# Speak to me using English **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 11, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397 "2012-09-11T14:16:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/1 "2012-09-11T14:16:08Z")
It can be an English quote, an English saying, random words strung together from Webster’s dictionary, something you learned in second grade, a conversation you had with your mom yesterday, or just a nice “hello, how are you?” I’d have included options for Mandarin, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, Punjabi, German, Javanese, Wu, Malay, Telugu, Vietnamese, Korean, French, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Turkish, Italian, Cantonese, Thai, Gujarati, Jin, Min Nan, Persian, Polish, Pashto, Kannada, Xiang, Malayalam, Sundanese, Hausa, Oriya, Burmes, Hakka, Ukrainian, Bhojpuri, Tagalog, Yoruba, Maithili, Uzbek, Sindhi, Amharic, Fula, Romanian, Oromo, Igbo, Azerbaijani, Awadhi, Gan Chinese, Cebuano, Dutch, Kurdish, Serbo-Croatian, Malagasy, Saraiki, Nepali, Sinhalese, Chittagonian, Zhuang, Khmer, Turkmen, Assamese, Madurese, Somali, Marwari, Magahi, Haryanvi, Hungarian, Chhattisgarhi, Greek, Chewa, Deccan, Akan, Kazakh, Min Bei, Sylheti, Zulu, Czech, Kinyarwanda, Dhundhari, Haitian Creole, Min Dong, Ilokano, Quechua, Kirundi, Swedish, Hmong, Shona, Uyghur, Hiligaynon, Mossi, Xhosa, Belarusian, Balochi, and Konkani but I don’t know those languages. I do know Spanish and Hebrew but it’s still against board policy to start talking in foreign languages. But go ahead and talk in English to your heart’s content. It’ll be a fun game! You can sing a song. Or type a song. Or recite a poem. Which is basically a song but without music. You can even, if you’re so daring, speak to me in Simpsons quotes, Whedon-Verse quotes, Archer quotes, movie quotes, Big Bang theory quotes, Seinfeld quotes, Drew’s line quotes, Doctor Who quotes, Video Game quotes, Straight Dope message board quotes and Internet ad quotes, but I guess you shouldn’t as they all have dedicated threads already. No. This is just for speaking to me in English. Let’s see how many English words and phrases and sentences we can compile in one thread! Won’t it be fun!? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/2 "2012-09-11T14:17:48Z")
You’re irritated about something; I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/3 "2012-09-11T14:26:12Z")
I can haz cheezburger! What was the best song off of REM’s _Green_? Name 100 characters from The Simpsons! (Past examples of thread crazes which mercifully passed.) ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/4 "2012-09-11T14:37:00Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > You can even, if you’re so daring, speak to me in Simpsons quotes, Whedon-Verse quotes, Archer quotes, movie quotes, Big Bang theory quotes, Seinfeld quotes, Drew’s line quotes, Doctor Who quotes, Video Game quotes, Straight Dope message board quotes and Internet ad quotes, but I guess you shouldn’t as they all have dedicated threads already. Yeah, I don’t open those threads. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/5 "2012-09-11T16:00:55Z")
:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/6 "2012-09-11T16:37:13Z")
Do smileys count as English? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/7 "2012-09-11T17:26:21Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Do smileys count as English? I’d say the Wally one does, except it no longer exists and the term itself is Yiddish. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/8 "2012-09-11T17:33:20Z")
\*“All right, so I was wrong about the Archbishop’s bottom.” \*- Johnny English (2003) ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/9 "2012-09-11T18:45:32Z")
I must confess to being slightly irritated by those threads as well, but not enough to post about them - until now, of course. Unfortunately for any fans of those threads who happen to wander in here, we’re not exactly showing a great deal of content either (though some of the previous posts have already been amusing, I suppose). ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/10 "2012-09-11T19:05:19Z")
“But go ahead and talk in English to your heart’s content. It’ll be a fun game! You can sing a song. Or type a song. Or recite a poem. Which is basically a song but without music.” –Enderw24 ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/11 "2012-09-11T20:10:45Z")
Tell me, O Octopus, I begs. Is those things arms Or is they Legs? I marvel at thee, Octopus. If I were thou, I’d call me Us. – Ogden Nash ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/12 "2012-09-11T21:10:58Z")
me fail english? that’s unpossible. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/13 "2012-09-11T21:17:05Z")
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open eye- (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages); Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; And specially from every shires ende Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, The hooly blisful martir for to seke That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke. – Geoffrey Chaucer ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/14 "2012-09-11T21:23:12Z")
Purple monkey dishwasher. Super karate monkey death car. Monkey monkey monkey. Something with “monkey” in it. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/15 "2012-09-11T21:28:53Z")
Non. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/16 "2012-09-11T21:32:22Z")
[Manuel] I speak Eng-lish. I learn it from a book." [/Manuel] ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/17 "2012-09-11T21:36:54Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > [Manuel] I speak Eng-lish. I learn it from a book." [/Manuel] Which one is man with beard? ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/18 "2012-09-11T21:44:28Z")
I applaud the OP. Those threads have run their course. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/19 "2012-09-11T21:47:15Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > me fail english? that’s unpossible. Ralph is far wiser than you think. “Unpossible” is a real word that was even used by Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397/20 "2012-09-11T22:01:22Z")
Speak to me in pouty, passive-aggressive OPs. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speak-to-me-using-english/634397.md?page=2)