I got about five minutes into this video in 30 mins. I really enjoyed what you had to say and hope I remember to come back to it when DTube is working for me. And you said 'whence'! So cool! I use that a lot but I don't believe I've ever heard anyone else use it in every day speech. I may use it because of the Russian otkuda, which, of course, they use all the time.
Haha, it's so cool that you noticed that. I know I'm quite formal in my English, that's due to using it mostly in academic environment. I'm not that used to including much colloquial phraseology, for example, because I'm not so much immersed in the culture, as I'm rather an observer from the outside. And wanting to be most correct and precise - that's just my perfectionism and I'd say respect, too, for the thoughts I want to express. 😀 But I have soooo much more to learn.
Thanks, pal! I like the background otkuda we come.
I often find that foreign speakers of English speak so much better than we natives, I guess for the reasons you state. I often dumb down my correct grammar because I think it makes me sound like pretentious, but then I feel like I shouldn't.
Yep, that's the thing - I also feel rather pretentious (when I'm using words like rather, for example) speaking way too correctly. 😀 Ok, there's the social setting aspect always to take into consideration, and actually we always adjust our language to the 'conventions' of each social circle, unknowingly; but I'd rather we people eased up a bit on this all. So don't dumb it down, when you don't feel like. Stay awesomely posh as you are!
I'm gonna use that as a tagline - Cams Campbell, awesomely posh!