Thursday, March 14, 2013
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Tomato, tomato...
Yeah, the whole "You say tomato, I say tomato" thing doesn't work so well when it's actually written out. But yes, as I knew, and as everybody had told me, language here is a bit different. I was pretty well familiar with a lot of the nuances of word differences and different expressions here, but there are still new ones to learn, as well as other things that continue to amuse/baffle me.
The migrating "H"
It is amusing to work in a place where human resources, aka "HR", is most often called "haech arr". Here is one case where H is all "Here I am, know me, respect me, fully appreciate my existence in this phrase". Another such occurrence would be in "schedule", often heard as "shed-yule". And then the random, surprise appearance of "H" in "assume". I have heard many pronounce it as "a-shume". Ok. But to maintain the equilibrium of it all, H just as often disappears from things. Such as the cliche " 'ello!", " 'ave a go at it", and in a more work-related context "The component was small so it would overeat".
In technical terms
It is also amusing to work in a place where a common material used is a-lu-MIN-i-um. Not too long ago, I didn't think such a word or material existed. I thought it was just kind of a goof-off phrase, like "nu-cu-lar". But no, I guess it is equally legitimate to say a-lu-MIN-i-um as it is to say a-LU-mi-num. I haven't actually had need to say it out loud, and I'm not really sure what will come out of my own mouth in this environment when I do.
Another minor confusion that came up was "mil". I don't come from the world of millimeters. I know inches, hundredths of an inch, thousandths of an inch. So when I was working on a component and somebody told me "Oh, just take half a mil off the thickness", I kind of didn't even know what to make of it at first. If the component was actually in millimeters, it would have made more sense. But it was in inches. So I wasn't sure why there was the casual back and forth of units, and everyone having an understanding of what a "mil" is. Confusion.
Say what?
Another phrase here that took me a while to get used to is "Are you all right?". What it *actually* means is their version of "How are you?" (and sometimes even said in equally "I don't really care, I just have to say that out of habit" ways, such as by bored, spiritless store clerks, etc). I was initially exposed to it during my first trip here in 2003. I originally thought it was simply because I was wandering around a bunch of stores (as in Camden Town) in giddy awe of it all, and it genuinely may have looked like there was something *not* all right with me. But I later had it explained to me that it was simply their greeting. I'm still trying to get used to responding to it, now, on a regular basis. If someone asks me "Are you all right?" my natural inclination is to respond with a "Yup...". I know that's not really the idea, though. And I did notice that during a telecon with others in the US, a colleague here used the "Hi, are you all right?" greeting to them, and there was this awkward uncertain pause followed by an "Um... yup....". Ok, so it's not just me.
On my first day of work when it was explained to me the system of clocking in and out, whenever we enter and leave the building, I was trying to figure out if people actually go out for lunchtime. I was told a somewhat confusing response that seemed to indicate that people in general simply don't leave the facility during the day and the half hour of lunch time is automatically deducted out of our work hours. But if you go out for supper, you clock out and then clock back in when you get back. I didn't totally understand but didn't really bother to clarify it at the time, as there was and still is a few confusing things about how time charging here works. All I knew was that it didn't really make too much sense why people would bother to go out for supper and come back to work. Why not just work and leave and have supper after? And besides, it seems rare that people are actually around and still working at supper time (hooray to that). I put it out of my mind. Until recently when somebody different told me "Oh, so and so is supposed to email you with that information, but if you don't hear from him by suppertime, I'd just send him a reminder if I were you". "suppertime"?! Why not "by the end of the day"?.... It then started to occur to me that here "supper" kind of seems to mean "lunch" as we know it in the US. Weird. In any case, at least they have this mid-day-whatever-you-call-it meal from 12:30-1:00pm. Which makes perfect sense to me! I never understood the 11:30 am "lunch" thing. If you ask me, food eaten at 11:30 am is still "breakfast" to me. On the weekend, I'm often lucky if I'm awake and have eaten *anything* by 11:30 am!
Other miscellaneous words
"Chuffed" - To feel "chuffed" is to feel pleased or content with oneself. Which seems kind of odd to me. It reminds me of "miffed". Which is kind of the opposite of "chuffed".
"Peckish" - Hungry. I think this is a great and cute word. It makes complete sense.
"Moreish" - Another unusual but good word. I was told at work that my chocolate coconut macaroons were "moreish", as in it makes a person want more of them. I hope to always make "moreish" goodies.
"Sledging" - Sledding. This doesn't seem to make as much sense to me. "Sledging" makes me think of hammers, violence, and destruction. Not frolicking in a winter wonderland, sliding down hills.
The migrating "H"
It is amusing to work in a place where human resources, aka "HR", is most often called "haech arr". Here is one case where H is all "Here I am, know me, respect me, fully appreciate my existence in this phrase". Another such occurrence would be in "schedule", often heard as "shed-yule". And then the random, surprise appearance of "H" in "assume". I have heard many pronounce it as "a-shume". Ok. But to maintain the equilibrium of it all, H just as often disappears from things. Such as the cliche " 'ello!", " 'ave a go at it", and in a more work-related context "The component was small so it would overeat".
In technical terms
It is also amusing to work in a place where a common material used is a-lu-MIN-i-um. Not too long ago, I didn't think such a word or material existed. I thought it was just kind of a goof-off phrase, like "nu-cu-lar". But no, I guess it is equally legitimate to say a-lu-MIN-i-um as it is to say a-LU-mi-num. I haven't actually had need to say it out loud, and I'm not really sure what will come out of my own mouth in this environment when I do.
Another minor confusion that came up was "mil". I don't come from the world of millimeters. I know inches, hundredths of an inch, thousandths of an inch. So when I was working on a component and somebody told me "Oh, just take half a mil off the thickness", I kind of didn't even know what to make of it at first. If the component was actually in millimeters, it would have made more sense. But it was in inches. So I wasn't sure why there was the casual back and forth of units, and everyone having an understanding of what a "mil" is. Confusion.
Say what?
Another phrase here that took me a while to get used to is "Are you all right?". What it *actually* means is their version of "How are you?" (and sometimes even said in equally "I don't really care, I just have to say that out of habit" ways, such as by bored, spiritless store clerks, etc). I was initially exposed to it during my first trip here in 2003. I originally thought it was simply because I was wandering around a bunch of stores (as in Camden Town) in giddy awe of it all, and it genuinely may have looked like there was something *not* all right with me. But I later had it explained to me that it was simply their greeting. I'm still trying to get used to responding to it, now, on a regular basis. If someone asks me "Are you all right?" my natural inclination is to respond with a "Yup...". I know that's not really the idea, though. And I did notice that during a telecon with others in the US, a colleague here used the "Hi, are you all right?" greeting to them, and there was this awkward uncertain pause followed by an "Um... yup....". Ok, so it's not just me.
On my first day of work when it was explained to me the system of clocking in and out, whenever we enter and leave the building, I was trying to figure out if people actually go out for lunchtime. I was told a somewhat confusing response that seemed to indicate that people in general simply don't leave the facility during the day and the half hour of lunch time is automatically deducted out of our work hours. But if you go out for supper, you clock out and then clock back in when you get back. I didn't totally understand but didn't really bother to clarify it at the time, as there was and still is a few confusing things about how time charging here works. All I knew was that it didn't really make too much sense why people would bother to go out for supper and come back to work. Why not just work and leave and have supper after? And besides, it seems rare that people are actually around and still working at supper time (hooray to that). I put it out of my mind. Until recently when somebody different told me "Oh, so and so is supposed to email you with that information, but if you don't hear from him by suppertime, I'd just send him a reminder if I were you". "suppertime"?! Why not "by the end of the day"?.... It then started to occur to me that here "supper" kind of seems to mean "lunch" as we know it in the US. Weird. In any case, at least they have this mid-day-whatever-you-call-it meal from 12:30-1:00pm. Which makes perfect sense to me! I never understood the 11:30 am "lunch" thing. If you ask me, food eaten at 11:30 am is still "breakfast" to me. On the weekend, I'm often lucky if I'm awake and have eaten *anything* by 11:30 am!
Other miscellaneous words
"Chuffed" - To feel "chuffed" is to feel pleased or content with oneself. Which seems kind of odd to me. It reminds me of "miffed". Which is kind of the opposite of "chuffed".
"Peckish" - Hungry. I think this is a great and cute word. It makes complete sense.
"Moreish" - Another unusual but good word. I was told at work that my chocolate coconut macaroons were "moreish", as in it makes a person want more of them. I hope to always make "moreish" goodies.
"Sledging" - Sledding. This doesn't seem to make as much sense to me. "Sledging" makes me think of hammers, violence, and destruction. Not frolicking in a winter wonderland, sliding down hills.
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