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This blog is written in en-GB

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Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#131

Post by hennell »

I think idioms and cultural references are fine - the rest of the world has worked out what US baseball and football cliches likely mean, people can decode most references with context.

But there are some interesting issues with UK US english, things like 'quite' which works in different ways in each locale. I was also very surprised to discover the difference in what we consider a frown - which makes a lot more sense of the US 'turn that frown upside down'. Interestingly my uncle who'd lived in the US ~20 years had never uncovered that difference till I asked him about it.

So it's good to know differences - especially when you want communication to be clear.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#132

Post by dofm »

blenderob wrote: post #46

I read several blogs that use British English, including this OP's blog. Some of my favourite blogs in my RSS reader are British English blogs, or at least they use British English spellings and grammar. I find their use of the English language very charming and funny in a unique way. It surprises me that anyone would feel entitled to ask a blogger to change the variety of English they use. American English is only o…

Right. As a Brit I am entitled to think we speak the best version (because we do; ISE is a close second) but I am not entitled to believe everyone else's is wrong, because that is ahistorical. They have diverged repeatedly and thus ours is one of the divergences.

Much of British English was standardised long after several waves of the US settlers left our shores, so US english has some traits of pre-standardised English dialects, and ours is different again.

It's equally silly when some Americans claim their English is closer to the "true" English as a result, because, again, there was really no standardised "true" English when they left.

Along with some simplifications and some things reintroduced from german settlers, it has some traits of older English that the British abandoned in our own simplification of the language.

Is ours the best? Of course it bloody is :-) But is it "true" English? No more than anyone else's. That is the enormous power of English.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#133

Post by dkdbejwi383 »

dijit wrote: post #45
biofox wrote: post #28

I am the only Brit in the department I work in. No one gets the cultural references or British idioms I use, and I've found myself significantly changing the language I use to a very utilitarian and direct style to prevent the endless blank stares... reading this blog post just made me realise that this self-editing has made my interactions rather more 'flat' and unnatural, as they now lack spontaneity, with everythi…

I live in Sweden (and have for 11 years), a lot of the "charm" in my speech has been filed away, I speak in a very neutral accent (which barely registers as british anymore) and I use americanisms a lot, avoiding "false friends". (IE; I never use the word "chip" to mean crisps or fries - I will instead use "Crisps", despite it being british, and fries, despite it being American; in order to avoid ambiguity.) The more…

> (IE; I never use the word "chip" to mean crisps or fries - I will instead use "Crisps", despite it being british, and fries, despite it being American; in order to avoid ambiguity.)

In Australia we don't care about ambiguity or clarity and refer to both the thin sliced cold things and freshly fried rectangular ones as "chips"

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#134

Post by AnimalMuppet »

card_zero wrote: post #32
egwor wrote: post #14

I think that by exploring how different cultures and languages communicate about things opens the mind. There are concepts that can't be easily/succinctly explained in English but can in other languages. I think that we should be encouraging such breadth of thought because it allows us to appreciate new aspects of the world we live in.

Nobody's ever been able to explain to me what those concepts are, so I don't believe it.

OK, here's one: My wife grew up in Latin America. Sometimes, instead of saying "I knocked it over", they say what literally translates to "it fell itself to me". Same idea - it fell - but hey, not my fault, it just happened.

Here's another: "fíjese". It kind of means "you'd never guess what happened". It's like "something that was completely unpredictable and totally outside my control happened, and it negatively affected my ability to do what I was trying to do", except with a lot fewer syllables.

Here's one going the other way: I was talking to a systems engineer about a specific issue, and I said that "we might be able to sweep that under someone else's rug". He was from Russia, and didn't have "sweeping it under the rug" as an idiom, and so didn't know what sweeping it under someone else's rug might mean.

Now, none of these are things that you can't say in another language or culture. You can. They're just a lot more unwieldy to say, and so people express that idea a lot less frequently.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#135

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

physicsguy wrote: post #125
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #38

I was raised by an English mum[0] (scouse, to be precise -actually, her mum was scouse, me mum was posh). I've traveled all over the world, and the one place that I've had the most difficulty understanding, was London. Cockney is hard . It's not just the patois. It's the cultural references and slang. [0] https://cmarshall.com/miscellaneous/SheilaMarshall.htm

Not many Cockneys in London these days, they're all in Essex

There were reasons that I was hanging with a crowd that was heavily informed by cockneys.

I tend to hang with … interesting … people.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#136

Post by ChrisRR »

sejje wrote: post #107

> [Twinkies] seemed like an unappealing foodstuff which, nevertheless, were inexplicably popular. Well, there's the counterpoint to the whole post. You don't know what Twinkies are.

Brit here. I spent decades hearing about twinkies from US TV so I had to finally try one.

It was the blandest, most solid chunk of cake with a flavourless blob of sugar in the middle.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#137

Post by BigTTYGothGF »

jerf wrote: post #35

"This blog is written in en-GB" Excuse me, but I believe you meant to say this bloug is written in en-GB. More seriously... you know, 30 or 40 years ago, I can sort of understand this attitude. Today, in the amount of time it takes you to complain, you could have popped the word into Google or something instead and learned what it was instead. Probably in less than the amount of time it took you to complain for an on…

> bloug

* blogue

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#138

Post by throwaway2037 »

vitally3643 wrote: post #67
blenderob wrote: post #46

I read several blogs that use British English, including this OP's blog. Some of my favourite blogs in my RSS reader are British English blogs, or at least they use British English spellings and grammar. I find their use of the English language very charming and funny in a unique way. It surprises me that anyone would feel entitled to ask a blogger to change the variety of English they use. American English is only o…

Certain cultures teach that diversity is a bad thing to be feared and extinguished. Diversity is only a good thing when your mind has been poisoned by "education" and "experience". It requires an open mind to see diverse experiences as a good thing, and certain cultures think having citizens with open minds is an unprofitable way to run a society.

    > Certain cultures teach that diversity is a bad thing to be feared and extinguished.
Ok, I take the bait. Which ones?

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#139

Post by ifwinterco »

basilgohar wrote: post #40
biofox wrote: post #28

I am the only Brit in the department I work in. No one gets the cultural references or British idioms I use, and I've found myself significantly changing the language I use to a very utilitarian and direct style to prevent the endless blank stares... reading this blog post just made me realise that this self-editing has made my interactions rather more 'flat' and unnatural, as they now lack spontaneity, with everythi…

I wish you worked with me, in that case. I've had the pleasure of working with many different people from different backgrounds, including many Brits. I've always found the dry, understated humor from them to be endearing, making casual conversation more interesting. My parents are both from the Middle East, my wife is from Southeast Asia, and I have many Middle Eastern, Desi, African American as well as African (as…

Cultural insights are one thing but the issue is if you slip into full flow of Britishisms and let your accent loose people who only speak English as a second language can't understand what you're saying.

There's nothing unique about this though, it's the same for every language - it's one thing knowing Spanish well enough to hold a conversation where the other person is speaking slowly and making it easy for you, it's quite another to be able to slot into a group of native Chilean Spanish speakers in full flow.

I travel a lot so I'm used to adapting my use of English depending on who I'm talking to. I find there's a way to express things and still enjoy using the language without making it hard for non-native speakers to understand. But also, when you do end up in a group of entirely Brits it is fun to be able to just let loose

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#140

Post by its-summertime »

graemep wrote: post #23
gilrain wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody said it was.

The article strongly implies it is a response to a comment complaining the blog is not inclusive because it uses British English. There is a constant American assumption that their language and culture is the norm and we should all adjust our language to fit their definitions and culture. I intend to keep eating faggots, having a master branch in git, etc.

When I read "inclusive", my mind jumped to accessibility, in that colloquialisms can be difficult to understand for a subset of people with autism (and other conditions), and also that they translate poorly when run through a translator, for those that do not speak English at all.
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