This isn't really directly related to electrics, but I thought another little insight into funny foreigners might prove amusing.

You might think that numbers are pretty much understood wherever you go. Well yes and no: When does one equal two?

Answer: When numbering the floors of a building.

In the U.K., the level above the ground floor is the 1st floor, so the British 1st floor is the American 2nd floor, British 2nd is U.S. 3rd floor.

Very confusing for sleepy newly arrived tourists who get into the elevator, hit "1" but then can't find the way out!

oh, i can be just as wide awake. As a matter of fact, i did a service call for an older english couple not long ago, nice people. On arrivial, however, i was given an oration of the problem and aparently had a 'deer-in-the-road' stare because i could'nt quite hear thru the heavy accent. After an awkard moment, he stated
" It really is the same language govenor" , or something to that effect. I suggested that a mouthful of marbles would be all that's needed in the hills here to communicate effectively , after which i progressed erroneously to the wrong floor....

I've had similar experience with some NY'ers

Hey, Hey ..... !


Bill

Do you know what part of England these folks were from?

Accents can vary tremendously in a fairly short distance here, and the accents in some parts of the country are like a foreign language to the rest of us!

Quite amazing that I can travel 3000 miles, speak to someone in the depths of rural Alabama and understand every word perfectly, but I can't make head nor tail of someone from 200 miles away in my own country.

Re the floor numbering, the American system actually seems far more logical to me.

Another point on numbers: You may already know this, but dates are written a different way here as well, e.g. today is 18/11/01 instead of 11/18/01. It can get confusing during the first 12 days of a month!

Some other language differences:
*
FOOD (US = UK)
fries = chips
chips = crisps
Jello = jelly
jelly = jam
cookies = biscuits
biscuits = no direct equivalent
shrimp = prawns

CARS/ROADS
hood = bonnet
trunk = boot
fender = wing
gasoline = petrol
sidewalk = pavement
pavement = no direct equivalent (road surface)

TRAINS
caboose = guard's van
freight = goods
switch (track) = points
switch-tower = signalbox
ties = sleepers

Enough already. Common language? What common language?!

hmmm,
No Paul, i did'nt catch the English couples location.
Anyhoo.... it's as you've demostrated, more than just accent. It's how it's said, verbage or whatever. Have you been privy to 'up the stairs' intead of simply 'upstairs', or 'couple few' instead of simple few? Then there's 'Don't know how it'll sugar off' another local corker here.

It gets better when people get excited, i had to communicate with a deaf Norewiegian once on a ride with the local Ambulance...or the time we pulled a French Canadian out of a crumpeled log truck...oh yes, there was this Sweedish gent who's house was on fire some years ago. We have some basic translation books, but it's slow going....

All in all, I guess the BB has broken this barrier for us. ( That's a plug Boss!)

removes marbles from mouth...

PaulUK,
Having worked extensively on the continent with some Brits from various parts of the UK, your language bits bring back great memories. However, you didn't even touch upon the subject of rhyming slang. Some day you should post a few of those. Maybe I will learn some new ones.
WireWrestler

Sparky,

Does that "Sugar off" saying have anything to do with syrup making? We went to a place in NH for breakfast once that had a "syrup-making museum" or something like that. It was all I could do to keep from tapping into the Maples out in the yard.

My daughter brought up a question recently;
People from NY are called 'New Yorkers', What are people from Vermont and New Hampshire called? Connecticut? Massachussetts? I couldn't think of anything that made sense.

Bill

Bill,
yes, the term comes from the the syrup trade, form the sugarhouses. Most sugarhouses i frequent go thru more beer than sap, but i digress....

There is a lot of 'slang' as to what state one resides in, Vermont has 'Vermonters', people from Maine seem to be 'Down Mainers', I hear New Hampshire residents called 'New Hampshirites'...and anyone south of the boarder Flatlanders.

Sparky:

No, I've never heard "couple few," "up the stairs," or "See how it'll sugar off." There are some strange regionl sayings over here too.

WireWrestler:

Masters of Cockney Rhyming Slang can hold a conversation which is impenetrable to outsiders, but again, it's quite a local thing to part of London. I'm certainly no authority on the subject. A few examples for those not acquainted with it:

apples & pears = stairs
dog & bone = phone
frog & toad = road
brown bread = dead
plates of meat = feet
mince pies = eyes

The "real" proponents of rhyming slang use just the first part of each phrase, e.g. "Is that a new whistle you've got?" (whistle & flute = suit) or "I'd love a nice cup of Rosie" (Rosie Lee = tea).

One or two phrases have become corrupted into general British slang, with many people not realizing the rhyming-slang origin, e.g. "titfer" as slang for a hat (from "tit for tat").

How about inventing some electrical rhyming slang? Maybe "win & lose" (fuse), chair & table (cable), or "jump & twitch" (switch).

(Also describes what you might do if you don't open the jump before touching the win or the chair! )

pauluk,
Thanks for the reply. Most yanks have never heard of this language within a language. I really enjoyed learning and using it. If by some chance you know a couple of leckies from Burnley, Lancashire named S. Brophy and G. Dacre I would love to get in touch with them. They do a lot of work at large bakeries throughout the UK.
Cheers,
WireWrestler

Paul,

Hunh?



Steve,

And I thought people from Vermont were called, uh, "Vermin"....

<Badump bump *ching*>

(Sorry, had to do it! )

We have the town of Perris (where Scott35's train museum is) out here.
I've never heard of the residents being called anything other than "Perrisites".

Well, Virgil's thoroughly confused now..... Don't worry about it too much; the rhyming slang experts can talk for ages with nobody else able to understand a "dickie bird" (word).

WireWrestler:
I've only ever been through Lancashire a couple of times. It's northern England, where most of the poeple don't speak real English! (No kidding folks: With some of the "accents" up there, us southerners should take an interpreter with us!) The local accents from Newcastle, Glasgow (Scotland) and Belfast (N. Ireland) are also impossible to understand.

Seriously though, just imagine some of the problems that could arise through someone not realizing certain differences in terminology, like going to the wrong floor in a building.

Another example: You might hear a British mother telling a young child to "Stay on the pavement." Just think what could happen if that was said in all innocence to an American kid. Most people here know that what they call the pavement is a sidewalk in America, but very few of them are aware of the American usage of "pavement."

I'll always remember explaining the food terminology to a girl of about 13 down in Tifton, Ga. She looked kind of puzzled, and said [Southern Drawl], "Gee, I thought y'all spoke English over there!"

Had some good fun brewing up sugar cane down there as well.

LOL electure,
Not much can be said about Perris, CA. other than it has a good moto-cross track and a military airplane museum.

[hmm, that is more than my town has ]

[This message has been edited by Nick (edited 11-20-2001).]

About how to refer to the residents of a place--

There's a nice town just outside Banff national Park in Alberta, called Canmore.

The residents call themselves Canmorons.

Cliff

Paul Enjoyed the language lesson - brings back memories of bieng stationed at RAF Lakenheath for 4 years. Wish I could have spent more time off the base, but my shop was very short on manning.

Ed:

Lakenheath isn't too far away from me (about 80 miles at a rough guess). We occasionally get planes from there fly out here along the coast to do training over the North Sea. I guess another British term I should have mentioned is "aeroplane" for airplane.
*

Going a little more on-topic for electrics, the British Standard symbols for electrical fixtures on architectural plans are also different to those in the U.S.

A few electronics symbols are also normally drawn a little differently, such as that for an electrolytic capacitor.
*
Oh yes, here's a question for you all:
What do you think I'd be about to do if I'd just bought a silencer?

Sounds like a remote-TV-controller with a mute button on it.

Having seen too many James Bond movies, I would think it would go on the exhaust system of your Aston-Martin, or the barrel of your Walther PPK

You've got it Scott -- It would be for the car exhaust system. It's what the rest of you would call the muffler.