Culture question

[kimitha]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Carole Ann:
Here's a question. Does anyone have any interesting slang words that anyone from outside your country might not know about or what they mean?

@kimitha: I absolutly love your avatar! Where is it from? ^_^</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

it's by the incredible artist, FSc. her website is here - http://fscwasteland.com/

she does the art for the comic Nightmares and Fairytales and had done a couple of independant things like a Lost Stock of Children. i'm a fan XD

and as for slang words there's :
mingin' - something icky
scripto - insane
away bile yer heid -loosely interpreted as "go away and stop annoying me"....best i could come up with there...
away jump in the clyde - same as above again
clatty - again something icky

and thats all i can come up with for now...the soaps are on ^_^

[yukawai]

hum.. In my school I guess we have lots and lots of slang words but we're not aware of them ^^;; speaking more the one language fluency tends to do that. You can switch from one to another without anyone noticing [spelling?] it. Imean, a normal phrase would look like " There's vraimetn trop de sol out aqu?" whitch is a pretty bad use of french, english and esoagnol. Then, other people had their own native language but we're so used to it even if you don't know the word your brain doesn't register it or something and you never know there was a word you didn,t understood. Because of that, I now know some pretty good words in chinese, portuguese, african and german without ever knowing it. It's just weird when you heard someone speaking in another language and starts seeing you anderstand half of it. t's freaky in fact. ^^;;

So no slang words for me, but could people also do a list of bad wrods? not big insult, but I find it funny to have a big vocabulary.. of swearings words XD

[crisisdreams]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">but we're so used to it even if you don't know the word your brain doesn't register it or something and you never know there was a word you didn,t understood. </font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yue, I know exactly what you mean. If I'm not careful, I read the same way. If a word looks too complicated in Chinese, I just skip right by it while still getting the meaning in the end. ~.^ (Don't worry, I use a dictionary when translating)

Hehe...slang words. I have the same problem as Yue, since people at my school mix English and Cantonese a lot. So...

PK - (abbreviation for a "swear word") It means fall over/trip/etc. So if someone (usual me -__-) almost falls down the stairs, someone might say "hey, don't PK there!".

Gung Ho - The western people in our school use this. ^^ It means very passionate about something, working very hard, etc. "Hey, he's really gung ho about basketball!"

Hunny/baby/darling/hun/dear/etc. - Hmmm...my friends don't do this, but I know Sakura and I. We call everyone hunny, so don't get frightened if we do it to you too, darling. ~.^

Bloody - er..."really" I guess? "This is so bloody stupid! I'm so bloody tired! I'm not bloody paying $1200 a year for website!" You get the point. Again, not used by a lot of people but by me a lot.

Swear Words (if you get offended, think it's sacrilegious to culture, etc. don't read. ~.^) in Cantonese:

Pok K/Gai (can use K or G to spell) This is that PK word. ^^ When you use the whole word directed at someone, it's a baaaad swear because you're basically telling them "Go fall over and die". Mother of all swears. ^^**

Diu - The S word or the F word. Can be coupled with "lei lo mo" which means "your mother". Put two and two together yourself.

Qi Seng - Not so much a swear word, but more like "Geez" in a rough tone. If someone bumps into you in the street and you're mean, you say that to them. ^^

Bien Tai - Literally, "perverted". Surprisingly, people get called this a lot. Hmmm... (Reminds you of "Hentai"? Yes, the two are one and the same!)

<font color="#660033" size="1">[ April 15, 2003 03:46 AM: Message edited by: Crisis ]</font>

[sayaa]

I think that I will put my two cents in, as there was no one from my part of Europe yet (I?m from Poland).

1.First things first, woman [img]smile.gif[/img] In my country there is specific attitude towards woman. When boy and girl walk together he will always let her first into the room and open the door for her if it?s closed. The same goes for cars. When men is the driver, you don?t open the door yourself, but wait for him to get out of the car and open it for you. It is also very rude if the man doesn?t offer his help when woman is carrying something (it doesn?t necessary have to be very heavy). Among grown-ups there is a rule of men kissing a hand of a woman for a greeting when they are still on Miss -Mister terms, as a sign of respect. On the 8th of March, there is Woman?s Day and every men has to give flowers to girls and women he knows. Not only to his mother or girlfriend, but also to female teachers, classmates and so on. Fortunately, ther is always a lot of cheep flowers on that day, so they don?t go bankrupt.

2.We don?t have uniforms around here. What?s more, we despise them. If anyone tries to tell a polish teenager what to wear or how many earrings can one have, there always comes an enormous outrage. We are extremely found of our personal freedom. Probably because we?ve got it only since 1989.

3. The ?stand up-greet the teacher-sit? routine also exist her, but only in the early grades. Afterwards the teachers has to put a lot of effort to gain his or hers pupils? attention [img]smile.gif[/img]

4. We do kiss and say ?hi? to everybody around, when we enter the party. It is not obligated to go around kissing every single person, but you have to greet everybody. On the other hand, we don?t talk to strangers and it?s very rare to start speaking to someone you?ve met on the bus. Even boys here, don?t pick up girls in the streets. It is unwritten rule. You can make a pass at girl that sits in the pub, cafe or whatsoever, but you don?t start the conversation in the street.

5. Drinking.... [img]smile.gif[/img] )))))) Officially, only those that are 18 or older can drink alcohol, but in reality there is a lot of places where a seven year old can buy a bottle of vodka without much problem. There are also no restrictions considering smoking.

And about other countries...

Great Britain:

That annoying thank you... I know it might sound ridiculous, but I think that British tend to overuse it. For example: I wait for the bus, the bus driver stops and I say ?thank you? (for stopping). Then, I ask for a ticket, he/ she gives me one and I say thank you. I pay for it and when he/she hands me a change, I say thank you once again. And when I get off the bus, I say thank you (for the drive) once more. And the most funny thing is that in GB people don?t say thank you when someone passes them a salt or something similar, what in my country is very rude. They also don?t say bon appetite before they start eating (at least those four families I dined with didn?t). I don?t know whether it?s a general rule for the country, but that?s what I found strange.

British eat a lot! I mean, when you enter MacDonald?s in my city, you can see people eating one cheeseburger or (not and!) chips. When I was in GB, there was always a lot of people that had two or three hamburgers on their plates. Really, majority of them eat something like two or three times more than my friends at Poland. And girls... In Poland girl wouldn?t eat two BigMacs! Never! It?s like 800 kcal for Christ sake!

Germany:

Well, I was there for two months (whole summer holidays) with a couple of other Poles and I think that we?ve managed to cause a lot of headaches for our German hosts. Cause where Germans are ?I-said-so-now-I-have-to-do-it?, Poles are rather like ?I-said-so-but-I?ve-changed-my-mind-what?s-the-deal??. It?s not really good thing and it annoys me like hell, but if you wanna Poles to be up to their word or simply on time, you?d better be ready for a fight. We are just nonchalant as a nation and the majority of Germans, at least those in their thirties or forties are still following ?Ordnung muss sein? rule.

And I think that I will finish it here ?cause that post is getting far too long?

<font color="#660033" size="1">[ April 15, 2003 06:06 AM: Message edited by: sayaa ]</font>

[crisisdreams]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by sayaa:

It is also very rude if the man doesn?t offer his help when woman is carrying something (it doesn?t necessary have to be very heavy). Among grown-ups there is a rule of men kissing a hand of a woman for a greeting when they are still on Miss -Mister terms, as a sign of respect. On the 8th of March, there is Woman?s Day and every men has to give flowers to girls and women he knows. Not only to his mother or girlfriend, but also to female teachers, classmates and so on. Fortunately, ther is always a lot of cheep flowers on that day, so they don?t go bankrupt.
</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

Heyyyyyy, I like the way men treat women in your country! ^^ I want lots of flowers on Woman's Day. ;___;

[Shia]

@Crisis: telling someone to fall over and die is among the worst things you can say to someone?? x_X;
I assume that noone would be bothered about that over here in austria... no matter how rude the words used to say it would be [img]biggrin.gif[/img] they'd probably rather be like "ha, don't think I'd do you that favour!"

But it's funny, when I think about really bad insults in german.. the worst words that come to my mind are all implications of homosexuality ^^;;
(at least insults used for men) (uhm.. or nasty things regardig the others family...)

I really had a hard time thinking of bad insulting words right now... I guess I'm just too pure [img]graemlins/wilted.gif[/img]
(j/k)

[crisisdreams]

Haha! I know...everyone always laughs when I tell them about "fall over and die". It's not really the meaning that's insulting, but the word itself.

Like...the "F*** your mother" soudns pretty harsh, but here it's used so often, so I don't find it very impactful. My dad screams this at car drivers everyday! (well, with the window up so they don't hear, thank goodness)

[kimitha]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">When I was in GB, there was always a lot of people that had two or three hamburgers on their plates. Really, majority of them eat something like two or three times more than my friends at Poland. And girls... In Poland girl wouldn?t eat two BigMacs! Never! It?s like 800 kcal for Christ sake!

<font color="#660033" size="1">[ April 15, 2003 06:06 AM: Message edited by: sayaa ]</font>[/QB]</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

eww...big macs....blech. the only thing i can eat outts mcdonald are McChicken sandwiches - i could eat them allllll day

[tenjou_sama]

Hmmm...guess I'll put down a few slang terms too XD I don't really use any of these (except ya'll and gosh...XD)

-ya'll-used in the southern states =D a scrunched up version of 'you all' (Ya'll coming over today?)
-sweet- neat, awesome (That car is sweet!)
-dawg- someone who is your friend...not many white people use this word XD (What's up, dawg?)
-gosh, gawd- used instead of God in an exclamatory way (Gosh, darn it! or Gawd, damn it!)
-phat- people say it stands for Pretty Hot And Tempting

[Risu-chan]

Really? My brother uses dawg all the time, pretty much exactly the way you said it... ^_^ same with sweet & phat... of course our high school was linguistically all over the map. My brother is friends with a lot of people; I'm jealous of how easily he makes friends; but he's got as many black and Asian friends as white friends, so he probably picks up things from all over the world...

two I've picked up somewhere that people tend to stare at me for are "score!" and "cool beans!" (When I was a secretary in Wales, Anne the very proper British secretary always had a heck of a time trying not to fall on the floor laughing at me when I said it. Once in a while she said it, and I fell on the floor laughing at the idea of someone with an upper-crust well-educated Cambridge-and-West-Wales-tangled-up-together accent trying to say 'cool beans' except something about the vowels just didn't work right...)

Anne tried to train me to say "well, that's a bit of all right then" instead of "cool beans," but I suspect that didn't work too well either... ^^;;

<font color="#660033" size="1">[ April 15, 2003 05:59 PM: Message edited by: Risu-chan ]</font>