Re: British English and things that are commonly misunderstood
Little mistakes in translation amuse me too..............like an au pair who, when asked where my kids were, told me : 'the children are in the garden playing with themselves'!!
She then added that she was going into the town to get her hairs cut!!
Re: British English and things that are commonly misunderstood
Our Swiss au-pair in the UK said on her first day 'I've raped all the carrots, what would you like me to do now?' - well, as a Romande myself, I twigged straight away (raper = to grate) - but my Brit OH was a tad surprised.
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We're not worried about causing offence. The aim is to be devastatingly offensive, but using words of absolute civility and politeness. It's rudeness that we avoid, because it's so gauche. The kind of thing colonials get up to.
This point is well captured by Reginald - skip to around 1'30" (or watch it all)...
The following 3 users would like to thank Carlos R for this useful post:
Indeed. Americans write very different emails from Brits:
British email:
American email:
I'm very American, I usually skip the niceties and get down to business. I've been trying to be more cordials in my e-mails, but it is hard. I'm also from the East Coast, people tend to be far more curt than most Americans from the south or interior (what we call "Fly Over Country"). It will be interesting working in a Swiss environment with a German boss, a British colleague (who lived over half his life in Germany)... :-O
This user would like to thank AmericanGotWorkVisa for this useful post:
I'm very American, I usually skip the niceties and get down to business.
I used to work for a computer co. near Boston.. I'll never forget when we got a new wonder-kid as a director... he called me in and asked how long an average phone call was... "oh.. 5-10 mins, I'll phone, say hello ask about the weather, etc".. then get on to the matter at hand (emergency logistics/parts ordering)
he told me I didnt need to do that.. just tell the person what I needed and get on to the next call.
our order fill rate went down 15% that month until I got another call in from the director....
__________________ Champagne don't make me crazy...
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Re: British English and things that are commonly misunderstood
Quote:
Our Swiss au-pair in the UK said on her first day 'I've raped all the carrots, what would you like me to do now?' - well, as a Romande myself, I twigged straight away (raper = to grate) - but my Brit OH was a tad surprised.
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