This article, linked to at Tims place, is behind a paywall, but all you really need to know is in the first paragraph, which you can still read
People should not use colloquial phrases like “a piece of cake” and “kill two birds with one stone” because they are “very British-English” and may not be understood by foreigners, a university has suggested...
As my regular reader may be aware, we spend a lot of our holiday time in Corfu, as we love the place and want to retire there
As a result, I end up having a lot of conversations with local Greek people. Obviously in Englash, as my Greek is appalling (but better than your average tourist), and their English is better than that spoken in many UK cities, though I do try to throw in some Greek and pick up a couple of new words where possible
During such conversations though, I always try to simplify my English as much as I can, avoiding slang and other stuff they're not likely to know (Eg. This weather is a bit pants)
Of course this university is not suggesting we tone down English jargon while travelling abroad, but we completely remove our idiosyncratic language from everyday use, in case one of our imports happens to hear it and gets a bit confused
I'm all for particular language for a particular context, but in my native environment, I'm gonna talk proper. I'll happily explain anything that my listener doesn't quite grasp, but I'm not going to stop saying it
Why? Well I simply cannot think of a single reason why I would
And for the avoidance of any doubt:
Cardiff institution also says phrases such as ‘the blind leading the blind’ are ableist
At which point they can just fuck off
10 Comments:
Slightly less relevant, but on a vocabulary-starved occasion I assured a French shop assistant that I was bald without my glasses . . .
(I also get the impression Americans have trouble with the concept of a dozen, and their language is almost English)
As for furriners, my grade in O Level French was better than English so I don’t really struggle there. I’ve been to Corfu and Rhodes, and it’s all Greek to me. Well done Bucko. (Have you been to see where Prince Philip was born on the kitchen table? Astonishing place.) I have a few words in Spanish including the important: Dos cervezas por favour.
Cheers Yet Another Chris
It's surprising the differences between areas in England, never mind foreighn countries. I have a funny story about a Scouse girl, but can't tell it on here as I can't replicate the accent in the written word
I haven't seen Prince Phillips birthpace yet. Will do eventually. The wife is the explorer, where I tend to be a creature of habit. I reckon 'Two beers please' was probably the first thing we learned to say in Greek. You have to learn the essentials first
Interestingly, your accent and vocabulary changes as you move around. My two oldest kids had pronounced Lancastrian accents when we moved here. Now they have no accent at all, and people assume they went to a posh school, which they didn’t.
Noting your interest in cars, along the way I’ve tried a lot of motorsport – rallying (Triumph Spitfire and Hillman Imp Sport), autocross (highly modified Austin A40), rallycross (A40), sprints (Lotus Cortina and Ginetta G4), hillclimbs and racing (both Mallock). I’ve owned many interesting cars. Racers – Ginetta G4 and Mallock U2 Mk14b.
My favourite road car is probably the Mk2 RS2000 (yellow with a black vinyl roof) followed closely by the Capri 3-litre (Essex in red). I’ve driven lots of interesting cars I didn’t own like Porsches and even a Lambo. Oh until my wife suggested that driving racing cars and riding motorbikes might end badly, was expensive, and what with four kids – I should stop, so I did.
Cheers Yet Another Chris
I did have a Capri many years ago. It was a 1.6 Laser and was rotting faster than I could get it welded
‘…the Party created Newspeak, which is a controlled language of simplified grammar and limited vocabulary designed to limit a person's ability for critical thinking. The Newspeak language thus limits the person's ability to articulate and communicate abstract concepts, such as personal identity, self-expression, and free will, which are thoughtcrimes, acts of personal independence that contradict the ideological orthodoxy of Ingsoc collectivism.’ (Wikipedia, on ‘1894’)
What surprises me is that these people never think to themselves, this was once written about in a very famous book (and many other TV shows, films and books) and it was a very bad thing. Why do we want to do this?
Unless the inevitable outcome is what they actually seek, and they are using it as a manual
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