jumpy
09-19-05, 10:31 AM
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4252520.stm
I have always enjoyed a rather engaging relationship with the english language over the years. Its diversity and subtlety are a constant delight to me; not least because it is my first language, but also because of the depth of meaning which can be found hidden away in the most simple sentence.
In my travels abroad I have had the privilage (if you will) to entertain a number of new and unexpected interpretations of the english spoken word- sorry, I will not bore you with such accounts here, but suffice to say, I had entered a world of pigeon-english and double speak whose entire basis relies upon a completely different cultural slant to my own understanding of english. All of which brings me to the conclusion that language is a highly subjective medium; more or less completely dependent on where you come from and how you live to begin with, lending an intimate spin upon words wether by chance or design, which serve to denote many variables. Language, social status, ethnicity, humour and many other cultural divides which can be identified by the tone, inflection and context of the speaker or subject.
This is something which I have noticed right here on subsim.com/forum any number of times. Mostly peeps seem to steer around these littery anomolies, but occasionally they fall into a hole and in the process of extricating themselves, only succeed in digging it deeper :know:
Certainly (no bush-bashing intent) you current president has a knack for spoonerisms, unparalelled in the world today exept perhaps when compared to David Coleman (UK sports commentsator) who came up with gems along the lines of: "the game is not over yet, but I thought the best team won" rofl
I shall leave you with a sample of 'lost in translation' from a Chinese food menu from Shanghi....
http://img347.imageshack.us/img347/7980/fingmenu8oe.th.jpg (http://img347.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fingmenu8oe.jpg)
I have always enjoyed a rather engaging relationship with the english language over the years. Its diversity and subtlety are a constant delight to me; not least because it is my first language, but also because of the depth of meaning which can be found hidden away in the most simple sentence.
In my travels abroad I have had the privilage (if you will) to entertain a number of new and unexpected interpretations of the english spoken word- sorry, I will not bore you with such accounts here, but suffice to say, I had entered a world of pigeon-english and double speak whose entire basis relies upon a completely different cultural slant to my own understanding of english. All of which brings me to the conclusion that language is a highly subjective medium; more or less completely dependent on where you come from and how you live to begin with, lending an intimate spin upon words wether by chance or design, which serve to denote many variables. Language, social status, ethnicity, humour and many other cultural divides which can be identified by the tone, inflection and context of the speaker or subject.
This is something which I have noticed right here on subsim.com/forum any number of times. Mostly peeps seem to steer around these littery anomolies, but occasionally they fall into a hole and in the process of extricating themselves, only succeed in digging it deeper :know:
Certainly (no bush-bashing intent) you current president has a knack for spoonerisms, unparalelled in the world today exept perhaps when compared to David Coleman (UK sports commentsator) who came up with gems along the lines of: "the game is not over yet, but I thought the best team won" rofl
I shall leave you with a sample of 'lost in translation' from a Chinese food menu from Shanghi....
http://img347.imageshack.us/img347/7980/fingmenu8oe.th.jpg (http://img347.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fingmenu8oe.jpg)