Season's greetings and a bit of light relief.....

[adt70hk]

All

As Christmas is only a week off, I just wanted to wish everyone on here a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year before life get's too busy to check in regularly.

I also wanted to say a big, big thank you for the welcome and for everyone (too many to mention) who's looked at my humble submissions and taken time to comment on them but - even more importantly - has taken the time and effort to answer (often in great detail) the myriad of questions I've asked as I've marauded my around the forum since joining.....your collective responses are very much appreciated!!


And now onto something completely different......

Christmas is supposed to to be "....the season to be jolly...", so I thought I should share something very funny I came across a couple of months ago but first a bit of context.....

When I first joined the site I hadn't appreciated that this was a US hosted site with a correspondingly large US membership - accepting that there are also members from elsewhere in the world.

As a result, I realise that some of the British phrases and expressions in my initial posts may have got lost in translation where our US contributors are concerned - after all, to paraphrase someone very clever, we are two nations divided by a common language.  

But thanks to the mass deluge of US television coming across the Atlantic we're reasonably familiar in the UK with a lot of common US expressions.....

.....however, it would appear that the language flow the other way is not so well developed!!  

In the run up to the October NFL regular season game in the UK, between the Detroit Lions and the Kansas City Chiefs, the BBC tried some English words and phrases on the some of the Lions players....with (IMHO) some hilarious results.  

So finally thank you all once again and enjoy the clip by following this link www.bbc.co.uk/sport/american-football/34647300.

Kind regards and have a great break.

Andrew

[dierk]

No offence to our hosts, but:

Could be worse though: Germans (or at least a lot of them) really love English words - so much so, that they make up their own, managing to confuse both Brits and Americans in one foul swoop:

'Handy' is not even an adjective in German anymore - it's a mobile/cellphone.
'Twen' like a teen, only a bit older - someone in their twenties.
'Payback Karte' nothing to do with revenge, it's a card for collecting bonus points (and handing over your personal data to some company in the process)
They also come up with some 'great' websites:
'Outfittery' - clothes shop aimed at men.
'Shop-a-man' - not some online way of grassing on a man as you might think, no - it's a dating site for women.

Sometimes the results can also be quite clever:
'Shirtinator' a site where you can design your own T-shirts, etc. and have them printed and sent to you.
'Shinebar' a pub/cafe close to here. Sounds just like 'scheinbar' which means 'gives the (false) impression to be/mean something it isn't/doesn't'

Hope you enjoy this ad:



there are numerous other examples, but those Aber tool clamps won't make themselves - more's the pity.

[Leon]

LOL!!!!! That is way to funny Dierk.

[wbill76]

Ah the joys of slang and language...the stories I could tell you about translated signs/advertisements or even just written instructions from my travels around the world could fill a book or two.

[adt70hk]

Dec 18, 2015 11:58:57 GMT -5 Leon said:

LOL!!!!! That is way to funny Dierk.

Very funny indeed!! I've seen it before but can't for the life of remember where.

Thanks for sharing.

[adt70hk]

Dec 18, 2015 12:14:04 GMT -5 wbill76 said:

Ah the joys of slang and language...the stories I could tell you about translated signs/advertisements or even just written instructions from my travels around the world could fill a book or two.

Perhaps you should! I might be interested in a copy! If your writing skills are half as good as your modeling skills, it would brilliant.

[dierk]

"I've seen it before but can't for the life of remember where."
Rudetube?

Being a translator and generally fascinated by different aspects of language, like Bill I have come across some 'translations' that are totally incomprehensible unless you know the original text. Translation programmes may spew out some gobbledygoog, but for real, wet your pants pearls of wisdom, you can't beat the human touch.