RANTING/VENTING MEGATHREAD 3.0

i guess its a bit different now, you're right. i would never ask someone where there hometown is lol. but when you're in university it seems like the majority of the people you meet are from 1 place. but also i dont think your hometown is just where you were born? i guess for me its like between your birth and age 18 where did you live the most? but then what if you lived 3 different places for 6 years? do you even have a hometown?

To me a hometown is the place that you relate most strongly to. I spent the first 11 years of my life in 1 state, that time split between two cities, and the next 10 in a different state, in one city. I would NEVER describe the city I spent the latter ten years in as my hometown. I have zero emotional connection to it, it never felt like home, and I don't care to remember a lot about that time. I moved away from there as soon as I could. I'll always think of the town I lived from 4-11 as my hometown. Those were really happy years for me overall, and my memory of that time is really bright. I guess it felt the most positively formative for me.

Anyhow (not that you were arguing this), nobody is ever going to question where someone says their hometown is. Like I'm never gonna tell someone who relates most strongly to NYC as their hometown that they shouldn't call themselves a New Yorker because they didn't live there until they were 6. Whatever city someone vibes with, that's cool with me

To me a hometown is the place that you relate most strongly to. I spent the first 11 years of my life in 1 state, that time split between two cities, and the next 10 in a different state, in one city. I would NEVER describe the city I spent the latter ten years in as my hometown. I have zero emotional connection to it, it never felt like home, and I don't care to remember a lot about that time. I moved away from there as soon as I could. I'll always think of the town I lived from 4-11 as my hometown. Those were really happy years for me overall, and my memory of that time is really bright. I guess it felt the most positively formative for me.

Anyhow (not that you were arguing this), nobody is ever going to question where someone says their hometown is. Like I'm never gonna tell someone who relates most strongly to NYC as their hometown that they shouldn't call themselves a New Yorker because they didn't live there until they were 6. Whatever city someone vibes with, that's cool with me

Sure, you can question where someone's hometown is.  I have a friend that moved to Manhattan.  He's a New Yorker.  Lives and works in Manhattan.  No matter what he thinks of NYC he can't claim it as his hometown.  In no way whatsoever.  You may hate your hometown, but hometown does mean something.  You can't just pick any place you like.  That's absurd. 

Sure, you can question where someone's hometown is.  I have a friend that moved to Manhattan.  He's a New Yorker.  Lives and works in Manhattan.  No matter what he thinks of NYC he can't claim it as his hometown.  In no way whatsoever.  You may hate your hometown, but hometown does mean something.  You can't just pick any place you like.  That's absurd.

If hometown objectively means anything it probably carries some association with childhood and growing up there for at least a portion of time.

If someone spent any period of their childhood/growing up/formative years in a specific city, then I think they have a right to identify that place as their hometown. I'm not going to question that.

If hometown objectively means anything it probably carries some association with childhood and growing up there for at least a portion of time.

If someone spent any period of their childhood/growing up/formative years in a specific city, then I think they have a right to identify that place as their hometown. I'm not going to question that.

Exactly.  Hometown is associated with where your formative years from childhood to adolescence as well as your family's roots.  So, you can't just pick any place due to it being higher profile and claim it as your hometown.  I don't know anyone that doesn't eventually ask about someone's hometown when they're getting to know a person overseas.  A normal and expected question would be

"Where are you from?" 
"Canada" 
"Oh, where in Canada?"
"Well, originally I'm from Minden, but was living in Lindsay before I came here"
"Oh, cool, I grew up in Coboconck." 

Now, that's a conversation between Canadians.  You would break it down to hometown.  It would be odd if you didn't ask more details.  If it was an American asking a Canadian you would just leave it at Canada because they're only going to say they've been to Niagara Falls once and beyond that's just snow galore to them. 
 

Exactly.  Hometown is associated with where your formative years from childhood to adolescence as well as your family's roots.  So, you can't just pick any place due to it being higher profile and claim it as your hometown.  I don't know anyone that doesn't eventually ask about someone's hometown when they're getting to know a person overseas.  A normal and expected question would be

"Where are you from?" 
"Canada" 
"Oh, where in Canada?"
"Well, originally I'm from Minden, but was living in Lindsay before I came here"
"Oh, cool, I grew up in Coboconck." 

Now, that's a conversation between Canadians.  You would break it down to hometown.  It would be odd if you didn't ask more details.  If it was an American asking a Canadian you would just leave it at Canada because they're only going to say they've been to Niagara Falls once and beyond that's just snow galore to them. 
 

True

Exactly.  Hometown is associated with where your formative years from childhood to adolescence as well as your family's roots.  So, you can't just pick any place due to it being higher profile and claim it as your hometown.  I don't know anyone that doesn't eventually ask about someone's hometown when they're getting to know a person overseas.  A normal and expected question would be

"Where are you from?" 
"Canada" 
"Oh, where in Canada?"
"Well, originally I'm from Minden, but was living in Lindsay before I came here"
"Oh, cool, I grew up in Coboconck." 

Now, that's a conversation between Canadians.  You would break it down to hometown.  It would be odd if you didn't ask more details.  If it was an American asking a Canadian you would just leave it at Canada because they're only going to say they've been to Niagara Falls once and beyond that's just snow galore to them. 
 

I don't think I claimed you can pick any place in the world as your hometown regardless of when/how long you lived there.

What I said is that if someone tells me NYC is their hometown, I'm not going to quiz them about it and make sure they pass my own subjective validity test to ensure they meet the standard of whatever it means to call NYC a hometown. I'd just take them at their word if they told me "My hometown is X."

I do agree with your point that asking about someone's hometown is more unusual than just asking where they're from. It's more uncomfortable to me too. The second question is a lot more flexible and lets the person choose without the parameters of childhood, it's more asking about their chosen home and where they consider home as opposed to where their parents raised them.

The older I get, the less I identify with my hometown. I used to have a lot of pride in it, now I don't care that much about it and I don't identify with the social culture of it anymore either. So yeah, it is weird when people ask me specifically where my hometown is, because having to identify as being from X when I don't really feel much like X anymore is a little weird, and kind of unrepresentative of the present-day me. Yeah, I came from there, but it's been years and it's not like I'm pining to go back.

Now, that's a conversation between Canadians.  You would break it down to hometown.  It would be odd if you didn't ask more details.  If it was an American asking a Canadian you would just leave it at Canada because they're only going to say they've been to Niagara Falls once and beyond that's just snow galore to them. 

Ehh, depends on what part of the U.S. they grew up in. They might not have a comprehensive familiarity, but if they regularly went across the border, then they might have some familiarity.

In what country is a public transit bus allowed to pass a site during demolition. In fact, how is ANY vehicle allowed within a full friggin' square block??!

Nine needless dead this day.

I don't really have a hometown myself since my dad was in the military and we got moved around a lot. I don't even claim my city of birth my hometown because my parents didn't actually live there at any time,  I was just born in one of their hospitals because it happened to be the closest one at the time. Only lived in that area for a year anyway.

So I never really know how to answer that question whenever asked. Even the "where are you from" question is a weird one for me to answer if the person asking is looking for more than a country of origin because I've never really lived in one place for too long. If people ask me which state I'm from, I just say Texas because I spent my teenage years there and stuck around for a few years into adulthood.

So it's also possible that other people just toss out an answer whenever asked because it's easier than explaining their travel history.

Why isn't there even a single deli in every Korean city?

Because the cheapest hot dog wiener is packaged and sold as locally seen as equivalent.

I guess all kinds of processed meat is carcinogenic. But a salami, pepperoni or kielbasa might be worth the cancer risk. No sausage in this country is.

Why isn't there even a single deli in every Korean city?

Because the cheapest hot dog wiener is packaged and sold as locally seen as equivalent.

I guess all kinds of processed meat is carcinogenic. But a salami, pepperoni or kielbasa might be worth the cancer risk. No sausage in this country is.

https://www.salthousekorea.com/ delivers/ships

https://smartstore.naver.com/theartisan?fbclid=IwAR12pRviNhRXJNSsOQ-tZbPwXbhVU5nJCrYTfM0eiLBwxZHIWMf0Oag_piY

Is it Gimchi or Kimchi?

According to the Korean government romanization rules it's Gimchi. https://www.korean.go.kr/front_eng/roman/roman_01.do

Literally no one on earth spells it Gimchi.

So why make the rules in the first place if you're just gonna ignore them and do what you want in the world's most intelligent and scientific language. 

Korean national curriculum textbooks use gimchi and Mr. Gim. But outside of that I’ve never seen this.

Is it Gimchi or Kimchi?

According to the Korean government romanization rules it's Gimchi. https://www.korean.go.kr/front_eng/roman/roman_01.do

Literally no one on earth spells it Gimchi.

So why make the rules in the first place if you're just gonna ignore them and do what you want in the world's most intelligent and scientific language. 

This is one of those established name things that can't/shouldn't be changed at this point.

Park is SUPER incorrect if you're gonna try to romanise the word 박. Bak would be the obvious go to here.

Park? What's that? 팔크? 파르크? Some words have been so commonly used in English over time that it doesn't make sense to "properly" romanise them, like staple foods (Kimchi being THE prime example) and, especially, family names. 이 should not be romanised to I at this point.

I will make exceptions for egregiously stupid romanisations like topokki. Man, that spelling makes NO sense. 토포키?

Even romanising it as talkbowkey would be better even though it looks unwieldy and insane. 

Better question, is it pork or fork????

Better question, is it pork or fork????

Yonks ago, I had a HS student label a favorite food as "folk lips".

I was flummoxed at first, but now it's so obvious that that's pork ribs.

Romanizing Korean is terrible, and Hangeulizing English just as bad.  I insist co-teachers not do with a handful of examples.  Just teach phonics.

Yonks ago, I had a HS student label a favorite food as "folk lips".

I was flummoxed at first, but now it's so obvious that that's pork ribs.

Romanizing Korean is terrible, and Hangeulizing English just as bad.  I insist co-teachers not do with a handful of examples.  Just teach phonics.

I had a student write, "I had crap for dinner."  (crab)  I hand her a dictionary and waited for her response, I wasn't disappointed. :D

I say just go by the common spelling

I say just go by the common spelling

You're a disgrace to the profession!

That sort of attitude is how you get an entire population stopping in the middle of roundabouts yielding to oncoming traffic.