[Cheryluk]

Westwoods Where Am I has unfortunately showed up how thick all of the team are.

Last week we had Tina thinking Milton Keynes was by the sea and Dom saying the Titanic had sailed from Reading.I couldn't believe today how most of them had so much difficulty getting Hull.I don't know what qualifications are required but the team have been showed up as a bit thick.

[DevilsDuck]

hmmm.....I think its entertaining

[Cheryluk]

So do I, I was just saying that the team are generally not Einsteins.

[catherine]

Why would they be?

[Boboff]

I blame the parents.

Also I am sure the IQ of the team is reflective of the audience.

I did not know Hull was called Kinston upon Hull.

I did know that Turkey drive on the left.

and....







I LIKE SAUSAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[foot-loose]

I don't know where Norwich is.

[Nick.K]

I think its a fun game but I'm certain Aled cheats at this.

[AndyJ]

Yes, they are so thick, that they all work on the biggest breakfast show, what complete dum dum's they must be. Just because they aren't particularly up on history or geography doesn't make them thick... muppet.

[DevilsDuck]

No no no no no nooooo!

if Aled cheats then by BBC law he must be banished for ever to the land of the dragons!

[Travis Bickle]

It has very little to do with intelligence and more to do with knowledge and geography. I know of plenty of people who would score very highly in an IQ test yet they know eff all about most things. Intelligence and knowledge are two entirely different tings.

[Nicola_Red]

Indeed. My geography is poor - I didn't take it at GCSE, and I have no sense of direction. I did know that it's Kingston upon Hull, but maybe that's just from working with a system that generates full addresses from postcodes. I know stuff like Newcastle-upon-Tyne is hyphenated where Newcastle under Lyme isn't - useless information, generally. But I wouldn't describe myself as a thicko.

[Johnny 1989]

They're not thickos, for reasons mentioned above, for example in the South East there's an Ashford in Kent (South East of London) & Ashford in Surrey (South West of London), there's also a Bromley in Kent & Bromley-By-Bow in East London & then there's all the multiple "Stoke's" as well: Stoke-On-Trent in Staffordshire, Stoke in Kent (again), Stoke Mandeville in Buckinghamshire & Stoke Newington in North London, so it's hardly suprising people's geography of England is relatively poor.

[DannyBoy]

im in knor-ridge!

[sortitout]

Whilst I do agree that knowledge and intelligence are not necessarily always the same thing, I can see where the op is coming from. The Westwood feature has made me think more about this recently, but based on the lack of basic knowledge most members of the team show during the Pub Quiz feature and in general discussions on the show, I've thought for a long while now that most of them aren't the sharpest tools in the box. Even though I like him the least, Matt appears to be the most intelligent team member, with little competition for the title.

One recent example from Wednesday just gone was Chris not knowing what the words slated, as in 'the fixture has been slated for...' or hyperbole meant. I can clearly remember having to circle the correct definition of the word hyperbole in a test when I was about ten in primary school!Chris, Dave and Aled not knowing what simple words from the English language mean is quite a regular occurrence. I'm not looking for Chris or any of the team to have a Stephen Fry standard vocabulary, but it does make me cringe a bit whenever he or another member of the team demonstrates such a limited vocabulary. If they, especially Dave, just read a bit more it would increase rapidly!

[Console]

Whilst I do agree that knowledge and intelligence are not necessarily always the same thing

They're never the same thing - wisdom is the combination of the two.

[John_Dory]

Chris, Dave and Aled not knowing what simple words from the English language mean is quite a regular occurrence

although Aled does have a reasonable excuse.

[Yudster]

.............it does make me cringe a bit whenever he or another member of the team demonstrates such a limited vocabulary. If they, especially Dave, just read a bit more it would increase rapidly!

I very often find myself thinking this in pretty much every situation and environment I am in. Its certainly not a criticism that I would level at the show any more than at any other group these days. But its nothing new - I remember when I was 13 (which was many, many, MANY years ago children......) explaining to my English teacher (yes, my ENGLISH teacher) that the word "torpid" wasn't a typo. He had just told the class there was no such word and it must have been meant to read "stupid". The irony of that was lost on him too. God, my English teacher really hated me.

[newsbeat]

I try having arguments with my own English teacher, she isn't very easy to win arguments with, and something else. NEVER argue with a French teacher. She sent me outside for laughing. Then I tried to argue and I got sent back outside

[Yudster]

My French teacher could speak French much better than I could, so why would I have wanted to argue with her? That was clearly not the case with my English teacher though, he was fair game I felt. Anyone who is supposed to be teaching a group of people something should make damn sure they're in a position to do so. When a 13 year old knows your subject better than you, its probably time to change jobs.

Going by the construction and execution of many of your posts newsbeat, you should listen to your English teacher rather than try to argue with her.

[DevilsDuck]

[Nicola_Red]

Its certainly not a criticism...

its probably time to change jobs...

It's = contraction of 'it is'. (It's not a criticism, etc)
Its = possessive, belonging to. (The dog ate its food, etc)

I'm so sorry Yuds, but you did rather ask for that.

[DevilsDuck]

*gulp*

[Yudster]

Not at all - I deliberately leave out the apostrophe for "its", which I am reliably informed by someone who knows about such things is perfectly acceptable. There is a growing movement amongst the people who determine this stuff (whoever THEY might be!) to do away with apostrophes altogether. I'm not sure I agree with that, but when there are more than two variations of use for an apostrophe in one word (there are seven different sets of grammatical circumstances where one could be used in "its" - I don't know what they all are, but my informant says seven) I agree that it becomes arbitrary.

Anyway - my non-use of aspostrophes in "its" is a choice - the fact that its grammatically allowable to make that choice makes me very happy indeed!

[newsbeat]

Going by the construction and execution of many of your posts newsbeat, you should listen to your English teacher rather than try to argue with her.

I can see why people find this funny, but English is one of my best subjects. Just when I'm on here, I just tend to forget about it all ...

[Nicola_Red]

Not at all - I deliberately leave out the apostrophe for "its", which I am reliably informed by someone who knows about such things is perfectly acceptable. There is a growing movement amongst the people who determine this stuff (whoever THEY might be!) to do away with apostrophes altogether. I'm not sure I agree with that, but when there are more than two variations of use for an apostrophe in one word (there are seven different sets of grammatical circumstances where one could be used in "its" - I don't know what they all are, but my informant says seven) I agree that it becomes arbitrary.

Anyway - my non-use of aspostrophes in "its" is a choice - the fact that its grammatically allowable to make that choice makes me very happy indeed!

Well, there ya go, I've learned something. I've never heard of leaving out the apostrophe being acceptable, and I can't find any reliable source on the net to back that up - I did find an article on the decline in use of them, but that basically put it down to fashion and vague teaching in schools. So I guess I've been left behind in current language developments! I'd definitely be against doing away with apostrophes altogether - I think they still provide a valuable distinction. But better to be leaving them out deliberately than just making mistakes!