More fun experiences in English attempts and different cultures:

Many places here use fun text, such as "on Sunday the 21th" routinely. I love saying them how they spell them. Twenty-firth. It's just so great!

When my international friends and I went out for some Indian food the other night (which was absolutely delicious!!!!), we had large plates full of yummy nummies... so afterwards, one of the guys says "I'm so full" and I responded "me, too" of course.. the French guys burst out laughing and the French female explained to me that in France, the females do not say things like this. I think she was saying it had something to do with lady-like discretion. I explained that I'm an American lady, and so I'm full. Also, I learned some time ago that in France, it is not ok to burp around others. Guys don't do it as a competition in a group of only guys (I would think maybe some of the younger ones are learning to do so now, but not the guys my age) and you don't do it around your family, either. So when these French friends got around Americans here for the first time, they were very shocked at first (and now somewhat amused) by all of the burping that can take place.

There are many words that are in one language a regular, every-day word (like the Arabic word for "your book", for example, which is kitabich) that can sound very similar to bad words in other languages (the way kitabich is pronounced is more like get-a---- and you can imagine the rest)... I have run into this often with Arabic, French, Hindi, Tagalog, and some other languages frequently spoken here, and many of them have pointed out English/American words that sound not so friendly within their languages.

The regional TV networks (multiple channels each) here are great examples of really good tries at marketing their products in English but just not quite hitting it square on the head.... Two of the main ones copy from imdb or other reviews, but they'll cut off mid-sentence or leave out really important key words. Sometimes it's pretty cute. One also comes up with great headings for their shows, which are sometimes pulled from imdb plot lines and sometimes are not... For example, their headline for Gray's Anatomy says "Medicine Nor Relationships Can Be Defined in Black & White" or for Dr Phil it says "Development of Life Strategies to Be Adopted by Others".

They've been mostly getting better recently, but there have still been some pretty funny ones from time to time. I'll try to remember to post some of them whenever they come up.


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There were a couple of other things that happened over the last few days that I wanted to blog about, but I forget now what they were. Ah, well, perhaps it will come to me another time.