Global Lingo Thread

[Nord Jim]

We got a dog a few years ago, and family members thought that "Woofter" might be a cute name.

Maybe not, I suggested.

One of our cousins has a son named Jackson, who is affectionately called "Jaxie" by his mother.

Anyway, two nations divided by a common language.

j

[BeBerlin]

We got a dog a few years ago, and family members thought that "Woofter" might be a cute name.j

Thanks for the update. I did not know 3., yet. Might come in handy later in my life.

[nun2sharp]

concerning JMS post about jimbos character, that was just too damn good!

[Bruno]

I haven't made much of those mistakes yet, because much of my vocabulary comes from books, and those are generally not written in slang. If anything, my English friends tell me that my grasp of the language is better and more correct than theirs.

But I've worked closely with several English (and one irish) colleagues, and among those nationalities it is considered a sign of friendship or closeness to call each other git / swine / bastard /...
At least among those I worked with.
It was perfectly acceptable for me to say something like 'Good morning, you English swine, now sod off so I can get a cup of coffee'.
If people you know are suddenly polite to you otoh, that's a sign that something is going on and they are distancing themselves from you.

I've also worked with Americans, and they are generally very sensitive about these things.
Whenever I move between work environments (English <-> American) I have to mentally change gears in order to blend in. In the normal interaction with close colleagues, the things that are almost expected among the English are offensive to the Americans and vice versa.

[cako72]

Bruno, You a fan of Terry Pratchett, i suppose?

At least your signature looks like it!

Sorry, slightly .....

The Swedish direct translation to english for a "rare steak" is "a bloody steak", could cause some rised eyebrows in an English restaurant....and an American too, i suppose...Hehe!


Clas

[Bruno]

Yup. I own everything discworld related except the latest versions of the discworld companion. It gets updated every couple of years, but they are not that useful or interesting. And if you have all the books, then the companion is redundant so I only bought the first one.

I re-read them every now and again, too. Some I've read 7 or 8 times.

[Quick Orange]

Bruno, You a fan of Terry Pratchett, i suppose?

At least your signature looks like it!

Sorry, slightly .....

The Swedish direct translation to english for a "rare steak" is "a bloody steak", could cause some rised eyebrows in an English restaurant....and an American too, i suppose...Hehe!


Clas

No raised eyebrows here. If you order it bloody, they know you mean rare. Bloody here doesn't carry the same weight as in the UK. It's one of those "cute" English sayings

[Bruno]

Just give me the bloody steak

[I am Spartacus]

TINGO



Borrowing things from a friend's house, one by one, until he has nothing left.




Pascuense language, Easter Island

[netsurfr]

Once went to a Rugby match in England with a number of American coworkers where Wostershire (spelling?) was playing another team.
It was quite amusing to us at first to hear the fans chanting "Go Woos, go Woos!" We quickly determined that the Brits had no similar slang to the American term, woos. Once we explained the slang to our British colleagues, they found it amusing too.