I heard a story on the radio that British Airways wants to help Americans understand "Brit-Speak" so I looked it up. The website has a "translator" thingy on it.
http//london.ba.com/index.asp?word=know
The first word I browsed over was "hoo haa." Really - is that a typical British word? Also "don't forget to give mum a tinkle on mother's day" - with BA saying tinkle means phone call. Where I'm from it means having a wee. Which wouldn't have pleased my mother much.
That was interesting - I notice the inclusion of words that my mother might have used but had fallen out of use in my time - must have come back - like "corker" and "gen".
Just another way for Americans to find English culture cute and funny and then bore the sh!te out of us who have the misfortune of being here.
Tickety-boo, do people really say this? roll
Must have been compiled from Hugh Grant movies.
The rest of us needn't worry -it's "London Speak" lol
Moo's got it. It has nothing to do with translation and everything to do with the tourist industry cashing in on quaint.
That's as cheesy as an English-Redneck dictionary.
/anyone here starts talking to me like that they get a slap.
Cor blimey gov, strike a light...<slap>
I don't understand the issues you all have with this. This is an entirely reasonable list of British slang terms, provided, of course, that you are a person whose sole source of reading material is back copies of The Beano from the mid to late 1950's.
Just another way for Americans to find English culture cute and funny and then bore the **** out of us who have the misfortune of being here.
If I run into one more person doing a Dick Van Dyke, I swear I will not be responsible for my actions.
Back from the hols mates - it was brill and pukka :D
Some of these are just plain wrong ; Afters/Mince/Jolly have an alternative meaning in my cockney circles.
Most of these words have not been heard since Arthur Daley was sipping G&T's at the bar of the Winchester Club..
Well i was severely disappointed. Not a mention of Cheerio, pip pip, and such, and if there's one word that every Californian seems to know it's cheerio. Drives me nuts.
Lets hope their planes and staff are better. haven't flown them in years. Last person i know who did got severely ticked off by a stewardess who turned his light off and told him he should have worked before he left home, now was the time to sleep so he'd be ready for a new day in London. Needless to say, being an ex pat Brit, Bollocks was the first word that came to his mind. lol
Cheerio to BA on that performance I would say, not to mention the old planes, tight leg room and high prices..
As for the quotes all coming from days gone by, America is living in the 70's and 80's. Just watch Tv or listen to the radio it's no wonder these are the quotes they know. Ask about comedy is's Are You Being Served not Little Britain.
I don't understand the issues you all have with this. This is an entirely reasonable list of British slang terms, provided, of course, that you are a person whose sole source of reading material is back copies of The Beano from the mid to late 1950's.
Unfortunatly i didnt bring any copies of beano with me but do have a collection of * oz* a underground publication of the 60 /70 that did get prosecuted and went on trial in the old bailey .
I was one of those who was lucky enought to get a seat in the visitors gallery , nothing funnier than a bunch of stiffs in black gowns and wigs reciting the articules from OZ word for word in a *plum in mouth accent * with every other word being f**K or c**t and it sounding so much different that when spoken in london street slang :) :) :)
I don't understand the issues you all have with this. This is an entirely reasonable list of British slang terms, provided, of course, that you are a person whose sole source of reading material is back copies of The Beano from the mid to late 1950's.
Unfortunatly i didnt bring any copies of beano with me but do have a collection of * oz* a underground publication of the 60 /70 that did get prosecuted and went on trial in the old bailey .
I was one of those who was lucky enought to get a seat in the visitors gallery , nothing funnier than a bunch of stiffs in black gowns and wigs reciting the articules from OZ word for word in a *plum in mouth accent * with every other word being f**K or c**t and it sounding so much different that when spoken in london street slang :) :) :)
Yeah I bet Felix Dennis regrets every minute of Oz as he sits in his mansion sipping his champers :wink:
Anyway he appealed the case and got away of it right?