The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #81511   Message #1493972
Posted By: Shanghaiceltic
26-May-05 - 08:07 PM
Thread Name: BS: Two cultures divided by a common language
Subject: RE: BS: Two cultures divided by a comon language
Nowdays you don' embarque or debarque, you onplane and deplane. I have also heard deplaning.

I was once unlucky enough to work in a British company taken over by General Electric. It took me some time to get over all the three and four letter memonics being used. I jokingly asked if there was a GE-English dictionary, sure enough there was.

GE inmates call their logo 'The meatball' a small circle with an old styalised fan blade with the copper plate GE script across it. Our US brethren in the Co. would talk about exchanging meatballs when giving one another a business card.

We pointed out that in the UK a meatball was a faggot; therefore we should be exchanging faggots. A look of horror passed across many a face. In France a meatball is a boulez, 'faire un boulez' in French also means a cock up.

In the end we just refered to it as the cats bum 'cos that was that it really looked like to our wee twisted English minds.