New Yorker and Americanisms
May. 9th, 2013 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
abendgulesI've been enjoying the Borowitz Report, a satirist from the New Yorker magazine. It's like a finely condensed Onion without the occasionally tasteless bits. Borowitz has been paying particular attention to the NRA and the gay marriage stories of late.
Browsing New Yorker led me to this post about 'spoiled kids'.
I can't decide which is weirder, having a six year old who can catch food and cook it, or the families from LA. I know my upbringing was certainly closer to the latter, if not quite so accommodating as described. I tied my own shoes, for one thing.
The author refers to someone writing 'Bringing up Bebe', which sounded familiar - it was sold in the UK as 'French children don't throw food' (no idea why, unless 'bringing up baby' is somehow an 'Americanism').
As a nice Canadian, I've found that many expressions, that I just thought of as 'two ways of saying things' prove to be firmly divided here: one will be the British expression, and one is judged an 'Americanism', which is always said with disapproval and a sniff.
It's that napkin/serviette, toilet/washroom/loo, trash/garbage type dichotomy, where I can't see a difference, but are apparently class indicators as well as signs of American influence, that I feel I'll never get hold of.
No real point, just passing on today's reading.
Browsing New Yorker led me to this post about 'spoiled kids'.
I can't decide which is weirder, having a six year old who can catch food and cook it, or the families from LA. I know my upbringing was certainly closer to the latter, if not quite so accommodating as described. I tied my own shoes, for one thing.
The author refers to someone writing 'Bringing up Bebe', which sounded familiar - it was sold in the UK as 'French children don't throw food' (no idea why, unless 'bringing up baby' is somehow an 'Americanism').
As a nice Canadian, I've found that many expressions, that I just thought of as 'two ways of saying things' prove to be firmly divided here: one will be the British expression, and one is judged an 'Americanism', which is always said with disapproval and a sniff.
It's that napkin/serviette, toilet/washroom/loo, trash/garbage type dichotomy, where I can't see a difference, but are apparently class indicators as well as signs of American influence, that I feel I'll never get hold of.
No real point, just passing on today's reading.
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Date: 2013-05-09 05:39 pm (UTC)What I also suffer from is oddly misplaced cultural references. Australian TV and music is a weird mix of UK, local and US and I never know if a TV show I am about to reference has been released here.....
I once was heavily criticized in the UK for using the term real estate. Not that I cared as the chap involved was a moron but there you go.