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Anna Overseas

8/11/2005

Lately I've been trying to collect Current British Slang into a book that exists only in my head. It gets frustrating in the middle of a conversation to have to interupt someone to ask them what the heck they meant.

Here's a brief collection:

punter = patron of a business. No idea where that would come from, since punter to me means football, for some reason. And by football, I don't mean soccer.

mump = as in "She had a mump at me". I think this kinda means angsting or complaining or moaning, but it might mean bitching at. Used by one of my coworkers when describing a conversation she had with one of the higher ups.

tit's up = as in "It's all gone tit's up". Probably means horribly wrong or awful, although the first time I heard it (when I was in Grade 7 Language Arts) was as a way of describing someone who'd died: she'd gone tit's up. I almost swallowed my tongue when my boss (not Kenny, his boss) used this about a situtation at work. I'm not a big fan of the word, and I had trouble telling him what he'd said that so shocked me.

Go to France = also used is "go to fuck". Basically, go fuck yourself.

knackered = which I've heard before (from Paul) to mean tired. Apparently also means broken.

I think those are the big ones.

The other thing that's really thrown me here is the assumptions people have no problem expressing. In Canada, I would never dream of asking someone with an accent how their vacation was going. We're a country of immigrants, I assume everyone I'm talking to, unless otherwise indicated, is living in Canada. (I'm usually right - Edmonton may have the World' Largest Shopping Mall, but we are not a tourist mecca.)

Here, I get asked on a daily basis in shops how my vacation is going. I usually just say "I'm not here on vacation, I've moved here, but I'm having a wonderful time". Of course, every time I hear myself saying this, I wince, because really, who the hell cares?

Related to that, the plane tickets have been purchased. Guess I am going to France.

Anna stopped here at 12:17 PM

 mind the gap

A 20-something Canadian who used to teach English in China. There's lots in the archives about my experiences with teaching, with culture shock, and with my adventures in China. Occasionally it meanders into melancholy (part of the culture shock), which must be very dull to read, so you can skip that.

But right now, I'm back in Canada, and kinda determined to do something with the several thousand photos I took, as well as write more about China and other stuff.

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