British > foreign translator

[OC Richard]

This is hilarious and probably contains quite a bit of truth. What do our British XMarkers say?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...ernet-hit.html

I would think that things like this colour our conversations here more often than we realise

[frank_a]

I needed a good laugh this morning. Thanks Richard! Cheers! Frank

[Jock Scot]

That doesn't sound too bad to me.

These trans-Atlantic misunderstandings can sadly have unintended tragic consequences. In the Korean War at the Battle of Imjin ,an American General asked The Commanding Officer Of the Gloucestershire Regiment, Lt. Col. Carne, how the battle was going the reply came over the radio that "things are a bit tricky at the moment", the conversation was then cut short to which the American assumed that all was well in battle terms, had the General understood he could have easily called for artillery support. In fact the "Glosters"(some 800 men) were completely surrounded by some 60,000 very angry and determined Chinese soldiers and were about to be over-run after a three day battle. Colonel Carne and many of his men were taken prisoner and were treated pretty badly by their captors until the war came to an end. He was later awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions and the Gloucestershire Regiment were awarded a Presidential Unit Citation(USA) for their bravery. That honour is still worn on the sleeve of one of the present day Battalions of The Rifles, which amalgamated with other Regiments to form the present day, Rifles. Sad but true all this may be, it cannot be considered to be anyones fault.

[JohntheBiker]

I work in government developing policy. We make Brits seem pointed and direct.

Thanks Richard for this.

[Laird_M]

Classic!

[Grizzly]

With the greatest respect Richard the article was very interesting and I'll bear it in mind.

Also that if we add a .......not! at the end of that sentence it has a reverse meaning or does it?

[Father Bill]

But... they failed to include "cottaging!"

[neloon]

I think it's sometimes minor or major nuances in the meanings of terms that can cause difficulties. We can all cope with with sidewalk/pavement, etc., but Jock Scot has recently pointed out how "hunting" has a very different meaning here and in the US. Elsewhere, "cottaging" was discussed. Even "Highland Games" really does not mean quite the same on opposite sides of the Atlantic. And North American perceptions of "The Clan" are generally a long way from the Scottish perspective. And so misunderstandings can arise.
Alan

[Father Bill]

As a subsequent, deeper, and probably more useful thought than my earlier post in this thread, it occurs to me that when I was a youngster, a "streak" was a smudge on a window or a long light moving through the night sky. As a young adult, the same word signified someone running naked across a stage or for example, through a basketball court. Now as I approach retirement for the second time in my life, I discover that it again means a smudge on a window, or a fast moving item.

Similarly, without inviting discussions of sexuality, the word "gay" has undergone a major redefinition in my life time, and again, without inviting religious discussion, I've discovered that the word "believing" has moved over the last couple of centuries from "trusting" to "accepting the factuality" of someone or something - a tiny but critically important distinction in my current field of theological endeavour.

There are many words whose meanings change over time as well as place, and we may also occasionally miscue between generations as well as continents. Even public figures change their import and value. I was a teenager in the 60s. (Yes, I'm freely dating myself.) As a young teacher in the 70s I was amused and shocked when one of my eleven-year-old students asked me with great excitement whether I knew that Paul McCartney had played in another band before "Wings."

Each generation establishes its own norms and understanding of those norms. Things I consider horrible and egregious such as today's invasions of privacy well beyond electronic spy-snooping are considered normal by teens and twenty-somethings. I'm so grateful to have lived a mostly boring life - boring to those who might want to scrape something up on me. Similarly, it's a blessing to have a plain name. Go ahead: do an Internet search for "Bill White." You may have a hard time sussing out the few listings that are mine, and many of you have come to know me well enough.

As a former English teacher, I remember teaching at a French Immersion school back somewhere around 1990 give or take some. That year two interesting events coincided, and were informative by their co-incidence. As I remember it, the Academie Francaise published their complete dictionary of the French language in four volumes. The same year, Oxford re-issued the Complete Oxford Dictionary in... forty volumes. I have a great love of both French (which I speak poorly) and English (which I daily try to speak better) but regardless of the size of print, page, margin, or bindings, the fact remains that English is one of the world's largest languages. My more perfectly bilingual colleagues at the time agreed with me that compared to French, the vocabulary of the English language is massive. That allows for variations and nuance that we cannot begin to imagine, and from whose errors we must be continually on the defense.

An instructive exercise! Thanks for reminding us that dictionaries are not necessarily either international nor timeless.

Here endeth the lesson!

Bill+

[Pleater]

Although streak as a verb is fading, streaker seems to have remained. Having sprung into being to describe the naked runner it has stuck.

Anne the Pleater :ootd: