Exactly :) My friends say that I usually sound "academic" more than snob. Some time ago I witnessed this first-hand. I was at a speaking event, the speaker wa

Exactly :) My friends say that I usually sound "academic" more than snob. Some time ago I witnessed this first-hand. I was at a speaking event, the speaker was Canadian. He said: "If you ever had the fortune to encounter [Mister XYZ]". I would have definitively expected something like: "If you were lucky to meet him"/"had the luck to have met him" or similar. He was native, but very academic indeed. :)