{"id":114,"date":"2012-07-15T17:53:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-15T17:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/?p=114"},"modified":"2015-03-09T09:09:04","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T13:09:04","slug":"dont-be-gormless-gen-up-on-british-slang-visit-britain-shine-from-yahoo-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/dont-be-gormless-gen-up-on-british-slang-visit-britain-shine-from-yahoo-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Be Gormless! Gen Up on British Slang | Visit Britain \u2013 Shine from Yahoo! Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t Be Gormless! Gen Up on British Slang | Visit Britain \u2013 Shine from Yahoo! Canada<\/a>
\nCommunicating when you travel to Britain should be easy. After all, it\u2019s an English-speaking country. But you will quickly discover nuances of the language that could catch you off guard (and make it all too obvious that you\u2019re not familiar with British culture). Not only can the accent be difficult to decipher for an unaccustomed ear, slang terms and phrases sometimes make you feel as if you need an English-English Dictionary.<\/p>\n

For example, if you need a washroom in Great Britain, you might be better off asking for the loo<\/b>. To report a stolen wallet, you\u2019re going to want to talk to a bobby<\/b>. If you\u2019re sweet on someone and looking for a kiss or a bit more, across the pond you\u2019re looking for a snog<\/b>, <\/b>and if you\u2019re engaged<\/b>, you\u2019re busy. Chuffed<\/b> means pleased, while cheesed off<\/b> means peeved.<\/p>\n

A lorry<\/b> is a truck, and if one cuts you off in traffic, you may hear more colourful swear words than the four-letter invectives we use. A welly<\/b> is a rubber boot, but \u201cgive it more welly\u201d means putting in more effort or going faster in your car.<\/p>\n

Most of us know \u201ccheerio<\/b>!\u201d as a cheerful greeting or parting word (like the Hawaiian \u201caloha,\u201d it can work in both directions).<\/p>\n

But how many of us understand that when looking for a tailor-made suit, you should ask for bespoke,<\/b> and a bird<\/b> isn\u2019t just a flying animal, it\u2019s also a slang term for a woman? Knowing a few simple phrases and words may not seem like much, but when you\u2019re out on the town and chatting with local blokes<\/b> (guys), it can keep things from going pear-shaped <\/b>(that is, very wrong) because of how gormless<\/b> (clueless) you\u2019re being.<\/p>\n

Some British terms mean the exact opposite of what they mean here. According to Mike Etherington, author of \u201cThe Very Best of British: An American\u2019s Guide to Speaking Brit,\u201d<\/a> if an event \u201cwent down like a bomb<\/b>, then it would mean that the people really enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, slang terms in any language are constantly evolving and changing, so learning just a few things will only take you so far. In the UK, this is even more true given how quickly slang terms emerge.<\/p>\n

The structure of Cockney rhyme slang, which originated in the east end of London, relies on taking a word, finding a few rhyming words (usually no more than two or three) to go with it and then abbreviating that phrasing down and dropping not only the original word but also the word that rhymed, leaving the original meaning clouded in mystery for the uninitiated.<\/p>\n

For example, \u201cstairs\u201d becomes \u201capples\u201d in cockney rhyme slang from the rhyming phrase \u201capples and pears.\u201d Though that particular example is rarely used in common speech today, it is often cited to help explain how cockney rhyme slang works.<\/p>\n

Things can get further complicated when the original word is a British slang word. Working backwards to find a rhyme that makes sense is tough if you\u2019ve never heard the original term in the first place!
\nIf all this seems like too much to gen up<\/b> on (learn about), don\u2019t get shirty<\/b>. Half of the fun of traveling is meeting new people and learning about differences. As long as you\u2019ve got an open mind and a smile, you\u2019re unlikely to encounter any serious difficulties in communication.<\/p>\n

But just so everyone is clear: Not every Briton has an Auntie Beeb<\/b>. That\u2019s just the affectionate nickname they\u2019ve given to their national broadcaster, the BBC.<\/p>\n

By Leigh Bryant
\n(Original post:\u00a0 http:\/\/ca.shine.yahoo.com\/blogs\/visit-britain-ca\/don-t-gormless-gen-british-slang-230446529.html<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t Be Gormless! Gen Up on British Slang | Visit Britain \u2013 Shine from Yahoo! Canada Communicating when you travel to Britain should be easy. After all, it\u2019s an English-speaking country. But you will quickly discover nuances of the language that could catch you off guard (and make it all too obvious that you\u2019re not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[535,537],"tags":[600,583,584],"class_list":["post-114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-esl-cultural-communications","category-speak-english-better","tag-british","tag-idioms","tag-slang"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":619,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.communicationcoach.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}