Understanding Brits

Alex Graham said:

They love that on the tube: "The delay is caused by a de-trainment in the next station" They make
it sound like an accident, as if the train ceased to be a train - spontaneous combustion?...

Alex

You're assuming that they were trained in the first place.

James

--
A credit limit is NOT a target.

Peter Clinch said:

Try adding "Knick-knack",

"Paddy Whack" is obviously and anti-Irish term so wouldn't go down at all well in NY, NY. As far as
"give the dog a bone" goes, the less said the better. Unless, of course, one is discussing the
merits of AC/DC's music.

James

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A credit limit is NOT a target.

Garry Lee said:

"Oh, he's looking for a [censored]", says the other.

"I'd like to bug a [censored] please?" Never say this, especially if attending a public school. Of course,
a public school is the most private school of all. Most confusing.

I did once hear a probably apochryphal story about an Englishman who was working in New York. He
asked a female American colleague to pass him a rubber. The UK bloke meant an erasor whereas his US
co-worker meant something rather different.

James

--
A credit limit is NOT a target.

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Garry Lee said:

"Oh, he's looking for a [censored]", says the other.

"I'd like to bug a [censored] please?"

bum a [censored], surely?

Quoted message said:

Never say this, especially if attending a public school. Of course, a public school is the most
private school of all. Most confusing.

I did once hear a probably apochryphal story about an Englishman who was working in New York. He
asked a female American colleague to pass him a rubber. The UK bloke meant an erasor whereas his
US co-worker meant something rather different.

There is the, no doubt apocryphal, story of the Black Dyke (Mills) Band playing over in the US
discovering their US audience to have a very different composition to their usual northern English
white male audience when playing at home.

Colin

I worked with an Amerian guy who was very keen to correct my pronunciation of American words,
particularly his name. I went along with this until during a dscussion on food, he said:

"You know, you're not saying that word right. It's actually "parsta". That's how we say it in
the states".

To which I had to reply:

"Yes, but I think you'll find that in Italy they say "pasta".

It took him some time to work out the relevance of Italy to pasta.

"Jerry Neuburger" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I obviously watch way too much public T.V. here in the United States (the home away from home for
the BBC). I can understand almost everything

written

Quoted message said:

on this site. At least as well as I could the girls from AbFab!

al_Mossah said:

"You know, you're not saying that word right. It's actually "parsta". That's how we say it in
the states".

Ask or axe? Who knows? I certainly do.

James

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A credit limit is NOT a target.

Colin Blackburn said:

Quoted message said:

"I'd like to bug a [censored] please?"

bum a [censored], surely?

Being an ex-pubic (deliberate typo here) school bod myself, I do apoligize for the earlier error.

James

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A credit limit is NOT a target.

Michael MacClancy <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Eatmorepies
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Anyway, I have less problem with Americans than with my teenage nephew & niece -- who seem to
speak a completely different argot.

T

Too true. Last year I remarked to one of my upper sixth boys that a particular girl looked fit -
he looked at me askance. I meant that even as a PE student she seemed to have an above average
and efficient cardio-vascular facility. We eventually understood each other.

John

Crikey! How old are you? I'm over 40 and I know (and use) that ambiguity.

I've also heard Calista Flockheart(sp?) described as sharp looking :-)

BugBear

"Colin Blackburn" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:MPG.18f7b164f36f5c689898c6@localhost...

Quoted message said:

There is the, no doubt apocryphal, story of the Black Dyke (Mills) Band playing over in the US
discovering their US audience to have a very different composition to their usual northern English
white male audience when playing at home.

I haven't heard that one. I did suggest to someone that they had been inadvertently been booked for
a festival by hackney council.

In message <[email hidden]>, James Hodson
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Garry Lee said:

"Oh, he's looking for a [censored]", says the other.

"I'd like to bug a [censored] please?" Never say this, especially if attending a public school. Of course,
a public school is the most private school of all. Most confusing.

I did once hear a probably apochryphal story about an Englishman who was working in New York. He
asked a female American colleague to pass him a rubber. The UK bloke meant an erasor whereas his US
co-worker meant something rather different.

James

--
A credit limit is NOT a target.

I've been told new Australian employees often raise smiles in England when they ask, "Anyone got any
Durex?" In Australia it's what they call adhesive tape.
--
Michael MacClancy

Gearóid Ó Laoi said:

It's deeper than you think. An American may not mean what you understand him to mean, and
vice versa.

An American friend of my wife's at university could never understand why people looked shocked when
she talked about her [censored] pack.

Quoted message said:

Another Irish chap I know of could not understand for some weeks the reactions of his workmates in
the US to him until he worked it out. He had been in the habit of saying "I'm going to town on
Saturday cos there's always great crack down there".

Oh, well, I have more trouble with the Irish than with Merkins ;-)

(Smiley aside, I mean it. Irish people and those from the South of England, like myself, tend to use
the English language in completely different ways. I find similar problems with the Welsh, and
people from Yorkshire or Lancaster).

--
Danny Colyer (remove safety to reply) ( juggler.netdannyOpen ↗ ) Recumbent cycle page:
speedy5.freeserve.co.ukrecumbentsOpen ↗ "He who dares not offend cannot be honest." -
Thomas Paine

While stranded on the hard shoulder of the information super highway
[email hidden] typed:

Quoted message said:

I've been told new Australian employees often raise smiles in England when they ask, "Anyone got
any Durex?" In Australia it's what they call adhesive tape.

We have Coon cheese in Oz too, so named 'cus it was developed by a Mr Coon. I know that this has
caused offence to some visitors to God's own country.

Once upon a time, prostitutes used to ply their trade on street

To leave a building, we used to follow a sign saying "exit". At most railway stations here in
PommieLand, and on the tube in London, we now follow the sign saying "Way Out". Was this decision to
use this decided by someone who was at Woodstock or the Isle of Wight Festival? Very flower power.
My favourite are signs that say "Traffic Calming". I often wonder if this means that there is free
valium available for drivers. Judging by the standard of driving I would suggest there is.

--
Trog Woolley | trog at trog hyphen oz dot demon dot co dot uk (A Croweater back residing in Pommie
Land with Linux) Isis Astarte Diana Hecate Demeter Kali Inanna

In "]news:[email hidden], Trog Woolley <[email hidden]> typed:

Quoted message said:

At most railway stations here in PommieLand, and on the tube in London, we now follow the sign
saying "Way Out". Was this decision to use this decided by someone who was at Woodstock or the
Isle of Wight Festival? Very flower power.

I think it *is* one of those "quaint" British customs; but perhaps "Way Out" is deemed to be the
*normal* and *civilised* way one would leave a public building; whilst an "Exit" is something one
would use if required to leave a public building in haste; for instance if it were on fire!

Quoted message said:

My favourite are signs that say "Traffic Calming". I often wonder if this means that there is free
valium available for drivers. Judging by the standard of driving I would suggest there is.

There are several which say "Beware of Cyclists" when shared use paths cross the entrances to
pedestrianised zones of town centres.

Alex

Trog Woolley said:

To leave a building, we used to follow a sign saying "exit". At most railway stations here in
PommieLand, and on the tube in London, we now follow the sign saying "Way Out".

Thank God we are not Romans who would leave through the Vomitorium :-(

Wallsend Metro signs have been redone Latin with "vomitorium" for the exit.
icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.ukpage.cfmOpen ↗
4584&method=full&siteid=50081

Tony

--
raven-family.comraven-family.comOpen ↗

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt
the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." George Bernard Shaw

In "]news:[email hidden], Tony Raven <[email hidden]> typed:

Quoted message said:

Thank God we are not Romans who would leave through the Vomitorium :-(

You've obviously never been to Reading "City" Centre of a weekend then.

Incidentally there's one shared use path which forms part of the Kennetside "towpath", now part of
the Oracle centre and . I rarely use it (too much pedestrian traffic and IMO an unsuitable road
surface with too many collision opportunities); but friends do ; often I ask them "did you ride here
via Gin Lane?" (after Hogarth's painting).

Alex

In article <[email hidden]>, James Hodson
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

al_Mossah said:

"You know, you're not saying that word right. It's actually "parsta". That's how we say it in the
states".

Ask or axe? Who knows? I certainly do.

Or arks, even.

--
congokid Eating out in London? Read my tips... congokid.comcongokid.comOpen ↗

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

In message <[email hidden]>, Eatmorepies
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Too true. Last year I remarked to one of my upper sixth boys that a particular girl looked fit -
he looked at me askance. I meant that even as a PE student she seemed to have an above average
and efficient cardio-vascular facility. We eventually understood each other.

John

Crikey! How old are you? I'm over 40 and I know (and use) that ambiguity.

I find this one is usually okay because of context. At the end of a fell race I can quite happily
comment on some woman finishing that, "she looks pretty fit," without anyone misunderstanding me. If
I said the same thing in a pub about a woman seated opposite it would probably be meant and
interpreted the other way.

Colin

Peter Clinch <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Colin Blackburn said:

I tried "fantasy island" "ze" "bus", but got a lot of dutch web pages about holidays in Hawaii.

<TEDIOUS_EXPLANATION> Fantasy Island was a [censored] 70s TV show

One of many from said decade, unfortunately, which I was unlucky enough to have caught the tail-end
of. TV Cream (tv.cream.orgtv.cream.orgOpen ↗) has lovingly catalogued most of the culprits (Cheggers Plays Pop,
anyone?) for posterity.

David E. Belcher

Dept. of Chemistry, University of York