That Ol' Language Thing
I`m staying with a friend who has a cook. Lovely food is placed in front of me at regular intervals.
I could get very used to this.
Anyway, this post isn`t about the wonderful food, but about what another of my friends said last week while she was over here eating it.
This particular friend is British, and said, "I`m just going to step out into your garden and have a fag."
My friend hosting the party and I looked at each other. We knew what she meant, but in America, a fag is something entirely different. A woman would not have one, in a garden or anywhere else.
Yesterday, I was at this British friend`s house, and my nose was dripping. "Let me get you some bog roll!" she said, and I was relieved when she appeared with a roll of toilet paper and not some strips of tree bark or swamp matter.
I told her we Americans were all amused by her fag comment, and she was incredulous. "You mean you don`t call them fags?"
I also told her she was the only human I had ever met who used the exclamation, "Blimey!" just like a character in a book.
"Do I really say that?" she asked.
"You say it about once a month," confirmed one of her young sons.
"You also say, 'Bloody Hell!'" said her other son.
"Don`t you ever say that! It`s very rude" she told him.
I assured him that when he grows up, he can go to America and say it all he wants, and nobody would think he was rude.
That is, as long as he doesn`t leave any fag butts in our gardens.
I could get very used to this.
Anyway, this post isn`t about the wonderful food, but about what another of my friends said last week while she was over here eating it.
This particular friend is British, and said, "I`m just going to step out into your garden and have a fag."
My friend hosting the party and I looked at each other. We knew what she meant, but in America, a fag is something entirely different. A woman would not have one, in a garden or anywhere else.
Yesterday, I was at this British friend`s house, and my nose was dripping. "Let me get you some bog roll!" she said, and I was relieved when she appeared with a roll of toilet paper and not some strips of tree bark or swamp matter.
I told her we Americans were all amused by her fag comment, and she was incredulous. "You mean you don`t call them fags?"
I also told her she was the only human I had ever met who used the exclamation, "Blimey!" just like a character in a book.
"Do I really say that?" she asked.
"You say it about once a month," confirmed one of her young sons.
"You also say, 'Bloody Hell!'" said her other son.
"Don`t you ever say that! It`s very rude" she told him.
I assured him that when he grows up, he can go to America and say it all he wants, and nobody would think he was rude.
That is, as long as he doesn`t leave any fag butts in our gardens.
posted by L. at 5:28 PM
9 Comments:
I worked a couple summers at an electronics company where one of the machinists was British. He used the expressin "blimey" a lot. Ofter after closing his car's bonnet.
well, remember what happened when I used 'fag'. bloody hell, all hell broke loose.
My husband's last roommate before we got married was British, and I could not convince him that tea could be served WITHOUT milk and sugar. It was like asking him to commit a mortal sin.
He also used to say "snippets and pippets" for odds and ends, which my husband appropriated and still uses.
Nothing like a fag while watching a bit o' footie on the telly at a friend's gaff.
(Canadian here, but some of my best friends are ENGLISH!)
When Basil and I and three friends went to visit another friend in Edinburgh, I felt like we needed an interpreter half the time between the thick accents and the Scotland-isms. I finally had to step in and save a friend of ours at the local McDonalds (yes, we went all the way to Edinburgh to get some McMuffins before catching the train up to the Highlands) when the clerk kept asking repeatedly, "Eat in or take away? Eat in or take away?"
And they really do say, "Aye, aye."
I wonder what we Americans say that the rest of the English-speaking world finds funny. (Tertia? Anyone?)
Oh, I know one! That pouch you wear around your waist for wallet and keys and whatnot? It is NOT a "fanny pack". Nuh-uh. Ask a Brit what a "fanny" is, I dare ya.
My grandad used to come out with "Shit, damn, and bloody HELL!" when he was really annoyed about something.
Sometimes I say it, too. Always makes me smile... :-)
Hahaha. Yes, it's taken me years not to reflexively jump when I hear that. And I work for a British company, so I hear it a lot.
My favorite example of language differences like this came when I visited Jersey (the island off France, not the state off New York). In a grocery store freezer case, I saw a box of "Mrs. Paul's All-Beef Faggots." It was meatballs, I believe...
One of my favorites was a friend of a friend from south of London (iirc) who went into a store, here in San Francisco, and asked for a pencil with a rubber on it.
I've written before about my inability to go to Wales and order the Welsh dish "faggots and peas" without dissolving into uncontrollable laughter.
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