First one in over a year.. Or so he claims. It's hard to understand him when he's speaking his native tongue.

I can imagine...
It can be a pretty wild dialect, where he comes from.

Kinda like speaking southern huh?

Worse actually.
Sounds almost like a different language :)
For me it's not so bad, I'm used to hearing it. But for the untrained ear, it can be really difficult. Stijn's region isn't even that bad.
Quite fun, all those different dialects. I think it is something we should preserve.
We have villages not even 50 kilometers apart that sound completely different.
Theyre are about 28 different Dutch dialects... (dutch and Flemish is more or less the same, like UK and US English)

Damn furiners.
Morning G,Rick,Dave

good afternoon already

Good morning guys.

G-man, you are very good with English. Did you grow up with an English speaker in the house or did you learn it all in school? We certainly have different accents across the USA, but it is mostly simple to understand. The major exception for me is Ebonics. It almost a foreign language.

Morning Glen,

The only English speaker in the house was our television.
I do have an aptitude for anything that has to do with language.
Watching television made me fluent in English by the time I was 12 or so, before I had my first English course in school. I never had to learn the theory and grammatical rules and stuff.
English teachers loved me, I was not labor intensive for them...
Same with French, my German is not great, but good enough, as is my Spanish...

Ebonics, that's like English for crack hookers and pimps, no? In a rapsong, ok, otherwise it makes people sound like a retard. (with all due respect for retards, of course)....

If there was a magic pill I could take to be milti-lingual I would love to take it. My brain is just not wired that way.

I was in line at a local business next to three guys that were speaking Ebonics amongst themselves. I could catch about one word in 10. I did not know if they were discussing quantum mechanics & string theory or bank robbery. It was just gibberish to me.

morning gents!

I talked to a receptionist in London that was a true Londoner heavily accented Queen's English. There wasn't a word she said that I didn't understand, but it did take a minute for the words to sink in so I could answer. After a few minutes my brain hurt.

we had a receptionist here once that was from Scottland, she could make your head hurt if she tried

Stijn!!
 

One of my wife's good friends lives in South Carolina. When she gets to talking with my wife the southern accent gets real strong on both sides. It is something that just happens. If you called and talked to either of them you would never hear a hint of accent.

With single malt?? :D

yep!

Single malt whiskey, blech.

My thoughts as well but when from the highlands ..........

Evening Y'all

well its been a slow days here, everyone is waiting for friday I take it?

well duh. :D