Clik here to view.
Dinner, Supper or Tea part II
Vocabulary and Social Class Of the many indicators of social class in Britain one of the most common is the choice of meals and names for these meals. It is a source of great confusion for foreign...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Be careful of hand gestures
One hand gesture that I see quite often is the one shown to the right of this post. BEWARE! In many many countries showing the V sign with your fingernails pointing outwards means ‘up your bum’ or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Definition of Scandinavia
I have found that if you ask people which countries comprise Scandinavia, no one seems to agree. Our friend Wikipedia has the following definition While the term Scandinavia is commonly used for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dress code – Tuxedo
Paddy and ProtoPaddy My cats have mostly been ‘tuxedo cats’ – black with white feet and chest. They look as though they are wearing a tuxedo… which brings me to that trickiest of topics – Dress...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nothing Sucks Like Electrolux
In class last week I was talking with students about how branding sometimes goes wrong. An example was the ‘Nothing Sucks Like Electrolux’ slogan which was an example of bad timing. The slogan came out...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Unwritten Rules for Using the Stockholm Underground
The underground travels on the left but people walk to the right. If you happen to walk to the left at any point in the passageways you will confuse and irritate people. And you may be trampled....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Football, Soccer or Rugby?
Wikipedia states the following : Where English is a first language the unqualified use of the word football is used to refer to the most popular code of football in that region. The sports most...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
Where does Halloween come from
Halloween has evolved and been influenced by a number of different cultures and religions, the most important of which are paganism, the Romans, the Celts (the people of Ireland, Scotland, Britain,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Clik here to view.
What is ‘shipping’?
Shipping, derived from the word relationship, is the belief that two characters, fictional or non-fictional, are (or will be, or should be) in a romantic relationship. It is considered a general term...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stressed – or just busy?
Does anybody else think that people today often talk of being stressed when they are really just busy? Or is stress a byproduct of the round the clock society we have today?
View ArticleClik here to view.
Potentially Embarrassing Differences Between British and American English
In the classroom one is seldom taught those embarrassing words that might cause English speakers to laugh when you say them, but you don’t know why. There are also potentially embarrassing differences...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why is the term ‘unSwedish’ used as a compliment?
I see it fairly often - the term ’unSwedish’ used as a compliment. Ebba von Sydow has been described as ‘unSwedish’ in the fact that she liked to ‘stick out’. In a good review a meal or a book is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Things don’t always translate very well…
A wine label photographed in Turin on Friday….. for more laughs on this gorgeous Sunday afternoon, have a look at Engrish.com which is always good for a laugh
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sambo, Sambo and Sambo – beware of this word in English
Controversial and now banned cover Sambo in Swedish means person with whom one lives; common-law spouse; cohabitant spouse; life companion; partner; cohabitant live-in partner/boyfriend/girlfriend...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Being Politically Correct in English
Being politically correct in any language is difficult. As words become negatively charged and used insultingly, they are replaced by more neutral words which themselves become negative. This is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Happy St George’s Day – 23rd April
Saint George (c. 275/281 – 23 April 303 AD) was a Greek who became an officer in the Roman army. His father was the Greek Gerondios from Cappadocia Asia Minor and his mother was from the city Lydda....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Economic haircuts
This word came up today with the Greek ‘haircut’ package in the media. An economic haircut is defined in several ways here http://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/haircut
View ArticleClik here to view.
Walpurgis/Valborg, Indian Summer/Brittsommar, Yule/Jul
Walpurgis/Valborg was the name of the British nun (Saint Walpurga) who brought the Catholic church to Germany and was canonised on 1 May. It is exactly six months before Halloween and was a pagan...
View Article