English language

[Susofrick]

Must be! But I don't remember Bod being 1/72. Hmm, but I was smaller then.

[Paul]

Must be! But I don't remember Bod being 1/72. Hmm, but I was smaller then.

On my parents little black and white set he was sometimes 1/72nd, sometimes 1/32nd...all sorts of sizes. Either he couldn´t keep still or there were lots of bods who all looked the same.

[Valion]

And then the difference between American, English, Aussie English Native English???????

Eg. Lorry=Brit, Truck=American Eng.
Better to use the original English anyway.

You forgot about
Cart=What Aussies believe to be a truck / lorry...
Sorry, I couldn't resist that ugly joke.
I have NOTHING against Australia, but this needed to be written.

[Zozan]

@ Paul: Thanks for the explanation
The clip is quite funny, had to laugh loudly, although I'm alone... get mad...

[west1871]

Okay people of many nations,
Here is a quick tutorial for a few words commonly used in English that you wont find in the dictionary,

1 This is really good=the dogs boll@cks,the business,blinding,chusdi,cracking and top banana.

2 This is not very good=Boll@cks,pony(pony and trap=crap)bobbins and gash.

3 Person,man=dude,bod,geezer,bloke,old boy,chap and gent.

4 Food=grub,nosh,fuel,scran,tucker and din dins

5 Mad=bonkers,off his head,mad as a box of frogs,barking,off his trolley and cuckoo.

Hope this helps

[musketier]

no wonder I heard the saying the English and Americans are only separated by the same language hehe.

[Zozan]

@ west1871 :

Top banana

[Phersu]

italian sometimes is difficult to translate in english..
we have to many words for the same things..
but if there is not the worldwide knowledge of english we can speak latin..
the old universal language of the west world..

There's a bit of latin more or less in all european languages, probably more than english, but it's f...ing harder than english to learn and speack, and it's the official vatican national (worlwide) language.
There could be arab and chinese too, or shall we try to learn esperanto?
No thanks, let's keep the well established english, it's more functional (in fact it works)

Translating english into italian sometimes is hard too, like all the different languages, and even dialects I suppose...
We mentioned the differences between the various english mother languages localizations, and how about the other foreigners localizations?
The important is to communicate, some misunderstanding is unavoidable but it can bring often occasions to make a good laugh!

As the unforgettable Roberto Benigni:
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

I have a couple of friends, one from Germany and the other from Sudan.
They live in Italy from years and they speak italian well and clearly, but they learnt the florentine dialect rather than proper italian, and somehow they kept a bit of their native language inflections, all this make them sound quite funny.
And we italians can sound very funny too when speak some broken english...

Do you know the italian who went to Malta?

[url]<object><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q12xdeNC0LA"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Q12xdeNC0LA" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></object>[/url]

Not all italians sound like him, it'a stereotype, but not so uncommon anyway.
When I spoke english my ex girlfriend said I sounded more like Borat...

[Zozan]

Hehe, it's not only an international problem, the language...

Probably most of you know this clip already, but so what...



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[metoo]

Since I'm a minority here I'm also happy this is in English, though sometimes my English is from old blues records and Mickey Mouse comics (from the 30s ) . But Remco says he understands the Swedish chef so I don't think there would be a problem if I started to write in Swedish.

I would love to learn my forefathers language

[Paul]

Okay people of many nations,
Here is a quick tutorial for a few words commonly used in English that you wont find in the dictionary,

1 This is really good=the dogs boll@cks,the business,blinding,chusdi,cracking and top banana.

2 This is not very good=Boll@cks,pony(pony and trap=crap)bobbins and gash.

3 Person,man=dude,bod,geezer,bloke,old boy,chap and gent.

4 Food=grub,nosh,fuel,scran,tucker and din dins

5 Mad=bonkers,off his head,mad as a box of frogs,barking,off his trolley and cuckoo.

Hope this helps

For number 4 you forgot snap you southern **+@!!
Food = brekky,
Really good = Pucka, ace, bobby-dazzler, peng, waxa,
Person/man = mush, lad (female lad-ette), chav (chavette)
Not very good = minging, boggin, brammer, shite,
Mad = loopy, airhead, apeth, hatstand,wally, headcase, head-banger, wacko,

[west1871]

Cheers Paul...you northern monkey

[monty]

Okay people of many nations,
Here is a quick tutorial for a few words commonly used in English that you wont find in the dictionary,

1 This is really good=the dogs boll@cks,the business,blinding,chusdi,cracking and top banana.

2 This is not very good=Boll@cks,pony(pony and trap=crap)bobbins and gash.

3 Person,man=dude,bod,geezer,bloke,old boy,chap and gent.

4 Food=grub,nosh,fuel,scran,tucker and din dins

5 Mad=bonkers,off his head,mad as a box of frogs,barking,off his trolley and cuckoo.

Hope this helps

For number 4 you forgot snap you southern **+@!!
Food = brekky,
Really good = Pucka, ace, bobby-dazzler, peng, waxa,
Person/man = mush, lad (female lad-ette), chav (chavette)
Not very good = minging, boggin, brammer, shite,
Mad = loopy, airhead, apeth, hatstand,wally, headcase, head-banger, wacko,

you both forgot a couple (Bl***y northeners and south westerners)
Food = slop, gruel
Really good = brill, top notch
Mad = lost his marbles
Person/man = mate

[Phersu]

I find this new translator...

http://mackers.com/alig/

[Dad's Army]

Me Jully, me bitch

LOL

[Tantallon2]

no wonder I heard the saying the English and Americans are only separated by the same language hehe.

The quote is from Churchill and what he actually said was:"America and Britain are two great nations separated by a common language".

He also said "That America can always be counted on to do the right thing..once it had exhausted all other options".

I too am very glad that this forum is in English. It used to be thought that the language of heaven was Gaelic (Scots Gaelic of course). One of the Scottish kings (James the VI I think) decided to test this so he put two new born twins on an island off the Scottish east coast with a nurse to look after them who was dumb (ie couldn't speak), the thinking being that whatever language they learnt to speak would be the original language and thus the language of heaven.

Not a bad experimental design but unfortunately the nurse and the twins all perished in a great winter storm before the twins had spoken a word.

At international science gatherings we always discus three subjects: beer, international politics and language. Doesn't matter what the conference is about these three subjects will come up. It is a constant fascination as to why languages evolve and differentiate so quickly. It would seem to be counter productive to human understanding.

A return to latin would be difficult as we would have to make new Latin words for all the inventions that have been made since then. Let's stick to English!

[Paul]

It is a constant fascination as to why languages evolve and differentiate so quickly. It would seem to be counter productive to human understanding.

I think it aids human developement. It is said that the germans have a poor sense of humour.... there is a Different sense of humour, equally funny as an english speaking one but for different reasons´.
There are of course jokes which are funny in both but there are jokes based on say, word play that are only funny in one or the other language. Nothing to do with translation difficulties, just that the meaning is understood better in one or the other language due to the perspective of the world through the eyes of the particular language.

This means that german mother tongue speakers see the world in a slightly different way to English mother tongue speakers and have a different take on it, seeing solutions maybe where another sees problems and visa versa.

Does anyone really understand anyone else on a deep level anyway???


I know that even if I was to live here till the end of my days, I will never ever 100% understand the deeper contexts of the language, even if I can now run rings around people here by "re-using" the language and introducing a fine sense of british irony to all I meet.

[je_touche]

I too am very glad that this forum is in English. It used to be thought that the language of heaven was Gaelic (Scots Gaelic of course). One of the Scottish kings (James the VI I think) decided to test this so he put two new born twins on an island off the Scottish east coast with a nurse to look after them who was dumb (ie couldn't speak), the thinking being that whatever language they learnt to speak would be the original language and thus the language of heaven.

Not a bad experimental design but unfortunately the nurse and the twins all perished in a great winter storm before the twins had spoken a word.

Emperor Frederick II is said to have done a similar thing in the 13th century. He let a couple of babies grow up in a dungeon and prohibited everyone to talk to them to see which language they would use. Unfortunately, the kids perished from neglect or disease.

A return to latin would be difficult as we would have to make new Latin words for all the inventions that have been made since then. Let's stick to English!

This is being done all the time by a special language department in the Vatican. Nonetheless, I am not keen on returning to Latin either.

[bilsonius]

"...German mother tongue speakers see the world in a slightly different way to English mother tongue speakers..."

Ach so! - the famous Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, nicht wahr?

Incidentally, with regard to the experiments of Fred II and Jimmy IV to determine the Language of Heaven, IIRC the betting at Ladbrokes was heavily in favour of it being Hebrew...

[Paul]

"...German mother tongue speakers see the world in a slightly different way to English mother tongue speakers..."

Ach so! - the famous Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, nicht wahr?

Bloody good stuff that Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.
This is now reflected in the "new speak" of particularily the British political classes.
Phew !! Anthropology!!? What next...Analytical philosophy ???