RIGHT HAND VS LEFT HAND MASTURBATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Thackary]

What a peculiar life you must lead back home. That sounds positively dreadful to me.

Horses for courses...

[King Jesus]

Indeed

[King Jesus]

Indeed

[King Jesus]

It posted that twice for some reason.

[Uncle Bob]

King Jesus likes sky scrapers etc, right? then can I just ask why you picked St-A, when it's only wee? Surely you had some idea of what it was like before you arrived? I just think it's a bit late to complain now, that's all. St Andrews might be a bit small and boring from time to time, but there are worse places to be. take my word for it, I now work in liverpool, and there are _far_ too many tracksuits here!

Uncle Bob
xx

[King Jesus]

Ah yes but I didn't know how MUCH I loved skyscrapers etc until I came here and missed them terribly.

I was just looking for a change of pace. Now I have got a very extreme change of pace and want my former pace back.

[n]

King Jesus
like you, coming to such a sleepy town was a complete culture shock for me (and the city I live in is only about the size of Dundee!!) but after three years here I've sort of appreciated the welcome change in pace. After three months spent working in London city centre I realised I've got the rest of my life to live at a fast pace.. why not take the opportunity to live at a slow pace and enjoy the finer things in life? St.Andrews may not have the bustle and variety of things to do that a big city has, but it does have some of the best coastal scenery around- if you think it's too boring or whatever, why not just go and relax on the beach, with a few beers a football and some mates... is there a better way to pass the day?
p.s. I don't think anyone will disagree with your opinion that the library is shit...specially when people use it for social reasons rather than working, annoying EVERYONE around them who IS trying to work

[Anon.]

That word "wee" REALLY annoys me.

[Porker]

Well for fuck sake deal with it. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that although you of course have a right to be annoyed by national slang, being in Scotland forces you to listen to it. Is it not cool to hear different ways of speaking when you travel the world?

Or perhaps you just miss words like 'gee'.

[Porker]

By thw way, percentage of foreign students (not just Americans) at this university now - as confirmed by Brian Lang - lies at 22%.

The rest are British, but man, that's a lot.

[Anon.]

Good Gad, sir, do you think I'm American?

I have no problem with Scots using the word "wee" in speech, but when it is written down it just infuriates me. This is possibly because my mind reads in an English accent, if you see what I mean, and the idea of English people (or indeed anyone who isn't Scotch) using the word "wee" is simply insufferable.

However, it is my own problem, so I will now shut up about it.

[Andy]

Wee in certain constructions ( the wee hours of the morn) has gotta be sufferable. I could understand how some uitlander saying " I dinnae ken" could be irritating, but on the other hand imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... The breakdown of St Andrews isn´t absurdly high vis a vis international students. I would like to know what percentage of the 22% are JYA or JSAs? or does St Andrews only count the full four year foreign students? Also you have to take into account all the half-breeds that populate the university. A good number of Americans I´ve known in St Andrews ( granted it´s been a bit limited) could technically be considered British because either their mother or father is British. How do those lost souls fit into the equation. Surprisingly enough, St Andrews is still predominantly Scottish ( which ought to be logical because it is a Scottish University in case anybody´s forgotten) but here the theory of the purple headed mutant rabbits, Weegies, and demonic goats. In a room with 7 Weegies 3 mutant rabbits and 1 demonic goat you´re going to notice the demonic goat, then the rabbits, and finally the Weegies. Onto dispelling the myth that Americans are ridiculously wealthy. Yes in comparison to Scottish students we do pay a lot, but even after the plane ticket and assorted costs it´s still cheaper than basically all US universities of equal caliber. There are those of us ( myself included) who are also partially supported by a scholarship and other financial aid. Truth be told it´s very likely that the British pay a similar amount, but through taxes that go towards education instead of direct payment.So I would like to know how much does it cost the government to put a Scottish Arts student ( if anybody has statistics on other Faculties all the better) through 4 years of studies at St Andrews?

[Saz]

Oh My GOD! I am so gonna get slagged for my accent when I come along to St Andrews next month, I am getting so worried! People are just going to hear me and think I got into the uni on the schemie git initiative. I am scottish but I speak kind of rough because of where I've grown up (in Fife) and I tend to swear like a trooper!

[Thackary]

Try not to swear too much then. Other than that, I don't think you'll have a problem.

[ABC]

Well it might be good to tone down the cursing just a bit, but for goodness sakes don´t let anybody make you feel bad because of your accent. Especially since you´re a Fifer, and St Andrews is in Fife. Besides other than stupid jokes, pretty much everyone here won´t care what kind of accent you have, unless of course it´s a Canadian accent.

[Blah Blah]

Pardon me??? "pretty much everyone here won´t care what kind of accent you have, unless of course it´s a Canadian accent" ?? Waht is this rubbish? How on earth could anyone possibly loath a nice Canadian accent more than an annoying, twangy American accent?

[ABC]

One disadvantage of a message board is that it´s hard to tell is someone is trying to be stupidly funny or not. Regarding the Canadian accent, there is a difference but it´s not that noticeable. If anybody´s interested in linguistics and accents, there´s an interesting article titled " Canada ( Canadian, soemthing like that) Rising" which deals with the influence of the Canadian accent ( primarily the Ontarian accent) on the US Midwestern accent ( particularly the Minnesota accent). I´ve forgotten the URL, but if you search for it you´ll find it. Yes a Canadian can say toque, loonie, and all aboot the roundaboot, but barring those it would be very hard for the uninitiated to tell the difference between a standard American accent and a standard Canadian accent.

[Abbey]

I'm interested to know what everyone considers a standard American accent. There is such a wide variety (Southern, Mid-Western, Brooklyn, West Coast, "Hick," etc.) that is seems impossible to standardize it. And going back to the Canadian accents, I've noticed that many of us Americans living near the border do pick up a bit of their dialect. I regularly use "eh", "aboot" and other distinctly Canadian expressions subconsciously in my conversations... That could actually be the worst dialect to listen to, I am now thinking- a "twangy, American accent" with Canadian slang thrown in-scary combination!

Oh, and going waaay back in the posts, to St Andrews recruiting students overseas, yes it does happen. They don't ever come to my state, but my friend in California attended a seminar with a representative. And the amount of tuition paid does seem to constitute a large part of it- overseas students pay about 11,000 pounds per year.

[maz]

emm.... If you think about it can you tell the difference between the various british accents ( and even any accent that isnt american.) this comment is addressed to the americans by the way. we brits - if we havent watched hours and hours worth of crappy american tv or actually spent a long time there cant tell the differences between regional accents. It comes with practice. I can hear theres a difference but sometimes cant tell where a person comes from. Its all to do with perspective. In my area i can tell which town they went to school in as i know people can do for different areas of london, etc etc. But when your questioning our idea of a "standard american accent" think what yours is of a standard british one - ill bet its posh (queens's bbc english) or mockney (ala dick van dyke in mary poppins) neither of these are really accurate interpretations of the majority of british accents

[Prophet Tenebrae]

We shouldn't blame Americans for their expectation of all Brits to fall into the categories of lovable Cockney or Royalty (with Scots and Welsh presumably somewhere on or near Ireland) - we should blame their television networks.

NBC still tells people the world is flat - so really it's Bush's fault. It's easy to lay problems at his feet - so we should do it