Impressions of Sioux Falls (appointed, crime rates, house)

[ssa1073]

fatman66,

I too am oringinally from Rochester, NY and recently accepted a job offer in Sioux Falls. It looks like the fam and I will be relocating to the area in January. Any further thoughts or impressions during your first few months there?

[acorn lady]

I am reading this thread with great interest...I am strongly considering a move to Sioux Falls in the spring/early summer, but I need to get out there to get a good look-see before I make the jump. I live in the southeast (raised in the north, lived in CO for 10 yrs. previous to moving to Georgia), and the summers are just TOO MUCH heat for me...I'm actually looking forward to a good, cold northern winter!!

I'm thinking I might come visit in late April (hope that there is not too much snow then...I haven't driven on it for awhile), and move in June, possibly early July.

Thanks for all of the info. in this thread...I'm just lappin' it up!! :-)

[floridadreamer]

I am considering Sioux Falls as well, going to visit in a couple of weeks. I am hoping to check out Southeast Tech as well as Lake Area in Watertown for Medical Lab Assistant courses. Actually, I need to check out Mitchell tech as well because I don't think Southeast has medical lab asst.

[jmgg]

Originally Posted by floridadreamer

I am considering Sioux Falls as well, going to visit in a couple of weeks. I am hoping to check out Southeast Tech as well as Lake Area in Watertown for Medical Lab Assistant courses.

Both of these tech schools have excellent reputations. I don't know anything about your particular field of study that you mentioned, but as a whole, these schools are excellent.

[fuadgomez]

I take issue with South Dakotans' assumption that the gold standard of American English is spoken right here. Without a doubt people speak with an accent in Sioux Falls. It isn't a Southern Accent, but that doesn't make it better. For instance, the plural form of "you" in English is "you". I would argue that "you all," shortened to "y'all" is no worse than saying "you guys". A waitress in Sioux Falls once asked me, "have you guys had you guys's order taken?" Did she seriously just say "you guyses?" A strong regional accent of any kind is a form of ignorance; not bad necessarily, just a sign that you probably don't get out much. A strong South Dakota accent sounds like your mouth can only make two shapes: 1)jaw completely open with mouth perfectly rounded and 2)jaw nearly closed, cheeks pulled back tight, like a severe "eeeee". If you are not accustomed to listening to South Dakotans engaged in conversation and happen to be out of earshot enough that you can't make out the words, it just sounds like a series of "oh's" and "ee's". Oh ee oh ee oh oh oh.
I am surely digressing by this point, but another thing I disliked about living in Sioux Falls is that everyone assumes a sense of shared values. For example, my wife commented on how tan one of her coworkers had become over the course of the summer. The lady said, "I know. By the end of summer, I usually look like a n#**er!" without batting an eye she said this. I know Sioux Falls is more than 90% Caucasian, but c'mon, let's not get so comfortable! Maybe because she didn't say the N word with a Southern Accent it sounded less offensive. So when my wife and I were close to moving to Texas, not my personal work supervisor, but the supervisor of another unit says, "well won't you guys miss your guyses parents? I mean, what do your guyses parents think of you guys moving to Texas?" I said, well, "if you really must know, my mom just left my dad without so much as a dear john note and my dad used to beat me, so I'm actually pretty excited about moving away". That was about the 50th time I had been asked that question and I just went off. But seriously, people are so nosy in Sioux Falls, like we're one big family and you can ask anybody anything or say anything that comes to your mind like you're talking to your sister. You can call it "friendly" if you want. I call it disrespectful.

[fuadgomez]

Wall Lake is nasty, just like every other body of water in southeast South Dakota. Full of pesticides, herbicides, fecal coliform from pigs and cattle, suspended sediment from unsound agricultural practices and by the time Wall Lake is warm enough to swim in, there's a layer of gas on top of the water from way too many jet skis circling that stinky puddle.

[DeadwoodJ]

"A strong regional accent of any kind is a form of ignorance;"

You're posts are hilarious......Do you honestly expect people to believe this is true? It is NOT Ignorance, it is CULTURE!

Ignorance:
Main Entry: ig·no·rance
Pronunciation: \ˈig-n(ə-)rən(t)s\
Function: noun
Date: 13th century
: the state or fact of being ignorant : lack of knowledge, education, or awareness (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ignorance)


Dialect:
–noun
1. Linguistics. a variety of a language that is distinguished from other varieties of the same language by features of phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, and by its use by a group of speakers who are set off from others geographically or socially. 2. a provincial, rural, or socially distinct variety of a language that differs from the standard language, esp. when considered as substandard. 3. a special variety of a language: The literary dialect is usually taken as the standard language. 4. a language considered as one of a group that have a common ancestor: Persian, Latin, and English are Indo-European dialects. 5. jargon or cant.
(Dialect Definition | Definition of Dialect at Dictionary.com)

How can having a regional accent be a lack of knowledge, of education, or awareness......I know people that have lived in the South for a few years, then moved to either Minnesota or South Dakota and kept their southern accent. I also lived in Virginia for about 5 years and had a bit of an accent when I moved here but its now gone and replaced by a Midwestern accent.....By this same logic you are saying that other cultures, like Chinese for instance, are ignorant because of all their different dialects? It's a fact of language that there become dialects in different regions of the country.


People ask about each other because they usually care for their coworkers and neighbors. Wait till you get to Texas where people will just flip you off for being you.....I'm glad you're leaving for Texas if you're so unhappy here because there are a lot more people that actually like this state and that's whats great about this country is that you can move wherever you want to.....

[plowman]

Originally Posted by fuadgomez

I take issue with South Dakotans' assumption that the gold standard of American English is spoken right here. Without a doubt people speak with an accent in Sioux Falls. It isn't a Southern Accent, but that doesn't make it better. For instance, the plural form of "you" in English is "you". I would argue that "you all," shortened to "y'all" is no worse than saying "you guys". A waitress in Sioux Falls once asked me, "have you guys had you guys's order taken?" Did she seriously just say "you guyses?" A strong regional accent of any kind is a form of ignorance; not bad necessarily, just a sign that you probably don't get out much. A strong South Dakota accent sounds like your mouth can only make two shapes: 1)jaw completely open with mouth perfectly rounded and 2)jaw nearly closed, cheeks pulled back tight, like a severe "eeeee". If you are not accustomed to listening to South Dakotans engaged in conversation and happen to be out of earshot enough that you can't make out the words, it just sounds like a series of "oh's" and "ee's". Oh ee oh ee oh oh oh.
I am surely digressing by this point, but another thing I disliked about living in Sioux Falls is that everyone assumes a sense of shared values. For example, my wife commented on how tan one of her coworkers had become over the course of the summer. The lady said, "I know. By the end of summer, I usually look like a n#**er!" without batting an eye she said this. I know Sioux Falls is more than 90% Caucasian, but c'mon, let's not get so comfortable! Maybe because she didn't say the N word with a Southern Accent it sounded less offensive. So when my wife and I were close to moving to Texas, not my personal work supervisor, but the supervisor of another unit says, "well won't you guys miss your guyses parents? I mean, what do your guyses parents think of you guys moving to Texas?" I said, well, "if you really must know, my mom just left my dad without so much as a dear john note and my dad used to beat me, so I'm actually pretty excited about moving away". That was about the 50th time I had been asked that question and I just went off. But seriously, people are so nosy in Sioux Falls, like we're one big family and you can ask anybody anything or say anything that comes to your mind like you're talking to your sister. You can call it "friendly" if you want. I call it disrespectful

OK, if you don't like the way South Dakotan's speak, I sure wouldn't want to live here unless it would be catchy! And as for the you guyses gal? Are you sure she was from South Dakota? Since South Dakota is a close to heaven as you'll find in this world, it seems there are tons of people invading us. This makes are large cities like Rapid and SF especially a melting pot of peoples, cultures and accents. No longer is SF the "little Norwegian city on the prairie" that it was when I was growing up.

As far as accents are concerned, give me a break. Everyone speaks with an accent of some sort. The only people you'll find who *don't* have an accent are those who speak just like you do.

In fact, several years ago, I took a college course on liguistics of the English language. According to this course, America will eventually lose our regional accents. (Assuming we last that long that is.)
The reason being is that we've become a mobile society. People move hither & yon now days. According to this course, 25 years ago, there were actual trained liguists who could peg you down to within fifty miles of your hometown, just by your "accent" which many of us don't think we have.

As for Sioux Falls being the land of gold opportunity. It's unemployment rate isn't as high as the the rest of the country, maybe, but there are already many many unemployed and underemployed people in SF. It interests me that a Sioux Falls company needs to hire people from "afar" seeing as there are already so many in need of a job in SF.

One thing I've noted in my travels. The wages in SD are *not* at all what they are in the rest of the country. Hence, many South Dakotans consider it "normal" to hold two or three jobs in order to make ends meet. So, with the present economy, while many people still have *a* job so hence don't appear in the "enemployed" statistics, but they are underemployed and are now in a hard place to make a living. Anyone thinking of moving up here where "we talk strangely" should keep those things in mind.

[fuadgomez]

Originally Posted by Jammie

The way we speak is currently the accepted way of speech.

: smack::s mack::sm ack:

[Jammie]

Originally Posted by fuadgomez

: smack::s mack::sm ack:

Don't even go there. If you are as coothe and aware of this world as you claim to be, you already know there are schools who teach people to speak exactly the way we speak in this region. One is in Chicago. Many of the national news and weather broadcasters go there and that's where they lose their southern accent. Give me our speech any day over a deep southern twang.

Be honest now, I have no doubt that someone said, "You guys", but you lost your credibility with "you guys and you guyses" in the same sentence. We wish you well in Texas. You must have overlooked this part of the forum. You'll be interested in the section here~

http://www.city-data.com/forum/austin/