I think this isn't exclusive to Americans. Also I think this shows perfectly how there is a positive and negative perspective on everything, with which you could relabel the columns most of the time.
American Phrase Book
91–100 of 177 posts
Re: American Phrase Book
#92I'd love to see one of these for Australian English, although I don't think it would be possible. Aussies have a love of metaphor a simile that's unmatched in any other dialect of English, especially if you hang out with bogans (basically Australian Rednecks, for lack of a better description). It's basically the opposite of America, where instead of trying to be excessively polite, we try to be excessively offensive.…
“Not bad” - something is pretty good, or at least better than expected. Had to laugh when I saw that phrase on the linked page.
“Not bad at all” - something is really good
“Munted” - trashed or unserviceable
Re: American Phrase Book
#93I'd love to see one of these for Australian English, although I don't think it would be possible. Aussies have a love of metaphor a simile that's unmatched in any other dialect of English, especially if you hang out with bogans (basically Australian Rednecks, for lack of a better description). It's basically the opposite of America, where instead of trying to be excessively polite, we try to be excessively offensive.…
"Seppo" => American Seems related to the cockney rhyming slang: Septic tank = Yank http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/slang/septic_tank
Dropkick => A child friendly version of wanker
Punt -> football for dropping and kicking
Cunt.
Re: American Phrase Book
#94This is a fun list! Let me add two of my personal favorites: "Literally", which means "figuratively". "I could care less", which literally means "I couldn't care less". https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/misuse-of-lite... https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/01/i-could-care-less... Edit: I feel like a party pooper saying this, but I see a few comments where people may be taking this phrasebook seriously…
I use literally as incorrectly as I can as a joke, but I probably just sound like a moron. I think that is true of most my jokes though.
No, the dictionaries have been updated recently - you can pretty much use 'literally' however you want!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/10240917/Uproar-as-OED...
Re: American Phrase Book
#95There is a British English version of this, which has been around on the internet for a few years.
A friend of my partner's, who works at a high level in the European commission told us that it is passed around in diplomatic circles as a (non-ironic) instruction manual.
The American/British preference for avoiding direct communication is apparently not normal in Europe at all, and causes a lot of confusion amongst people who are unfamiliar with the layered meanings.
Re: American Phrase Book
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is not helpful for a Dutch person like me (who are usually very direct) While we are at this, I think Dutch people should work on being less "direct", and also try to improve their sentence construction when writing English. Plenty of my (former) Dutch coworkers' emails in English just came across as rude, in both senses of that word.
Hows your Dutch sentence construction?
I mean, if we're going down that road, might as well go one step back and ask how the Dutch fellow's understanding of Indian culture is.
In any case, these are things you learn once. After that, the better you are at navigating the differences, the more successful you'll be. After all, it's low probability that you'll reform (in your mind) another culture and high probability that you can improve your ability to win. So might as well chase the win by modifying the self every time.
Re: American Phrase Book
#97My favorite is “literally” which really means “figuratively” these days.
Re: American Phrase Book
#98As a non American, I sometimes just enjoy deliberately messing a bit with Americans when they utter these expressions, by doing it over the top. Someone meeting me for some boring work related thingie: "Hi! How are you doing?" Me: "Super awesome, thanks so much for asking! Super excited to meet you and discuss this!". They probably think I'm crazy and/or are not sure what to make of it, so it's fun to see the puzzled…
:D MMD
Re: American Phrase Book
#99How about "with all due respect". It means "no respect is due to you for this absolutely idiotic opinion you have tendered you insufferable clown"
Re: American Phrase Book
#100Yup. One of the great mysteries of the world is how Americans think they are so straightforward and direct and honest... and then they ask a German if their butt looks big in these pants, and burst into tears on hearing the answer. On a mildly more serious note, I remember well my first ever serious business meeting in the US, where we pitched a potential joint venture to another company. 30 minutes of mutual praise…
This is something of a misunderstanding of American culture. It's far more complex than can be summarized in a HN comment, but it's more accurate to say that American culture prides itself on accessibility, egalitarianism, and a "lack of barriers" more than directness, defined as pure unfiltered honesty, per se.
A good example to illustrate this phenomenon: in most American cities, it is considered fairly normal, even expected, to talk to strangers on the bus, in the street, in line at the grocery store. There is no mental "barrier" to overcome in the public sphere. However, one is typically expected to be polite and not overly direct while interacting with strangers.
The same activity, contrarily, is borderline verboten in German culture. The typical German will rarely engage in spontaneous conversation with a stranger, even if he/she would be extremely direct (in American terms) if such a conversation were to occur.