English vs English

[fuchikoma]

Well, it does appear to still be a split here. (Mine looks like this.) Take your pick, or get a stacked unit... I just thought you were suggesting we rarely had the machines at all in countries that use 120V. (Like I said earlier, they DO tend to plug into range outlets going high as 60A, but there are outlets and space for them in pretty much every human dwelling as far as I've seen.)

[fuchikoma]

Got some funny looks when I described an EA offer as "niggardly" today. Must remember not to use that one in front of Americans again.

 

I've read about Americans getting in fairly deep trouble for that one actually. It's rare in North American usage. It's kind of silly since the word has nothing to do with it, but they hear "nigger" and flip out because it sounds similar. The latter being very much taboo even to write it or say it in discussion, even if you're saying it's unacceptable - unless you are black and make hip hop, in which case it can be every other word in the song...

 

"Niggle" on the other hand is perfectly acceptable...

Edited October 14, 2011 by fuchikoma

[deanb]

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

A Song of Ice and Fire re-introduced niggardly into my vocabulary.

 

My parents have a side-loading washer.

 

Also, today is October 21st, 2011. Or 10 (October)/21 (21st)/2011 (2011.) I think the date argument is rather stupid, but I'm all for the metric system.

[MasterDex]

I'm all for the metric system but I find that foot and inch still have their uses. If I was measuring a floor for tiles, I'd measure in feet and get 1ft² tiles. If I'm measuring myself, I'd use Foot and inches rather than metres and centimetres. It's just recently that Ireland has moved over to using the metric system as the primary measuring system for roads. I'd also favour pounds and stone for weight.

 

It's only recently I learned that many Americans were offended by 'niggardly'. It's clear why but it honestly never occurred to me. Personally, I prefer to use the word 'stingy' or the Irish version of 'mean' - 'maen'.

[madbassman39]

A Song of Ice and Fire re-introduced niggardly into my vocabulary.

 

My parents have a side-loading washer.

 

Also, today is October 21st, 2011. Or 10 (October)/21 (21st)/2011 (2011.) I think the date argument is rather stupid, but I'm all for the metric system.

 

While I see no reason to change the date system, but you can also say today is the 21st of October, so the other way is just as valid in my opinion.

 

Going to metric in the US won't happen, too many people refuse to learn it, even thought it is simple and makes sense.

[Yantelope]

People refuse to learn the imperial system too... how many quarts are in a gallon?

[deanb]

I think when he says people refuse to learn, it's that they refuse to learn the conversion. It's a straight 1000 duplication all the way. Your question about quarts in a gallon kinda reinforces that metric is simple to learn n makes sense, as opposed to imperial.

[madbassman39]

Dean is right, What I meant was people don't want to learn the conversion of what they know now to what it means in metric, such as what does a meter= in feet.

[deanb]

So unsure if you guys are aware but US is about it for countries that put finger blenders in your sink. Pretty much every other nation is fine with a grate covering that lets water down it (In fact you're not meant to put anything else down it cos it makes reprocessing a pain, not that it stops people)

 

Because only in the US would you think "What can we do to improve the design of this grate that little kids fingers occasionally get stuck down? Let's put a grinder in it too!"

 

(Oh this means for the most part kitchen sink grinder things are largely only ever seen in TV and film and therefore about as mythical as most of the stuff seen on CSI n such)

[Chronixal]

They've always struck me as weird. An accident waiting to happen.

[Luftwaffles]

So unsure if you guys are aware but US is about it for countries that put finger blenders in your sink. Pretty much every other nation is fine with a grate covering that lets water down it (In fact you're not meant to put anything else down it cos it makes reprocessing a pain, not that it stops people)

 

Because only in the US would you think "What can we do to improve the design of this grate that little kids fingers occasionally get stuck down? Let's put a grinder in it too!"

 

(Oh this means for the most part kitchen sink grinder things are largely only ever seen in TV and film and therefore about as mythical as most of the stuff seen on CSI n such)

 

As odd as they are, the amount of accidents from garbage disposals (that's what they're usually called where I'm from) seems pretty minimal, or I haven't read about them or come across one in years.

 

It's just such an American thing, not wanting to scrape the food off your plate into the trash or anything.

[Hot Heart]

My parents have one of them now. I'm pretty sure they're becoming popular over here.

You'd have to be pretty damn stupid to get your finger caught in one considering how far underneath it is.

The induction hob's pretty swish too.

Edited October 22, 2011 by Hot Heart

[Thursday Next]

I've got one of those stupid plastic bins to put food stuff in now. The bags they give you are fucking retarded. They are paper thin and degrade within a couple of days. I get that they are supposed to degrade swiftly to minimise environmental impact, but seriously, make them last a couple of weeks at least so that they can get from my house, to the weekly rubbish collection, to the tip before spilling shit everywhere.

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, I've never heard of anyone getting hurt by one, and even a google search only yielded a couple of results.

 

I hate putting food in the trash. We don't fill up the trash bags fast enough, so it ends up stinking like crazy before the bag is full, so we have to take out a half-full bag and end up using more of them.

[Battra92]

So unsure if you guys are aware but US is about it for countries that put finger blenders in your sink. Pretty much every other nation is fine with a grate covering that lets water down it (In fact you're not meant to put anything else down it cos it makes reprocessing a pain, not that it stops people)

 

Because only in the US would you think "What can we do to improve the design of this grate that little kids fingers occasionally get stuck down? Let's put a grinder in it too!"

 

(Oh this means for the most part kitchen sink grinder things are largely only ever seen in TV and film and therefore about as mythical as most of the stuff seen on CSI n such)

 

Dude, what? In order to turn on most garbage disposals that I've seen you have to put a stopper in the drain, turn on the water and flip a switch. My the time a kid is old enough to be able to reach the thing they should be smart enough not to put their hands down it ...

[TheMightyEthan]

To be fair, I've never seen a disposal that requires any of those steps (beyond flipping the switch to "on"). People always say you have to turn the water on but it will run without the water, it just makes a terrible grinding noise while it does so. But yeah, any kid whose arms are long enough to reach the switch while they have their hand in the disposal is old enough to know better.

 

However, two kids working together...

[deanb]

it just makes a terrible grinding noise while it does so.

That would be the usual description of bones being crushed n ground up. The cartilage n tendons do help lube up the mechanisms after a while though.

[Battra92]

Okay my trip to the UK has given me some very interesting observations that I will share:

 

1) You guys really need to get some standards when it comes to how to order food at a restaurant. Many times we went into a restaurant (that had no register in plain sight or "Order Here" signs) and sat down while the people sneered at us before coming over to rudely tell us we are supposed to go up to the bar to order. Other restauants that appeared to be of identical (or even lower) class were sit down with waitstaff.

 

2) I give credit where credit is due: The US should abolish the Dollar bill completely and switch to a dollar coin. However the cotton industry and Crane paper will never allow it. Although I will confess when I had about 10 Pounds in my pocket it was getting sort of cumbersome.

 

3) For a country called ENGLAND there were relatively few people speaking English. I'm not talking accents, I mean people would speak broken English. This of course could just be because London is a city with a lot of immigrants.

 

4) Your TV sucks! I think the 10 decent shows you have get exported. England also lost the moral high ground I thought they had because when channel surfing I stumbled across one of the Kardashian shows.

 

5) European style butter is fantastic! This is due to having about 4% more butterfat than so-called American butter. This really only makes a difference when eating it on bread or something. Cooking makes the flavor differences go away.

 

6) The English have bacon all wrong. Only once in my stay did I have REAL belly bacon and that was at Haché in Camden town. Your bacon tastes like a smoked pork chop - which, don't get me wrong, is delicious but American smoked bacon is much better.

 

7) I was pleased to find a copy of Thomas Paine's "The Rights of Man" in a small bookstore. Good read!

 

8) Diet Pepsi tastes odd over there. This is due to it using different sweeteners. Pepsi Max was even more different! I did like Tangy Cheese Doritios but missed my regular Nacho Cheese chips. Also your bottles of soda are 500ml which is only 16.9oz. Our standard bottle is 20oz.

 

9) Not once did I EVER see or hear anyone refer to corn as "Maize. So that myth of the rest of the world not calling it corn is busted. People also regularly spoke of miles, feet, inches, pints, quarts, gallons etc. There really didn't seem to be Metric anywhere but the grocery store.

 

10) Girls seem to enjoy wearing short short skirts or shorts with leggings or stockings under them whether they can pull off the look or not. They look like they are wearing a codpiece or something.

[Battra92]

To be fair, I've never seen a disposal that requires any of those steps (beyond flipping the switch to "on"). People always say you have to turn the water on but it will run without the water, it just makes a terrible grinding noise while it does so. But yeah, any kid whose arms are long enough to reach the switch while they have their hand in the disposal is old enough to know better.

 

However, two kids working together...

 

I dunno, maybe my parents and friends always got the extra safe ones.

[deanb]

Okay my trip to the UK has given me some very interesting observations that I will share:

 

1) You guys really need to get some standards when it comes to how to order food at a restaurant. Many times we went into a restaurant (that had no register in plain sight or "Order Here" signs) and sat down while the people sneered at us before coming over to rudely tell us we are supposed to go up to the bar to order. Other restauants that appeared to be of identical (or even lower) class were sit down with waitstaff.

Were you in restaurants or pubs, the "bar" would imply pub. Pubs tend to be multi-purpose, and just like you're not waited on for drinks you're not waited on for food either. The general gist is unless there's a dude at the door to count your party and escort you to a table you won't get waited on. Just go to the bar/food area/whatever n order there.(You might get waited on after that though. Just doing it pro-actively in a place like a pub to go to each table without food n ask if they want some is a waste of time)

 

 

2) I give credit where credit is due: The US should abolish the Dollar bill completely and switch to a dollar coin. However the cotton industry and Crane paper will never allow it. Although I will confess when I had about 10 Pounds in my pocket it was getting sort of cumbersome.

With practice you learn to not end up with more than £5 of change in your pocket. Anything bigger should be notes.

 

 

3) For a country called ENGLAND there were relatively few people speaking English. I'm not talking accents, I mean people would speak broken English. This of course could just be because London is a city with a lot of immigrants.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned that you won't get much England in London. Too expensive to live there. Most people you'll meet, without going into an office or something, will be tourists like yourself. If you want proper England n English people you need to head out of London.

 

 

4) Your TV sucks! I think the 10 decent shows you have get exported. England also lost the moral high ground I thought they had because when channel surfing I stumbled across one of the Kardashian shows.

Your TV sucks. We have classic stuff, so do you guys. The "90% of everything is shit" rule still applies. Also I have no idea who Kardashian is. btw a bunch of our channels (depends what you had; Freeview, Sky, Virgin?) are from US. Discovery, CNN, MTV, History Channel, SyFy, whatever.

 

 

6) The English have bacon all wrong. Only once in my stay did I have REAL belly bacon and that was at Haché in Camden town. Your bacon tastes like a smoked pork chop - which, don't get me wrong, is delicious but American smoked bacon is much better.

I have unsmoked bacon and swap between back bacon n streaky bacon.(depends what's cheap )

 

 

8) Diet Pepsi tastes odd over there. This is due to it using different sweeteners. Pepsi Max was even more different! I did like Tangy Cheese Doritios but missed my regular Nacho Cheese chips. Also your bottles of soda are 500ml which is only 16.9oz. Our standard bottle is 20oz.

Don't forget we use real sugar. Size is mostly likely a cultural thing (big is better) as well as it making more sense to sell at 500ml that 591ml.

 

 

9) Not once did I EVER see or hear anyone refer to corn as "Maize. So that myth of the rest of the world not calling it corn is busted. People also regularly spoke of miles, feet, inches, pints, quarts, gallons etc. There really didn't seem to be Metric anywhere but the grocery store.

Sweetcorn? I'd always been under the impression you guys called it Maize (or at least native americans). Also the many pages of this 35 page long thread should have taught you that UK, as the creator of Imperial measurements and participant of EU, uses both Imperial and Metric. You may be going a bit far with quarts though.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max don't use sugar as they are zero calorie drinks so it would be different sweeteners that account for the difference. Most of our regular fizzy pops use sugar rather than fructose syrup though as they do in the USA.

 

Most girls are skanks that don't know how to dress appropriately for their size. Going from the Ricki Lake show, this is a problem in the US too though. Short shorts and opaque tights (not stockings - stocking over here are the ones that use suspenders) are very popular at the moment. Kids these days really aren't keeping their kidneys warm any more.

 

imperial/metric is just a complete mess. Imperial isn't taught any more but is still used officially in road signs/speeds. I use a mix of both (e.g. wouldn't know if someone was tall/short or thin/fat in metric), but a lot of people even my age will use just imperial. I wish they would just make a clean break.

 

It never occurred to me that proper butter would be different! I personally like slightly salted butter which is about 1.5% salt particularly lurpak. mmm.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I would say the reason we don't have garbage disposal in this country is because we tend to minimum spec everything, whereas in the USA (at least the impression I get) is that everything is as big as possible with as much added in as possible. That's why our houses won't have conservatories, air conditioning, tiled floors etc. as standard.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

That's why our houses won't have conservatories, air conditioning, tiled floors etc. as standard.

 

This is standard in America?

[BrainHurtBoy...2]

No. None of those are standard in America, as I'm sure you know. Garbage disposals aren't even standard, and I've encountered them in equal measure worldwide, though I'm not as experienced in Western European travel.