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This blog is written in en-GB

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Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#261

Post by mikestew »

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 am the only Brit in the department I work in. No one gets the cultural references or British idioms I use…

Oh, fer feck’s s sake, it’s not like the U.S. hasn’t had Monty Python for fifty years. Me, after a steady diet of British motorcycle magazine’s for the last 40 years, I speak Brit just fine. But I would think the diversity and prevalence of online forums would get folks up to speed. I dunno, maybe people just don’t pay that much attention.

OTOH, I do recall an Australia coworker who expressed appreciation that he didn’t have to explain idioms to me (Oz has moto mags, too). Obviously it’s a real problem even in this age of connections.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#262

Post by lbriner »

mrob wrote: post #164
rahimnathwani wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree in general, but there's one exception: use of the word 'tabled'. This means roughly the opposite in British and US English, and there's often insufficient surrounding context to alert the reader to their error. (OTOH I don't think you should suppress 'false friends' like biscuits, pants etc.)

>there's one exception: use of the word 'tabled'. Another exception: "moot", as in "moot point". In the UK it means "subject to debate", while in the US it means "inconsequential and therefore not subject to debate".

I'm British but I always understood it as the second meaning. e.g. "We were going to consider XYZ but now it's a moot point because the project is cancelled."

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#263

Post by dhosek »

ChrisRR wrote: post #150
dkdbejwi383 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a non-American I don't know what "basic cable" is (or what the other tiers are), just that you don't have free-to-air TV

As far as I'm aware the US does have free OTA TV. A quick google tells me that basic cable means the cheapest tier of cable. So maybe equivalent to a sky/cable entertainment package?

Yep, we do have free OTA television. Basic Cable generally comprises the local free OTA channels plus a number of mostly ad-supported channels.

The basic cable A&E began its life as “Arts & Entertainment” and was originally a mix of British import shows and high culture presentations (e.g., televised orchestra concerts). But much like carcinisation in aquatic invertebrates, for basic cable, apparently channels tend to evolve towards mostly showing Law & Order reruns.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#264

Post by My_Name »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #172

I can’t say I understand this new current of culture/writing. It’s something like: get angry, turn small acts into grand acts of social defiance, and signal your social ingroup by referencing other things we are angry about. “Do you remember that JK Rowling lady we all hate because she’s an evil witch? Haha, yeah. Anyways, I’m British and I’m going to keep writing like I’m British.” Edit: I agree with the thesis. You…

You seem to be unaware of one of the British idioms used in language, it's called "A joke".

Calling her 'the wicked with of the terfs' was one of those. I found it quite funny personally. I can find the joke funny despite my opinion of Rowling as a person or her statements on particular topics. Sometimes, here in the UK, we make jokes featuring people because the joke is funny, not just to virtue signal.

Here in the UK, there is a significant section of the population whose base state is mildly dissatisfied and the external manifestation of that is low level grumbling about minor things. It's not a virtue signal, it's not a statement, it is just how they are. You may do better understanding if you take off your glasses of American Exceptionalism and view things more objectively.

Ironically, your post could very easily be read that you were upset by the article, wanted to express that to strangers, and signalled your social ingroup by referencing other things you were upset about, like the joke.

This post contains more than one joke also. Some people will get them, some will not. And that's OK.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#265

Post by hibbelig »

dgellow wrote: post #168
toolslive wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always put my locale in Ireland: I want - "proper English" - metric system - Euro It's amazing how many web applications give me a broken experience because of it.

I'm using custom en-CH locales, because I want numbers to use the Swiss format for decimal and thousands, € instead of CHF, standard units, and some version of English :p

How's that going with the numbers? Microsoft had this page where they explained that monetary amounts are formatted one way whereas other numbers are formatted another way. I found that most fascinating, but I don't know whether it matches reality. Also, how does software cope?

(Back in the eighties,) I had a teacher who taught both French and geography (I think), and he used the apostrophe as the thousands separator. With a twist. For example, he would write three million as 3'000'000, and then he would abbreviate that to 3''. Very fascinating. I wonder if that was somehow inspired by Swiss conventions.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#266

Post by hdgvhicv »

MrJohz wrote: post #220
prima-facie wrote: post #149

If you are from Europe, even if you're not living in the UK, the en-GB locale will feel a lot more familiar to you than the en-US one. It uses the dd-mm-yyyy date format like the rest of Europe, the start of the week is on Monday (vs Sunday in the US), the default paper size is A4 (vs US letter), measurement defaults are metric (indeed UK roads use imperial, but the default is otherwise metric), the time format uses…

The time format in the UK is mostly 12hr, although people are generally aware of 24hr time. In my experience, while there are usually more similarities between the UK and the rest of Europe, Europeans also have more exposure to American English than to British English, so it ends up being a bit of a wash, particularly when it comes to pronunciation, spelling, or idioms.

It’s been years since I saw any am/pm time in written form, while people will say 7:30, they will write 19:30

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#267

Post by cuttysnark »

kstenerud wrote: post #75
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 have a cunning plan: Sneak as many Brits into Hollywood as possible, and have them slip in as many British references into American films as they can. Over time, they'll effectively BECOME British, and Robert's your father's brother! Just whatever you do, don't mention the taxes! I did once, but I think I got away with it...

I experienced this. I only lived in the U.K. for 6 months, but the number of chiefly British phrases/words/idioms that nestled their way into my way of speaking and stayed (20+ years on) was interesting and somewhat surprising.

For example, I never said "supposed to" again — "meant to" has always sounded and felt so much better. Similarly, "can't be bothered/asked" often exactly describes the situation in a way that "I don't want to" seemingly can't.

I'd also like to add "bum bag" v. "fanny pack" was a valuable lesson and a memorable laugh.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#268

Post by mghackerlady »

MrJohz wrote: post #256
tialaramex wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main people who'd want such a thing would be linguists, so that they can label samples. The non-prestige dialects of a language don't usually attract official interest, not least because officially the people who understand that dialect could also understand a prestige variant. Scousers may not talk like King Charles among themselves, but if he speaks they're not confused about what the King is saying even if the…

In fairness, I think that's partly because AAV doesn't have the political and national identity that some other similar dialects have. I (as a lay person with no training in linguistics) feel like AAV and Scots are similar in terms of how far away from English they are, and many people would describe Scots as its own language, distinct from English.

I completely disagree. At least in the US, AAV seems to be a major cultural thing for the people who speak it

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#269

Post by drnick1 »

dgellow wrote: post #155
liotier wrote: post #74

This French person has taken to writing in en-GB, as a token of protest against current USAian politics. I thank the USA for this step in French-British rapprochement ! Also, in the late 90's, The Register made me love British English... Local accents are great branding.

I really want to see a local Euro English[0] develop as an actual, recognized variant of English. Both because it would be really funny, but also as a way for Continental Europe to develop a common language we can shape our own way 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_English (we don't have to take the examples in this page as-is, we can definitely make better local oddities!)

I did not know "Euro English" was a thing. By the look of it, it isn't a language, it's just a euphemism for incorrect English as spoken by non-native speakers in Europe.

Re: This blog is written in en-GB

#270

Post by dghf »

flir wrote: post #179
JimDabell wrote: post #42

> OK, accents are a whole can of worms. Regional English is varied. I'm not sure if there are any BCP-style tags for intra-country accents. This comment is written in en-GB-Brummie.

Does en-GB-Brummie cover the whole of the Black Country?

No, that's en-GB-Yamyam.
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