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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: English as she isn't spoke
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
Stercus Tauri
![[Overused]](graemlins/notworthy.gif) ![[Killing me]](graemlins/killingme.gif)
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Rosa Gallica officinalis
Shipmate
# 3886
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Posted
At the ticket booth to pay for admission to walk around the walls at Monteriggioni there is a strict instruction: It is forbidden to spout rubbish over the walls.
We felt obliged to keep very quiet.
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Come for tea, come for tea, my people.
Posts: 874 | From: The Hemlock Hideout | Registered: Jan 2003
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The Kat in the Hat
Shipmate
# 2557
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Posted
We stayed in a hotel in Ascona, Switzerland. In the room was the notice:
Open Air - smoking guests are welcome outside.
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Less is more ...
Posts: 485 | Registered: Mar 2002
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churchgeek
Have candles, will pray
# 5557
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Posted
As many of you know, I'm bipolar. This means I have an illness called Bipolar Disorder. However, many in the mental health profession have developed the habit of calling the illness "Bipolar," leaving off the word "Disorder."
So once in a group therapy session, the therapist went into sort of a rant (though cheerful) about people saying, "I'm bipolar." "You wouldn't say, I am diabetes! Why would you say, I am bipolar? You are not your disease..." I replied, "bipolar is an adjective, though. My sister says, I'm diabetic; it's the same thing." "Oh."
It's weird what people do with words when they forget that they're abbreviating, or forget what part of speech those words are. Similarly, in the '00s, Republicans started referring to the Democratic Party as the "Democrat Party."
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I reserve the right to change my mind.
My article on the Virgin of Vladimir
Posts: 7773 | From: Detroit | Registered: Feb 2004
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scuffleball
Shipmate
# 16480
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:
Originally posted by Gideon:
A restaurant in Aix en Provence insisted on handing us the menu in English on which we were interested to find a number of dishes containing sprockets.
I have to ask, did you order any?
It means pine nuts, apparently.
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SPK: I also plan to create ... a Calvinist Ordinariate
ken: I thought it was called Taize?
Posts: 272 | Registered: Jun 2011
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
We visited a restaurant in a small town in Hungary where one section of the menu promised "dishes from wild" (i.e. game).
They were excellent and the phrase comes into our language whenever we have game at home, which is quite often.
[ 21. October 2013, 22:27: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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scuffleball
Shipmate
# 16480
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Rosa Winkel:
When I was a permanent in Taize in 2003 I went into the kitchen and saw a list of instructions which included the words (bear in mind this was ten years ago, but went something like):
On Fridays we wear gloves against the creatures we don't like.
Stay too long in Taizé and your English will be strangely mangled. Taizé really has its own peculiar dialect of globish-English, half of which I have forgotten.
http://www.tobinski.net/christina/Taize/language/lingo.html
"Permanent" and "responsible" become nouns (and confusingly, "permanents" aren't permanent.) "Valuable" ceases to be a noun. "Cookie" also encompasses cakes and sweet pastries/rolls. "Barrack" means "Dormitory." "Welcome" often means... well... something else? Then there is the classic tailing "...no?" ("the Taizé no") which comes from Southern Europe, starting sentences with "also" or "maybe" or "like this" or "for me"... And I doubt the "tea" has any tea in it.
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SPK: I also plan to create ... a Calvinist Ordinariate
ken: I thought it was called Taize?
Posts: 272 | Registered: Jun 2011
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Rosa Gallica officinalis:
At the ticket booth to pay for admission to walk around the walls at Monteriggioni there is a strict instruction: It is forbidden to spout rubbish over the walls.
Reminds me of a guide we had in Slovenia, who enthused about the rampararts. Also, as we were going over the Julian Alps, mentioned Hemingway's famous novel, Goodbye Weapon.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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QLib
Bad Example
# 43
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Hemingway's famous novel, Goodbye Weapon.
Love it! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Cafe in Spain, many years ago, had a sign reading;
Man spricht Deutsch
Man speaks English
[ 22. October 2013, 19:15: Message edited by: QLib ]
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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.
Posts: 8913 | From: Page 28 | Registered: May 2001
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
Recipe for chicken and mushroom lasagne from the side of a packet of lasagne in my cupboard. I think probably Google translated or similar from the French.
Steps include:
'Cook the chicken in the water and the perfumed milk of laurel'
'make gild onions in the butter'
'Add mushrooms and make them some minutes return. Prepare a rather liquid bechamel sauce. Butter a dish of furnace; pay a fine layer of practical joke with chicken, a thickness of lasagne then a practical joke in mushrooms and finally a layer of bechamel sauce.
Superimpose the remainder of the ingredients in this manner.
Finish by the bechamel sauce, strew with worn cheese.
Recover of aluminium foil and cook in the furnace during 45mn.
A true delight'
Indeed! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) I quite like the idea of a practical joke in mushrooms....
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lucia:
I quite like the idea of a practical joke in mushrooms....
You mix in some toadstools.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Zacchaeus
Shipmate
# 14454
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Posted
I can't even work out what a practical joke is meant to translate...
Posts: 1905 | From: the back of beyond | Registered: Jan 2009
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
In French "puis une farce aux champignons".
Definitely the wrong choice of translation for 'farce'!
Anyone for some 'worn cheese'?
[ 22. October 2013, 21:56: Message edited by: Lucia ]
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sir Kevin:
When I were a lad, all of my motorcycles could outrun dogs, especially the big one with four cylindres. I did not need to tootle!
I've never seen a dog with even one cylinder (or even "cylindre"), let alone four.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Zacchaeus
Shipmate
# 14454
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lucia:
In French "puis une farce aux champignons".
Definitely the wrong choice of translation for 'farce'!
Anyone for some 'worn cheese'?
Out of interest what is the right translation?
Posts: 1905 | From: the back of beyond | Registered: Jan 2009
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
Well I think that a 'farce' when used for cooking would normally be 'stuffing' for example the kind you might put in a roast bird. However it seems to have been used to mean a layer of something here. My culinary french is not good enough to say whether that is a valid use. (Where is Eutychus when you need him?!)
It's possible that the instructions were originally written in the Arabic (I'm in Tunisia), then translated into French and then further translated into English! That might explain the slightly weird result!
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
I love some of the signs I see around the place which result from different sounds in the different languages being used incorrectly. The sign at the restaurant which offered 'Spaghetti Polognaise'. This is because Arabic has no letter P and therefore the Arabic letter B is normally substituted when there would be a P in the Latin alphabet. Clearly someone has assumed from the Arabic that a substitution had taken place and had helpfully put a P back when writing in Latin script!
Or the 'Mini Chop' (shop) or the 'Ships' (chips)to eat, which arise from the confusion between the French 'ch' being pronounced as 'sh'! All good fun!
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lucia:
... The sign at the restaurant which offered 'Spaghetti Polognaise'. This is because Arabic has no letter P and therefore the Arabic letter B is normally substituted when there would be a P in the Latin alphabet. Clearly someone has assumed from the Arabic that a substitution had taken place and had helpfully put a P back when writing in Latin script!.
Or perhaps the "g" is the error, and they eat spaghetti while dancing to a Chopin tune.
![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
I have just had an SMS from an online dealer to say that my order has reversed - apparently they are unable to fulfil the order and are refunding the money to my account.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:
Originally posted by Lucia:
... The sign at the restaurant which offered 'Spaghetti Polognaise'. This is because Arabic has no letter P and therefore the Arabic letter B is normally substituted when there would be a P in the Latin alphabet. Clearly someone has assumed from the Arabic that a substitution had taken place and had helpfully put a P back when writing in Latin script!.
Or perhaps the "g" is the error, and they eat spaghetti while dancing to a Chopin tune.
Maybe!
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
Alas, my favourite hotel restaurant in the hills has removed corn flaks from their menu.
They do have an "American breakfast" which includes porridge, two eggs any style (as long as they are overdone) toast and tea or coffee. Oh, and juice (usually orange)
This causes me to giggle as most Americans wouldn't know porridge (my sources call them cooked oats ![[Eek!]](eek.gif) )
Despite that, the porridge at the restaurant is completely scrumptious.
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lucia:
I love some of the signs I see around the place which result from different sounds in the different languages being used incorrectly. The sign at the restaurant which offered 'Spaghetti Polognaise'. This is because Arabic has no letter P and therefore the Arabic letter B is normally substituted when there would be a P in the Latin alphabet. Clearly someone has assumed from the Arabic that a substitution had taken place and had helpfully put a P back when writing in Latin script!
I dimly remember (from Cyprus back in the 1970's) that Greek is similar. There is a "B" in the language, anglicized to beta, but this is often pronounced with a "V" sound, so (I think) mega + pi gives a "B" sound. Then again time (and KEO beer) may have affected my understanding.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
Just what letter of the Greek alphabet is "mega"?
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by PeteC:
Just what letter of the Greek alphabet is "mega"?
Did I mean "mu"? Probably. I did say it was a long time ago.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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georgiaboy
Shipmate
# 11294
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Posted
And sometimes it's not just the words used, but how they are said. For instance:
As tourists in Amsterdam we were being shown round a very handsome walled square with a number of separate houses. The guide, whose English was excellent, referred to this as a 'Be-gwinn-idge' (accent on 2nd syllable. It took some time to figure out that she was attempting to 'English' 'beguinage' (sp?), that is, a semi-monastic women's community. (The guide finally gestured to indicate a 'goose-girl' coif, and then all was clear.
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You can't retire from a calling.
Posts: 1675 | From: saint meinrad, IN | Registered: Apr 2006
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Keren-Happuch
Ship's Eyeshadow
# 9818
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lucia:
Well I think that a 'farce' when used for cooking would normally be 'stuffing' for example the kind you might put in a roast bird. However it seems to have been used to mean a layer of something here. My culinary french is not good enough to say whether that is a valid use. (Where is Eutychus when you need him?!)
It's possible that the instructions were originally written in the Arabic (I'm in Tunisia), then translated into French and then further translated into English! That might explain the slightly weird result!
Ahem. Eutychus isn't the only translator on the Ship... I've found at least one other recipe online where "farce" is used to mean "filling" rather than "stuffing.
One of my favourite false friends is repräsentativ. Sometimes it means representative, but often something more like prestigious. It's common for guide books and suchlike to talk about "the representative throne room" or similar.
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Travesty, treachery, betrayal!
EXCESS - The Art of Treason
Nea Fox
Posts: 2407 | From: A Fine City | Registered: Jul 2005
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Cod
Shipmate
# 2643
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Posted
Some years ago Mrs Cod and I spent Good Friday in Rotorua - appropriately enough, as it is a sulphorous place with a hellish nightlife. We went to a Korean restaurant, and as it was Good Friday, we chose Marine Products, being the only dish on the menu that didn't contain meat. It was mussels, eel and fish served in a spicy sauce, and wasn't bad at all.
Posts: 4229 | From: New Zealand | Registered: Apr 2002
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Keren-Happuch
Ship's Eyeshadow
# 9818
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Posted
I've just remembered a Belgian-themed chain restaurant we went to in France.
The English language menu they insisted on giving us after hearing us speak to the KGlets offered as one of the dessert choices "pineapple: fresh or tasty". I assumed the "or" should have been an "and" but in conversation with the waitress, it transpired that "fresh" did mean fresh pineapple while "tasty" mean chocolate-covered.
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Travesty, treachery, betrayal!
EXCESS - The Art of Treason
Nea Fox
Posts: 2407 | From: A Fine City | Registered: Jul 2005
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Aravis
Shipmate
# 13824
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Posted
Years ago we bought a bottle of wine in Crete (white wine, not retsina) which said on the label, "Wild but soft, likeable but nervous, made out of the most aromatic varieties of the island, it includes all that is gone with the wind."
Posts: 689 | From: S Wales | Registered: Jun 2008
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
Ah, yes, wine vocabulary. Reminds me of a cartoon I saw years ago . . . as a couple shake hands with the pastor upon leaving church, the man says, "Rather bland sermon, padre, but an amusing little wine."
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Rosa Winkel
Saint Anger round my neck
# 11424
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by scuffleball:
quote:
Originally posted by Rosa Winkel:
When I was a permanent in Taize [...]
Stay too long in Taizé and your English will be strangely mangled. Taizé really has its own peculiar dialect of globish-English, half of which I have forgotten.[...]
When I say I was a Permanent, I was one for a month.
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The Disability and Jesus "Locked out for Lent" project
Posts: 3271 | From: Wrocław | Registered: May 2006
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
Years ago, we were driving in France - can't remember whether we were outside Calais or Boulogne - and came across a sign warning of a 'Dangerous Declivity'.
It is one of those ones that has stayed with us. It's just such a lovely expression.
M.
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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Cod
Shipmate
# 2643
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Posted
Not directly relevant, but back in 1990 I travelled through Boston Airport in the US. On the way to the gate I could swear that I saw two signs for toilets "Gentlemen", "Ladies", and in the middle "Lobsters.
I have wondered ever since what that was all about.
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"I fart in your general direction."
M Barnier
Posts: 4229 | From: New Zealand | Registered: Apr 2002
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
An Iranian friend gets mixed up with words with more than one meaning and/or two words for the same thing.
Its great to have them in the car giving directions and hear "first road out at the next merry-go-round".
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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