Multi-national cultural expressions and idioms | Page 4 | Golden Skate

Multi-national cultural expressions and idioms

Joined
Jun 21, 2003
For anyone interested, the best word in the entire language is "Splann" which means, "Splendid," and is widely used.

What a Splann post! :rock:

Now what would really make my day is if "Wednesday March" is the name of a region in Cornwall, like the West Riding in Yorkshire, or something like that. :)
 

dorispulaski

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That's interesting. I've been to many school fundraisers and community festivals in which a cakewalk is just part of the fun.

Sometimes, I think Wikipedia has just gone off its rocker.

Not this time. While I have been in a kiddie contest that was sort of like musical chairs with a cake for a prize, Cakewalks had a less benign side.

Kakewalk at University of Vermont involved teams of frat boys doing high kicks in black face and kinky wigs, to "Cotton Babes," while the crowd yells, "Kick." It had started in emulation of similar routines in vaudeville, which dated back to slaves being forced to perform for plantation guests, which dated back to slaves inventing the routine to satirize the stiff dances of their owners.

The winning frat got a cake, AFAIR. A sample routine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr4WvoWdXPE

Pat Brown, UVM Director of Student Life, gives a hour and ten minute long talk on Kakewalk in 2015 . It includes a local TV documentary, filmed in the last year Kake Walk was held (but in green face, instead of in black face.)
https://youtu.be/lSaMiWc11XI?t=218

A point is similar to that of this thread. The same word can mean radically different things to different sections of the population, and misunderstandings can easily happen. If the only cakewalk I had known about was the kiddie contest of my childhood, I would have said, "What's wrong with cakewalk?". However, my husband and I both graduated from UVM, and we learned the difference. Plus I saw the documentary on TV when it aired.

A saying from my family that makes the point of this thread is, "Never make jokes about rope in the house of a hanged man," meaning you just never know what seemingly trivial thing will upset someone, so think before talking, and especially before attempting humor.

As a long time forum member, I have seen many bitter arguments that started with a post that the poster thought was funny, but others failed to see the humor of it.
 

TontoK

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OK, that is DEFINITELY NOT the kind of cakewalk I grew up with.

My experience with cakewalk is very similar to what Mathman described.

Community spirited women baked lovely cakes and donated them to the school or church fundraiser, and an innocent game of musical chairs or something similar determined who won the cake.

Everyone is a winner. The ladies got to show off their baking skills and basked in the praise for their elaborate creations (no self-respecting church lady would dare bake a cake from a mix to be entered in a cakewalk), someone took a chance and won the cake - and the losers weren't out a ton of money, and the organization made money with no investment.
 

Arriba627

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LOL. You made me remember teaching English grammar to international students - all the different varieties of irregular past tense verbs. Sink, sank, sunk, but not not think, thank, thunk...and very definitely make sure everyone knows that 'wink' is a regular verb! :laugh: (I made enough embarrassing mistakes of my own when learning other languages to want to help my students steer clear whenever I could.)

Oh, you adventuresome person you!!! For pronunciation, my favorite was always the -ough combination. So we have rough, through, bough, dough. Ok, that's a bit confusing -- f, oo, ow, and oh out of the same combination. Ring, rang, rung -- bring, brang, brung. Oh wait, that's not right! :bang:

I was in South Carolina and some people were saying their kids were "bus left". (I beg your pardon?! :eek:) Oh, you mean they "missed the bus"!

In Alabama and Tennessee they say "y'ins". Short for???????
you - ins! Oh dear! In Texas "y'all". In Illinois, " you guys", in the Italian neighborhood "yous guys". Ok, now I'm done!!!!
 

dorispulaski

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And in the South, if anyone says to you "Bless your heart" it means they think you are a total idiot.

An old English grammar class joke is

How do you spell FISH?

"ghoti"

GH as in laugh
O as in women
TI as in motion.

It is a funny language.
 

TontoK

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The most misunderstood expression is "dreckly", which most people take to mean, "directly" and therefore, "I'll do it dreckly," would mean, "I'll do it directly," ie "now". In reality, the Cornish concept of dreckly is a bit like the Spanish "manana", only with a far less sense of urgency.

Another twist: My now sainted rural Grandmother (born 1902 in Mississippi for timeline reference) and her peers used the term "terrecly" which took me some time to understand was a phonic derivation of "directly."

It's meaning was similar to one you described. Usage: "We nave to weed the garden terrecly." That meant that the garden would get weeded in the vaguely defined near future, but it wasn't the most immediate pressing concern.
 

el henry

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My maternal grandfathers family all emigrated straight from Cornwall (like Demelza Poldark, my people are all from “Luggin” [Illogan] ) and I have never ever heard “dreckly”:shocked: to my experience, that’s the American rural South.

ETA: but of course Cornwall 120 years ago is not Cornwall today, and I thank @WednesdayMarch for the post.

In Pittsburgh, “yinz” is short for “you’uns”. As in “Are yinz going to Worlds in Montreal”;)
 

TontoK

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My previous post about my Grandmother brought to mind other idiosyncrasies of her time and place.

Her "story" was the soap opera she watched religiously after lunch. "Who could that be calling during my story?" The implication was that is must be an important call, because all the women she knew would be likewise involved in watching the story, and no one would be calling just to chat right then.

I had a distant cousin of some sort who was a "woods colt." That meant that she was fathered by someone who had abandoned both mother and child. The term was not intended to be disrespectful to the child, but rather to the man who did not stand up to his responsibility.

Her pastor had a name, but to everyone of her generation, he was "the Preacher." As in "the Preacher is coming to visit" or "I told the Preacher that I couldn't make it to Prayer Meeting this week."

"Charming" was a real puzzler. It could mean exactly what you think... but it could also mean just the opposite. Very ambiguous. "I think she's charming" could mean anything - it was up to the listener to decide.

"Edit to add: One more. She was frequently the victim of the "swim head" which was an inner ear disorder that left her without any balance.
 

dorispulaski

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About the phrase "That takes the Cake!", here in Detroit old-timers sometimes say (same meaning) "Well, ain't that a Hattie McDaniell?!" This refers to the famous character actress form the 1930s (Gone With the Wind), but I never met anyone who could tell me exactly what was so "Well, ain't that somethin'!) about McDaniell. ...

.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Pnd_SzSLk

She was apparently known for funny, sassy comebacks?
 

WednesdayMarch

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What a Splann post! :rock:

Now what would really make my day is if "Wednesday March" is the name of a region in Cornwall, like the West Riding in Yorkshire, or something like that. :)

So sorry to disappoint. I was born on a Wednesday in March... :laugh:
 

Pasdedeux

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When my husband disagrees with our kids, he says “not so, Boston.” Palindromes are fun, even if I have heard this one 100000 times!
 
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When my husband disagrees with our kids, he says “not so, Boston.” Palindromes are fun, even if I have heard this one 100000 times!

:laugh: I believe that the famous Yreka Bakery in Yreka, California, (mentioned in the writings of Mark Twain) has now been converted into an art gallery. (I don't think it is called the Yrella Gallery, though.)
 

Arriba627

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Her "story" was the soap opera she watched religiously after lunch. "Who could that be calling during my story?" The implication was that is must be an important call, because all the women she knew would be likewise involved in watching the story, and no one would be calling just to chat right then.

Oh, this makes me laugh! Sounds exactly like my Grandma. My Dad always called during his lunch break which had the misfortune to coincide with when As The World Turns was on!!!!! We always teased her and called it As The Stomach Turns. She watched that show FOREVER!
 

elektra blue

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Hey, most non-native people on this forum impress me with their English. My own claim is that I speak four languages fluently. The fact that they are English, bureaucratese, academese and gobbledygook... is not important :biggrin:

that's quite an achievement :biggrin: expecially the last one (i admit i had to google that :laugh:). i'm fluent even in Dothraki or Parseltongue when i'm drunk
 

TontoK

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Oh, this makes me laugh! Sounds exactly like my Grandma. My Dad always called during his lunch break which had the misfortune to coincide with when As The World Turns was on!!!!! We always teased her and called it As The Stomach Turns. She watched that show FOREVER!

My grandmother's story was "Days of Our Lives." When I was in college, there was a contingent in my frat house that watched every day. There was a constant struggle with the General Hospital crew. LOL. I haven't see the show in decades, but I think it is still on. Of course, I wouldn't know any of the characters now.

If I were a betting man, I'd wager that there is a kindly and understanding matriarch that the other characters confide in, a star-crossed couple that everyone KNOWS should be together - but keep getting thrown by misunderstandings and tragedies, and teenagers on the brink of terrible life decisions.
 

TontoK

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And, by the way, a huge shoutout to the moderators who have let this thread take such a fun direction.

It has nothing to do with skating, of course, but hey... it's the off season.

Maybe that's why they're slack, but I like to think they are secretly as amused as we are.
 

Arriba627

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My grandmother's story was "Days of Our Lives." When I was in college, there was a contingent in my frat house that watched every day. There was a constant struggle with the General Hospital crew. LOL. I haven't see the show in decades, but I think it is still on. Of course, I wouldn't know any of the characters now.

If I were a betting man, I'd wager that there is a kindly and understanding matriarch that the other characters confide in, a star-crossed couple that everyone KNOWS should be together - but keep getting thrown by misunderstandings and tragedies, and teenagers on the brink of terrible life decisions.

My "biggie" was All My Children. Thank goodness when I became a working lady after college, I was able to afford to get that NEW invention -- the VCR. This way, I never had to miss an episode. I was also into Days of Our Lives and (of course!) General Hospital with good ole Luke and Laura. I didn't think I'd ever give up the soaps, but when I became a super-avid Chicago Bulls fan and watched all the games on TV, I decided the soaps had to go. Wow, it was painful! :bang: :console:
 

Sabrina

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I have a question for British speakers. When I started learning English as a kid (long time ago), I knew that children from grade 1 to grade 12 are pupils/school girl or boy, and become students when they enter a University. I know what I learned was British English. But I don't know if this nomenclature has changed in time everywhere, or it's just N America that calls all kids in school students. Does pupil has any meaning now?
 

hanyuufan5

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TontoK, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the mental image of a bunch of frat boys warring over which soap opera to watch. :laugh2:
 
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