|
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
Found this searching for "cornobble"...no, don't ask! A little late, CapK, but there you are! And if you ever decide to head down this way, Max, you'll be all set!  http://nz.com/NZ/Culture/AmericanCulture.html
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
oh it is great!
read down, all the way.. i liked PBS/Channel 1
right down to Fox..
and we say naaaw.. (almost the same a gnaw,but stretched out for no, too!) and Nope!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
More Kiwi phrases likely to cause confusion in the US
Can I borrow your rubber (meaning an eraser, not a condom)You didn't ask anyone that while you were here...did'ja, Cap? 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
[warning - food subthread]
Pop tarts These are flat pastry pockets filled with a substance like jam but with more sugar and less flavour. For good measure, they are coated with extremely sweet icing. Sounds reasonable enough so far, doesn't it but ... get this... they are actually designed to be heated in a toaster and eaten for breakfast. I sent some of these to my sister in NZ. She wrote back saying "these explain a lot about Americans". And so they do. url in first post
Sadly we have these here in Britain - very strange. I am glad to discover that we didn't invent them. They should be cast into the wheelie bin without opening. I was wondering if the sudden surge in diabetes was related to their sales figures. A strange was to start the day. [warning off]
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Oh, Sweet WO'N, thank you! What a neat site! So, it seems that in politics, we run and Brit-speakers stand. I was glad to see that--I didn't know it meant that someone was trying to be elected. I'd thought it meant they already had been.
But what's that thing about us not calling chemists chemists? Of course we call them chemists--they are people whose job is working with chemicals.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
Can I borrow your rubber
When I was in high school (11th grade, ca 1961) my English text book had the following prargraph, which I memorized, due to its being howlingly archaic even at that time:
"Why do boys detest wearing rubbers more than girls? With their superior strength, boys should be able to jerk rubbers on and off more expertly than girls. The real test, however, is putting rubbers on a squirming three-year-old. Girls are better at this than boys." The following year, the texts substituted "overshoes" for "rubbers." A costly recall because of a change in meaning!
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 477
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 477 |
American: girl's basketball
New Zealand: netball from that site...
Oh puh-lease!!! Look, I know it's Zild, but it's not the end of the earth you know oh, ok so it is, but I gotta be careful here, cos I ain't far away from it. I'm sure they have basketball there too. I've played both and there ain't no way no how they's the same thing, not even on the other side of the globe!
Hev
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 477
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 477 |
Oh Geoff, I'm ROTFLMAO .... How funny! Hev
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
With the exception of the first list of foods - not one of my obsessions - most New Zealanders understand all of the other pairs, and in fact the site should probably have been called "NZ terms for confused USns", because that's the direction most of the confusion exists in! There are also a number of significant errors in the various lists.
You could say that thanks to TV and the endless deluge of other American media most NZers would have absolutely no problems in the States (and no, I didn't ask for a rubber. Do I look stupid?), but I know from experience that many US tourists in NZ spend a lot of their time completely flummoxed by the differences in idiom.
The biggest problem we had in the States was our accent.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,331
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
955
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
