Lost in Translation--US vs UK English words

[NewGuise]

People can say that that word has spread world-wide, but if Americans and Kiwis and Aussies and Brits don't know what touque means, that claim has little validity. As I said, we had a group of all of the above talking about it at Disneyland and no one but the Canadians had ever heard of touque.

Yet I have personally seen "touques" (or "toques" or "tucques"...) for sale in England, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and South Africa, as well as in New York City (if no where else in the USA), whch does give some validity to the claim. The shop owners might well have been Canadians in all cases, for all I know, but any buyers would likewise have learned the term.

[starbkjrus]

Ok all I freely admit I helped yank this one off the tracks a bit so along with several others let me help it the other way....

I also admit I've sat on the Chesterfield at my Mother-In-Law's wearing a Chesterfield after coming in from the cold and dripping gravy and cheese off my touque all over the furniture. BUT that was only after a bad situation involving hockey and beer.

Now --YANK-- back to UK'isms and er..perhaps NORTH American'isms. Ten years married to a Canadian has brought some laughter on the same subject.

I, for one am enjoying this thread a lot. Back to UK English vs. American English and add Canada to it.

Keep it going. opcorn: int: int:

[Lachlan09]

German soldiers in WW2 also wore what they called a toque which was a form of simple knitted hood / scarf open at each end and pulled over the head and neck to form a type of balaklava.

There is a good photo of a Waffen SS soldier in winter combat dress on the Eastern Front, cigarette hanging from his mouth, wearing a toque under his stahlhelm. Another famous photo of a Waffen SS infantry squad leader during the Ardennes Offensive of December 1944 aka Battle of the Bulge (part of a piece of German combat newsreel film I think of the 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler") shows him armed with a Sturmgewehr-44, leading on his men through burning American tanks and vehicles, wearing the 1944 pattern SS cotton camouflage suit with other clothing underneath for warmth. He is wearing his 1942 pattern stahlhelm over a toque.

[fluter]

I'm impressed that so many understood what poutine is,

This is a crowd that likes to eat, as you may have noticed.

... what in the USA is known as a stocking or knit hat, and in the UK is called "that dreadful French peasant thing

If so, then the joke's on them: my favorite one has an English Heritage logo on the front.

[St. Amish]

When I was stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC (about ten years ago), I was seated at a dining facility between a French soldier who was speaking very good English, with a heavy French accent, and a Scottish soldier, speaking English with a heavy Scottish accent. While they were both speaking "English", neither could understand the other at all. I ended up translating English to English for these two guys for the duration of the meal.

[rocscotjoe]

Reminds me of when I lived in Vermont, a friend from the Northeast Kingdom who spoke French encountered a gendarme while traveling with friends in France, they were stopped and she engaged him in her patois from the North Country. The French cop leaned i nto the car and asked, "Does anyone here speak French?"

Apparently the US and UK are not the only two countries separated by a common language!

[Lachlan09]

Something similar happened to my wife some years ago. We were in a restaurant, on holiday in Cebu, Philippines and my wife ordered some food in Tagalog, her first language – she’s a Manila girl. The waitress replied in local Cebuano language. As neither could understand the other, they turned to English. I was amused to see 2 Filipinas speaking English to each other in the Philippines.

[Lachlan09]

****** (US) = gay man (perj.)
****** (UK) = beef/onion meatball in gravy; piece of firewood

Being a family site, you work out the potential English/American confusion.