SAN FRANCISCO MAN BECOMES FIRST AMERICAN TO GRASP SIGNIFICANCE OF IRONY

Jay Fullmer, 38, yesterday became the first American to get to grips with the concept of irony.

"It was weird" Fullmer said. "I was in London and like, talking to this guy and it was raining and he pulled a face and said, "Great weather, eh?" and I thought, "Wait a minute, no way is it great weather". Fullmer then realised that the other man's 'mistake' was in fact deliberate.

Fullmer, who is 39 next month and married with two children, aged 8 and 3, plans to use irony himself in future.

"I'm like using it all the time" he said. "Last weekend I was grilling steaks and I burned them to cinders and I said "Hey, great weather!".

YART? Sorry if so.

stales

This is hilarious!

I don't know whether your story, Stales, is a Yart, but, if it is, long live Yarts!

pulling a face

?

I know what it means, I think, just never heard it before…

Yeah, I think a few of us have seen this before, stales, it's pretty funny nonetheless. The irony refered to is of course the simplest flavour, and perhaps the most common which is virtually indistinguishable from sarcasm.
I read recently that sarcasm derives from a term that means 'to tear the flesh' - and is thus thought a more course and crude version of this irony, although the terms are often used interchangeably. Dr. Johnson said something about irony being a mode of speech in which the meaning is contrary to the words. This must be seen of a scale though - most uses are not necessarily diametrically opposed. Sarcasm on the other hand is pretty black and white.

Replying to my own post - sad hey!

The punch line of the above tale reminds me of an event during my recent trip to Mongolia.

Keen to try out one of the first three words I learnt, I started to thank the waitress in our hotel before retiring for the night. I looked her in the eye and said very carefully in my rehearsed Mongol - "Thankyou".

She seemed a little puzzled so I tried again - "Thankyou!".

This time my accompanying smile and small nod of the head did nothing to ease her look of bewilderment.

I took a deep breath, ran through it in my head again and went for the third effort just as our translator came back - having wondered where I'd got to.

"THANKYOU" I said again - at which the translator started to fall about the place laughing.

I'd just said - very carefully mind - "Gloves" three times!!

(FWIW - had said "Beer-lee" rather than "bayer-la")

"Gloves" is now standard around our work place when there seems nothing better to say.

stales

Again, terrific grin here from WW, Stales.

A French teacher I had years ago--wonderful woman!--told us about the first time she'd visited Paris and had ordered poison for dinner instead of fish.

stales's story reminds me of a cruise I took in the Caribbean with a girlfriend. The boat was Greek and we learned a few words to toss about from time to time. One morning I must've woken up slightly fuddled, because I greeted all the Greek staff we met en route to, and in, the dining room, not with, "Good morning!" but instead, with a cheerful, "Squid!" (kalimera, kalimari!)

I love travelling....

You're right, travelling is great but it's not just foreign languages that get you in trouble. After I'd worked in London for a couple of weeks I came back from a shopping trip and announced that I was excited about buying a new pair of pants after backpacking for six months with only one pair. When I pulled them out of the bag someone gently explained that I'd bought trousers. . . pants are what you wear underneath them.
Ithink it was Mark Twain who said "two countries divided by a common language"

Do the Brits wear underpants under their pants?

Do the Brits wear underpants

Nothing is worn under the pants. It's all in perfect working order.

One of the attendants at the VA Hospital I worked at never wore any underpants.
He wanted to be cleared for action quickly.

Is Brit matrimony more serene than US because both parties "wear the pants"?

Misunderstandings from a foreign language can be full of humor, especially if you can laugh at yourself. "Faux amis," the French call them, false friends; they fool you and lead you astray.

Many years ago my family spent a summer in Venezuela in a rented home, and I was the only one there one day when a serviceman come to restock the bar. He asked me if we needed any beer (cerveza). The most I could make of it was that he wanted a tip - for "service," or something, I guessed. (After asking three times and getting nowhere he ignored me, checked the supply himself. We didn't.)

But then, this was the same smattering-of-high-school-French-speaking Norteamericano who saw on a hill by the road leaving the airport a sign that read "fume fortuna," and thought how extraordinarily considerate of their tourist guests these people were: they even pointed out the volcanos for them...it's an advertising billboard, and it means "smoke fortuna cigarettes"!

Pants has recently (at least its recent to me!) developed a slang usage in the UK:

Pants(!):

2. Nonsense, rubbish. A currently very fashionable expression. E.g."The first half of the film was pants but I was glad I stayed until the end."
Exclam. An exclamation of annoyance or frustration. 'Oh, pants!'

A boyhood ditty excerpt: "And they don't wear pants n the southern part of France
And the dance they do Is enough to kill a (unPC word)

wwh - I'm not asking you to type the word but at least tell me it rhymes with -ance..?