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to A(id) grade or not to A(id) grade |
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30-Apr-2006 7:40:28 PM
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Honestly Australians are always desparate to keep in step with overseas. If it wasn't for the proliferation of overseas grading systems I am sure we would have scrapped the Ewbank system ages ago.
For instance we have rapping, pins, stemming, karabiner spelt with a c and other Americanisms. I liked it when the Queenslanders used the term jambing. It was different to the rest of the world. I bet you lot can't remember that.
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1-May-2006 10:47:45 AM
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This is what I reckon.
Individualism = cool,
American imperialism = suck
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1-May-2006 11:00:30 AM
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On 30/04/2006 GB wrote:
>For instance we have rapping, pins, stemming, karabiner spelt with a c
>and other Americanisms.
Rappel is from the French. Abseil is German. Carabiner is derived from an Italian word related to "police" (Carabinieri I think). The German spelling inevitably starts with a K.
You can hardly blame the choice of either on the US.
On the other hand, 'biners were always "krabs" when I started climbing, creating much amusement one day when an evesdropper got entirely the wrong meaning out of the sentence "I got a new set of crabs the other day".
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1-May-2006 11:37:40 AM
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On 30/04/2006 GB wrote:
>Honestly Australians are always desparate to keep in step with overseas.
> If it wasn't for the proliferation of overseas grading systems I am sure
>we would have scrapped the Ewbank system ages ago.
Yet you also say
> liked it when the Queenslanders used the term
>jambing. It was different to the rest of the world.
Having a bet each way?
:)
I like to think we would not have chucked out the Ewbank system that quickly, but sometimes I despair that you could be right!
Re
>For instance we have rapping, pins, stemming, karabiner spelt with a c
>and other Americanisms.
Perhaps we ended up adopting overseas names for these items/systems because they were originally obtained from overseas?
It would be interesting to muse (over a beer around a campfire), on what they might have been called if we had invented them ...
Don't get me wrong though, as I agree that we suffer from too much 'overseasure' regarding our cultural identity.
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