Most of the English television programming I get to watch here is from the UK. I spend a few of my childhood years in England. Back then I remember that white-bearded guy who allegedly brings you presents for Christmas as always being called Father Christmas. Our strict-yet-nice headmistress, who gave me a great big Christmas anthology book when we moved away, would correct us if we called the old man Santa Claus.
It's that time of the year when various organizations around the world drum up a bit of PR for themselves by selecting a Word Of The Year, which is then picked up by news outlets looking for filler.
Let's do a short hop around the world. This year's kanji character of the year in Japan, as selected by the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation in Kyoto, is the one pictured here. Read as Gi or (with an additional hiragana character appended) Itswari, it means "fake" or "lie". It was a year of fakery and lying in Japan, lead by several incidents of food companies using out-of-date ingredients and faking labels, embezzlement scandals, faked up reports on TV, and the like. Not a very positive kind of word to be the One for the year. Last year's word was Life, and 2005's was Love, so I guess you can mark Japan as Mood: Down in 2007. (Japanese news link)
Continue reading "Words of the year 2007: fake, w00t, and death tourism " »
An elderly man approaches the counter in a drugstore in midtown Manhattan. He seems to be Greek, or something Middle Eastern, or in any case not American. His clothes look a bit too old fashioned to be an American, and he is too uncertain of himself to be a world-weary New Yorker.
The store is fairly empty at this time of day, sometime in mid-afternoon on a weekday. There is only one bored cashier. The man is clutching a toothbrush.
"Excuse me Miss, how much?" he says, ever so politely, holding out the plastic packet. The bored girl takes it from him and scans the barcode.
"It's a buck and a quarter" she say, shifting the gum in her mouth. "You wanna buy it?" A look of confusion crosses his face as he looks at her inquisitively.
She does not do a good job in suppressing a sigh of impatience, though she has no other customer to serve. She points wordlessly to the display on the cash register. His face clears. He understands now. He purchases the toothbrush, takes it and the receipt, thanks her to the back of her head, and shuffles out.
Idioms are very hard to understand for non-native speakers. People who aren't used to communicating with different people don't get this, and English speakers are, from what I've seen, the worst. They aren't trying to be inconsiderate, but the result is a confused listener. It doesn't take any more effort to say "a dollar twenty-five", or even "one twenty five", which is far easier to understand.
Recent Comments