"bonjour" to the newbies

raelou · Post by **raelou** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 10:48 am

whiskers12 · Post by **whiskers12** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 5:41 am

lol, talk about getting lost in translation!

My sister and brother-in-law came back from England where they spent 5 weeks living with his folks for their honeymoon, while I housesat for them. When they came back my sister was calling 'chips' (meaning potato chips) 'crisps'. I had to tell her to speak English! Well, Aussie style anyway. A lot of the words down here have multiple meaning, it just depends on the context. If your at dinner and ask for fish and chips, obviously you're not asking for fish and potato chips!

All very confusing!

Ekidna · Post by **Ekidna** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:34 am

That's what gets most confusion here. The chips - crisps saga!! Exactly what I say tho whiskers, it's all about context!!

The eraser thing was what we all giggled about in primary school. Let's just say the "tree" that an eraser is made from is also another name for one of the things that WW's lemon curd got into confusion about!!

The thing I find confusing here is "peppers" in Australia, that would mean chilli peppers. Here they are what I (being Australian) call capsicum.

There's a few others as well;

UK - Australian

aubergine - eggplant
corguette - zucchini
mange tout - snowpeas
butternut squash - butternut pumpkin

Also daddy long legs mean different things. In Australia it's a spider, over here it's an annoying flying insect. But, they still have the spider I'd call a daddy long legs so I don't know what that is called.

It's so funny all these little differences really!

Serinde · Post by **Serinde** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:50 am

The eraser thing was what we all giggled about in primary school. Let's just say the "tree" that an eraser is made from is also another name for one of the things that WW's lemon curd got into confusion about!!

Perhaps this is the new Thursday riddle?

Here's another one, slightly risque for mid-week, perhaps: who remembers an offer of getting 'knocked up' in the morning? Literally, a pal knocking on your door to make sure you got up, in case you forgot to wind up your alarm clock (remember those?). Could be misconstrued.

Ekidna · Post by **Ekidna** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:52 am

wendywombat · Post by **wendywombat** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 12:50 pm

Yep!! I remember being knocked up when I lived in the Nurses Home, especially when we did a week of 'lates' followed by a week of 'earlies' One of the other student nurses was so bad at waking even an alarm clock on a tin plate over a bucket wouldn't wake her! Woke the rest of us though!