Friday, 27 August 2010

Cross Cultural Phrases...or lack of!

When living abroad you inevitably find yourself having to explain certain words or phrases you may use each and every day but have never ever even been heard of by the indigenous population.

In America the most common and widely known confusion surrounds the English meanings of 'pants' and 'fanny' ~ Either side of The Pond we both have our own meanings and when discussed it always raises a snigger.

Then there is the fringe/bangs thing......I personally cannot see why you would call a hair fringe a 'bangs' there is no logical explanation. A 'fringe' is like a border and frames your face which makes perfect sense to me, a 'bangs' does neither. Or does it? Where does this phrase come from?

A friend recently asked me how long we were going on holiday for. To which I replied a 'fortnight'. She looked blank and quickly I had to decipher the phrase that we English never even probably think about and frequently use. Errrr 14 nights.

So imagine this scenario. An attractive, talented American lady Vice President visits an English factory. A very enthusiatic manager introduces her to the entire workforce and begins his welcome speech. He then utters this very typical English phrase....

"Well that's enough from me, let me hand over so you can hear it 'Straight from the horse's mouth'.

~ That will be a Deathly Silence then ~
(I think that phrase is pretty universal!)

1 comment:

  1. love it! i've been trying to come up with a list of the funny phrases ... although here most of the similarities are likely the same with the British and the Indian slang, right?

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