to countries and I have forgotten how to use my native tongue to some degree To get back to the original point - should we all start saying "Bonn-jewerrr mon-sewer?" and the like? I've got a language degree and I'd feel really stupid if I anglicised every foreign word. Hopefully, I'll never meet you in real life RockSteady or you might me

People who think it is ok to throw their rubbish from their car for someone else to pick up

Thanks very much Colin. I will stop worrying if that's all it is and I'll do as you say re the drying off of the discs and leaving it in gear when I am parking it for a while

I'm a complete dunce when it comes to anything about cars so please don't laugh if this is a stupid question but can anyone please advise me regarding the brakes on my Fiesta ST3? I left it standing outside for a couple of weeks whilst I've been away and the brakes seem to have seized up. When I got in it this morning and reversed up the drive it made a loud grating noise and seemed almost 'lumpy' to drive. I thought I might have a flat tyre but when I got out they were all fine. I drove slowly along the lane and the noise gradually lessened. I tried the brakes a few times and they seemed to work but were noisy. I carried on driving slowly for a few miles and the problem seemed to disappear but should I be doing something about it other than maybe not leaving the handbrake on? Like I said, I know nothing about cars so feel free to roll your eyes and move swiftly on but any advice would be gratefully received as always

Ok, I get the message