Being brought up in the UK, no-one said much about the choice of words you used. It was all perfectly understood.
What’s in a word?; Sayings and swallows
Reply
Tag Archives: English
Don’t stop the food coming – an Italian wedding
It was our first Italian wedding. Our second wedding this year. They were very different.
Re-seal to keep your tea bags fresh
As those of you who read my blog from time to time will know, I’m a bit of a fan (other words could be fanatic or, if you want to be really mean, nerd) of Tetley tea bags – and I don’t even get free supplies from them!
And, thanks to J (again), I have a huge (well 160) pack of said tea bags. Actually it’s really a pack of 80 but with 100% EXTRA FREE which makes it a pack of 160 in my book.
I’ve been using these for years. I don’t know how many, but it was when we lived in Woonton so at least 6 or so.
And they have come in the same blue pack from, well, as long as I can remember. In fact, I cannot remember life without these tea bags or the blue pack that they come in. Mind you, I am now approaching the age where I forget most things that are, let’s face it, completely unimportant.
One of the “features” of the pack is that the top, once opened, folds back and there is a strip of tape (for want of a better word – well, I do want a better word but I have noticed that, these days, I seem to be losing any skill that I previously had with the English language – the great shame being that my skill with the Italian language is not increasing at anywhere near the same rate as the decrease in skill for English – whoops, I probably shouldn’t have said that in case I want to teach English again) on which the words in title are printed. It’s sticky tape and on this latest pack it is clear tape (apart from the words printed). Oh yes, it also says “LIFT HERE” on the other part of the tape and has an arrow pointing to the edge of the tape which, I guess, they need now that the tape is transparent.
What a wonderful invention it is. You can open your pack of bags as many times as you like, take out a tea bag (or, if you don’t have any boiling water, sniff the contents in the hope of getting the same high) and then re-seal it.
Only one slight problem. The sticky part of this sticky tape works only for so long. If you’re really lucky, twice. But normally not even once. Thereby making the whole thing a waste of time, money and, in particular, effort on my part, to stick the opening down.
So, message to Tetley – either put some real sticky stuff on the tape or just don’t bother. What I find really annoying is that, in spite of the fact that I know it does not ‘stick’ anymore, I still attempt to stick it down every time until there are only about 5 tea bags left, at which point, there really is no point in trying to keep the tea bags fresh.
Having said all that, the rate at which I am going through them I shall have finished them all before the freshness inside notices that there is chance to hot-foot it out of there.
On a different note, it has been a beautiful day today. Quite warm and reminding one of Spring. But don’t be fooled, I’m sure that next week or the week after there will be a cold snap with frost and snow. At least we are out of the 10 days of rain which is something.
A body without a mind; Mexico’s National Dish is not Chilli Con Carne
Last night, for some strange reason, I did not sleep well. It seemed (although it is probably not true) that I woke up every half an hour or so and so, this morning, feel like …. well ….crap!
What’s your job? Italian job status v English job titles
When I was teaching English I had some problems with work and jobs in particular. And, by that, I mean the translation of the meaning. As with other things the exact translation doesn’t always work. But, when I asked people ‘What’s your job?’ (a standard question with beginners), the reply, in Italian, was, invariably, Impiegato or Impiegata (depending on whether the reply was from a man or a woman) and this means employee or clerk.
Now, I couldn’t (and still can’t to some extent) quite get my head round this. Most people, when you ask what they do, reply with one of those answers. This is generally so, even when I’m listing to the radio and someone phones in. Well, I think, finally, I’ve got it! Whereas in the UK and the USA, job titles are really important (and change often), here, the status of your employment is the key.
So, if you have full-time employment, with a contract, you are, of course an Employee (Impiegato/a). And this is the most important thing. What you actually do is less important. And, when people ask me what I do and I reply that I am a Project Manager, this causes some consternation because a) it is in English and b) it doesn’t tell you my employment status. It doesn’t say whether I am a consultant, temporary or full-time, with contract.
And I have learnt, recently that there are two other stages to go to reach the ‘top’. First there is Quadro (Manager). This gives one all the rights of the Impiegato plus a little extra. One example, here, is the right not to clock in (see this post and this one).
There must be others, apart from the salary, but I am learning, slowly. The next level is Dirigente (Executive). Again, this gives more benefits (someone mentioned health cover for the whole family but I’m not sure that would apply where I work) but also you lose the rights (not to be sacked easily) that the Impiegato and Quadro have.
I guess it’s much like the UK – except for this fact that the job title is not so important.
I really could do much better English lessons now that I’ve been living and working here for longer!
Afew words about abit of English which annoys me alot.
I know I’m getting old and I know that it must be the same for many of us ‘oldies’ but I can’t help getting annoyed about the bad spelling and incorrect use of words that I find.
Apparently, Americans (as in the people from the USA) use alot instead of a lot, quite alot. I’m not sure about afew or abit but I guess it’s much the same.
However, when I see English people using it, it really bugs me. The prevalence of the joining of ‘a’ to other short words is rife on the internet. Type one of them into Google and see! But why? These days we have spell checker. And, so far, as I type this into my word processing package, afew and abit are underscored in red to show that they are not words, whereas the package automatically changes alot to ‘a lot’ and I am having to go back and remove the space, leaving the ‘new word’ underscored in red.
I wonder if, in years to come, a lot will become alot?
Another one that does get to me is the incorrect use of your. This applies when they mean you’re. I realise that this has something to do with the increased use of texting. After all, when using predictive text, typing in your instead of you’re is so much quicker and, I have to admit, I’ve done it myself occasionally. But, when it comes to writing, why do it? It doesn’t take much effort to get it right.
However, the concern from my point of view is that it’s not that people are being careless or trying to be quicker, it’s that they honestly don’t know the difference. I used to see it at work in the UK. It seems that anyone under about the age of 30 didn’t practice spelling or grammar when they were at school.
And, perhaps that’s it. And for people who didn’t have much schooling, I can, kind of, understand. But for those people with degrees or, even, ‘A’ Levels (or whatever they’re calling them now), the propensity for using any of the above examples is simply showing what a poor education you’ve really had.
And that’s another one. ‘They’re’. Often, ‘there’ or ‘their’ is used instead. And from people who present themselves as ‘well educated’. It’s a joke.
Language is a beautiful thing, much more than just a method of communication. And I am not putting myself up as the perfect example of using English correctly (often starting sentences with and ‘and’ or ‘but’ which I realise may be just as annoying to other people), but these examples I’ve given are basic and make the reading of a piece, post or blog and, especially, a CV so much more difficult as my eyes are drawn to these fundamental errors and my opinion of the people reduces accordingly.
However, if you wish to annoy me alot just sprinkle afew of these into you’re blog and, maybe, afterall Ill get used to it in abit and just pose the question ‘am i bovvered?’, to witch the ansa maybe no, knot rilly.
On driving in Italy, red lights, rain, irony, sarcasm
Yesterday morning it rained on my way to work. Not particularly heavy, but it would have made the roads potentially greasy. For that reason I tend to be a bit slower, try to give myself more time for braking by positioning myself further from the car in front, etc.
But why, I ask, that when it rains, people do the strangest of things. I mean, it’s as if it’s not raining when they pull out in front of you. This also happens when it snows.
The sun went green in Milan
Today, in Milan, the sun turned green! Yes, that’s right, it was only a slight hue of green, but green it was. It was very strange walking around in this slightly green light. It seemed to make the leaves on the trees (yes we have a lot of them in Milan although how they survive in the pollution beats me) much greener than normal. Walking around, people were just staring up towards the sun or there with their hands in front of them, examining them, as if they had some dread disease. It was quite freaky, just like some sort of Science Fiction film. Except that we were here and it wasn’t some film set.
Changing the air: no plants in the bedroom: soap on the plates
I have mentioned before about the Italians need to ‘change the air’. This is a requirement from birth, I think. Si, bless her, no longer opens the window first thing in the morning, in the office, because I am there. She used to come in, open the window, go and have a coffee, and then come back and close it. I only learnt this fact this week.
UK Bank Holiday weather and the Hay Festival, Confirmation, Hot Sweaty Priest
So, it’s Bank Holiday in the UK with cold, wet weather – there’s a surprise! If it’s any consolation to you, we too have colder and very, very wet weather as I write this. The difference is that it is not a Bank Holiday weekend so I am at work.