One thing that really, really fascinates me is the way that people use English to communicate. Whether they're native speakers talking to other native speakers, native speakers talking to non-native speakers, or non-native speakers talking to non-native speakers, time and time again I hear so many new ways of using and expressing something in English.
When I first moved to Ukraine, the employees in my company kept referring to setting up the 'beamer' for meetings. 'Is this some cheery person who organises meetings?' I wondered. Before long, I realised that a 'beamer' is just a 'projector'. Well, it does literally beam an image onto a screen, so I could easily see how the word came about. Until I moved to Germany, I thought it was just a Ukrainian English word. Then before very long, I heard Germans referring to beamers when speaking in English, too. It seems that the word 'beamer' has become an international English word - a word not necessarily used in this way by 'native' speakers, but used and easily understood by 'non-native' speakers.
Even as a native speaker, I've had plenty of interesting and funny moments trying to communicate with other native English speakers, whether it's because of language differences or even accents. My most embarrassingly amusing memory is of the 2009 Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) in Toronto. It was a busy day of walking round all the exhibits, watching Rob tackle the scary rides (no way will you catch me on rollercoasters!) and getting drenched on the relatively safe waterlog ride (see picture below). After all this, I was desperate for a cup of tea and trotted over to the nearest stand to order some.
'May I have a cup of tea, please?' I asked the girl behind the counter, smiling politely.
'Sorry?' she replied.
'May I have a cup of tea, please?' I repeated, feeling in my pocket for some loose change.
'I'm sorry, what do you want?' she asked, with a slightly puzzled expression.
'Some tea. I'd like a cup of tea. Please.''
The girl looked at me for a few seconds and then turned to her colleague.
'I don't understand what she's saying. Can you ask her?'
The colleague duly enquired as to what I wanted, and then quickly went to fetch my tea.
The problem - the at-the-time very embarrassing problem, was simply to do with accent. The server spoke with a higher-pitched, more nasally accent, whereas mine tends to be more British in sound. Clearly not having much experience with different accents, the poor girl was baffled when her ears tried to interpret the sounds I was making into an English she could understand.
Rob and I speak 'different' types of English, which even after a long time together, can still sometimes lead to confusing or funny moments. I spent a lot of time in Ireland, so words such as 'press' (cupboard), 'eejit' (idiot), 'feck' (f*ck) and 'craick' (pron: 'crack' = gossip / news) are part of my daily vocabulary. At first, Rob had to learn by questioning or by association what I meant, and now I'm often secretly pleased to hear him using these words, too (''Get out of the press, you fecking eejit!'' is something I once heard him bellowing at one of our cats!!)
Now that I'm living in Canada, a whole new English vocabulary is opening itself up to me. Heading into winter, we had to order two cords of wood to keep the house warm during the colder months. I hadn't a clue what a 'cord' of wood was, let alone two cords, until internet research revealed that 1 cord = 128 cubic feet, which is a pile of wood approximately 4 feet high x 4 feet wide x 8 feet long (see http://www.woodheat.org/firewood/cord.htm and http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/mc-mc.nsf/eng/lm03963.html for a more professional explanation!)
Soon after I arrived here, someone mentioned to me that anyone not from Nova Scotia is referred to by the locals as a 'CFA' (which stands for 'Come From Away)!
Check back with me in a few months - I'm sure I'll have a few more words to add to the list!
by Christy
I think it's more than clear by now who has won the blogging contest. Christy, you can raise your hand in victory.
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