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My spell check thinks I’m a moron!
All of these came up with spell check. How quickly our language evolves.
What other words have been born in the last 5 to 10 years that weren’t around before?
I was in Australia in the outback sometime back. I was on a tour that consisted of about 15 people. One of the guys in the group was about our age and was really quiet.
One of my friends asked me if I knew much about the guy. I said, I hadn’t talked to him yet and then we decided that someone should walk over and say hi.
My buddy my Scotland volunteered and casually walked over.
“G-Day mate”, my Scottish friend said trying to act Aussie. “Where you from”?
“Saskatoon, Saskatchewan”, the guy replied.
“Come again”?
“Saskatoon, Saskatchewan”, he said again.
My buddy came back to our group awkwardly.
“What did he say” I asked.
“I don’t know” said my friend,
“he doesn’t speak English”.
Speaking a second language is fun!
There’s a lot of embarrassing mistakes made in the process of learning however.
For example I have said these before:
a) What I wanted to say: “Does your back still hurt”?
what was said: “Does your fish still hurt”?
b) What I wanted to say: “I’ll just have one drink”,
what was said: “I’ll just drink one breast”.
Some other examples courteous of my friends are:
a) wanted to say: “My grandmother returned it”
(obachan ni modoshita)
what was said: “My grandmother pissed herself”
(obachan ni moroshita)
b) wanted to say: “Your kid is really cute”
(akachan wa totemo kawaii desu)
what was said: “Your kid is really scary”
(akachan wa totemo kowai desu)
c) wanted to say: “I want a used car”
(chuko no kuruma ga hoshi)
what was said: “I want an advice car”
(chukoku no kuruma ga hoshi)
Mutually my Japanese friends have made similar mistakes when speaking Engrish.
For example there is no vowel sound in their language for the letter “A” when pronounced in words like hat, ran, fan, sank. They usually end up sounded closer to the words hut, run fun, sunk.
So, one time (at band camp J) when I was struggling to play a song properly on my guitar my friend was laughing at me. She attempted to say “You can’t”! What she ended up saying is “You c_nt”!
I just brushed it off though. I’ve been called worse!
There will be updates to this blog.
Kelly Pettit 