Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

droopsnout

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

"Orl roight, moy luvva?"

So much more fun than, "Y'alright there, mate?"

Savvy_Sue

droopsnout wrote: »

So much more fun than, "Y'alright there, mate?"

Yes, but how would Mrs DS feel if every professional (I use the term in its widest sense!) female you met called you her lover? :rotfl:

droopsnout

Proud???

No. Thought not.

LOL

Oldernotwiser

droopsnout wrote: »

I think "love" and "sweetheart", although once loathed by the feminist community, do at least show a genuine liking for the customer - whether she is known to the trader or not.

.

Still loathed by most sensible women, rather in the way that you hate "mate" and "pal"!

donny-gal

I am sure the "luv" which is local to where myself and Droopsnout both original from, is the one least offensive to our ears. I worked at one point for a Company originating in Barnsley, with the majority of the working force coming from there, it was strange even to some living less than half an hour away, to hearing big strong male builders, calling each other "luv" and not batting an eyelid.

I have to admit being of the "luv" getting me out of a multitude of embarrassing moments, being one of a few females in a large (5,000 at its heyday - 300 as I left) factory full of men, who all wore the same coloured overalls, and safety glasses. They all knew me, but I knew very few of their names.

I've had to pull my English up myself, as I went to a secondary modern school, and grammer was not really taught as such. I hated English at school, though loved maths, the main reason for my hatred was the majority of the tasks were to write essays, the writing and spelling, comprehensions were fine, but I had no imagination when it came to story writing, and my 4-5 page essay, usually ground to a halt after 1.5-2 pages with the story complete. Obviously I have acquired the art of waffling over the years :rotfl: :rotfl:

Is Mrs DS as eager to return as you are?
DG

Merrywidow

Oh Donny-gal - never put yourself down like that. I too had a secondary education because I moved house at 11 and missed out on my 11 plus. Its not the pupil its the teachers. I was blessed with having truly dedicated professionals who instilled a love of the English language, Literature, History and Music in me. I thrived because of them. I even went on to College at 16. Too much emphasis was put upon that 11 plus. If the teachers do their job well every pupil has the same chance to excel. I think it all boils down to decipline at home and school. Dare I say this is lacking across the board these days?

Merrywidow

PS - I hated Maths and was total rubbish at school. At College the teacher inspired me and I went on to love it and excelled.

donny-gal

It wasn't a put down M-W just a statement of fact, I carried on studying at college, and got RSA English Language(Advanced) but they didn't want a fictional story;) . But grammer never came into it much, I think I picked up more when I decided to go to evening classes for French when I was 25. It has never held me up, our school changed it's name in my 3rd year, it then called itself a "High" School, but it was just the same, I made sure that was what I quoted on my CV's.

To be honest probably ended up with a better salary than most of the females (and quite a lot of the males) in my year, both at SM & Grammer schools, apart from one who I think made Headmistress. To me there was only one point in going to work - the financial rewards, whether salary+benefits, or pension, or both!:o , luckily though I thoroughly enjoyed what I did, and was very lucky being in the right spot, with the correct skills, at the optimum time.

DG

Savvy_Sue

donny-gal wrote: »

it was strange even to some living less than half an hour away, to hearing big strong male builders, calling each other "luv" and not batting an eyelid.

Yes, but "my lover?" :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: It really does take some getting used to initially!

Fortunately we have a few other 'peculiarities' which alert furriners to the fact that this is English, but not as we know it.

Gosh, I've just found out why plimsolls are known as daps, even though Sir Samuel Plimsoll is one of our natives. They are Dunlop Athletic Plimsolls!

Must stop wasting time on wikipedia ...

Getting back on topic, possibly, when we were in the USA this summer, the politeness did sound slightly OTT, if you know what I mean. For example, the young man politely explaining to me, ma'am, what kind of gas I needed to put into the car, ma'am, and that I needed to tell him not how much I wanted by quantity but by value, ma'am. If a spotty teenager in a shop here calls me madam, I wonder if they're taking the p?

droopsnout

Interesting stuff.

I went into a Booths supermarket today, and was thrilled to see this sign over the first till: "Ten items or fewer". Bless them! In Tesco afterwards, it was back to "Ten items or less".

D-g, the most important thing about language is that we use it successfully to communicate. You do that as well as any of us. I sometimes re-read posts well after making them and am horrified to see that sometimes what I had in my head wasn't quite what came out on screen!

Those of us who spend time abroad know only too well that the odd mistake can completely change the meaning of an utterance. Because I'm supposed to be a linguist, there's actually more pressure on me to get it right, and first time, too.

But as I said in an earlier post, I expect only professional communicators to use English without error. Surely, the rest of us are allowed a little leeway, and no-one should ever think that their opinion is unwanted (or unworthy) simply because they might not be able to express it as easily as others.

That is one the great beauties of fora (ahem!) such as MSE.