American flag or British flag for English (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

66 messages over 9 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 8 9 Next >>

PillowRock
Groupie
United States
Joined 4734 days ago
87 posts - 151 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

Message 57 of 66

28 June 2012 at 10:25pm | IP Logged

Presidio wrote:

As far as 'hire' vs. 'rent' and 'torch' vs. 'flashlight,' I have one more to add.

I learned it when I asked if the car I wanted had a trunk while renting a car in London.
The person looked at me quizzically and then said, "Oh, the boot."

Of course, while we're in this general traveling context, there is also the "holiday" versus "vacation" split.

Going in a different direction, instead two different words for same thing this is a case of the same term meaning almost diametrically opposite things when you cross the Atlantic.

A "public school" is either the government run, tax funded school that everybody goes to; or else it is an exclusive, high tuition school that is generally a privilege of wealth. I've seen that one create a bit of confusion and misunderstanding in online discussions.
1 person has voted this message useful

dbag
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5022 days ago
605 posts - 1046 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

Message 58 of 66

28 June 2012 at 11:41pm | IP Logged

I remember using an American program to learn Spanish, and when asked "how do you say
“movies“ ? I would answer "peliculas", (films) when the answer they where looking for
was "cine" (cinema). I sometimes get a little confused by some of the 50s Americanisms
in FSI as well.

While we are on the subject, I'm amazed by how many Americans I have met that don't
known what a "quid" is. Someone even asked me "how much is that in pounds?"!
1 person has voted this message useful

Gala
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4550 days ago
229 posts - 421 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Italian

Message 59 of 66

28 June 2012 at 11:56pm | IP Logged

dbag wrote:

I sometimes get a little confused by some of the 50s Americanisms
in FSI as well.

Me too, as well as the 50's American accent delivered in flat rapid-fire English. And I'm
American!
2 persons have voted this message useful

tractor
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5453 days ago
1349 posts - 2292 votes

Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan
Studies: French, German, Latin

Message 60 of 66

29 June 2012 at 12:01am | IP Logged

PillowRock wrote:

A "public school" is either the government run, tax funded school that everybody goes to; or
else it is an exclusive, high tuition school that is generally a privilege of wealth. I've seen that one create a bit of
confusion and misunderstanding in online discussions.

It's a bit confusing when public schools are private schools.
1 person has voted this message useful

Elexi
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 5565 days ago
938 posts - 1840 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: French, German, Latin

Message 61 of 66

29 June 2012 at 9:10am | IP Logged

The term 'public school' comes from the time before tax funded mass state run education
when almost all schools were funded privately. Many schools in England were open only
to people whose parents came from a particular town or trade (e.g. St X's School would
be a school open only to children from the London parish of St X). 'Public' meant that
the school was open to anyone who could afford to send their child to it rather than
those schools with a restrictive entry requirement.
6 persons have voted this message useful

PillowRock
Groupie
United States
Joined 4734 days ago
87 posts - 151 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

Message 62 of 66

29 June 2012 at 5:06pm | IP Logged

Elexi wrote:

'Public' meant that the school was open to anyone who could afford to send their child to it rather than those schools with a restrictive entry requirement.

It's just ironic that those "public schools" tend to be the most exclusive schools. (Note the non-universal "tend".)

Edited by PillowRock on 29 June 2012 at 5:09pm
1 person has voted this message useful

Rykketid
Diglot
Groupie
Italy
Joined 4833 days ago
88 posts - 146 votes

Speaks: Italian*, English
Studies: French

Message 63 of 66

14 July 2012 at 3:39pm | IP Logged

In my opinion, the best thing is to use this compromise:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J8Ru-lrTJ7o/T0vtQgm6zxI/AAAAAAAAAC o/sNIoxhG-ycI/s1600/british-
american_flag.jpg

And many websites already do that.
1 person has voted this message useful

numerodix
Trilingual Hexaglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 6783 days ago
856 posts - 1226 votes

Speaks: English^C2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French
Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin

Message 64 of 66

14 July 2012 at 4:06pm | IP Logged

What about Australia?

1 person has voted this message useful

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