dunlustin said:
Hi MGN
Given your obvious passion for all things accordion and their origins, I did not for one moment believe you meant the reference to be derogatory.
It was simply a "heads up" from someone who has had the embarrassment of using language in the wrong place.
I once explained to a very stuffy elderly French lady that I really didn`t mind which wine we had with our meal - only I actually said that
I "didn`t give a f***!" Foolishly I hadn`t learnt that teenagers` language does not work everywhere.
As to how and why -well, things move on; ask Lenny Henry about the Black and White Minstrels.
( guapo was referring to another post talking about UK army slang - I can`t find it so pls ignore. Out of interest, is it possible to remove a post altogether - I thought we could only edit them)
Richard,
It seems we can now remove posts altogether since the last revamp. I re-read the last sentence in my last post and realise it could have been construed as sarcasm. I was highlighting my tendency to use 1000 words when 10 would do, and I often end up wondering why I keep going off topic. I am often a victim of my own failure to be concise. You may remember I've had spats with members of other nationalities when translation was an issue. I'm pretty thick skinned as I say. In the navy we had a derogatory name for our Maltese colleagues which I won't put on here, but the same word was used to describe many residents of the eastern Med. Same term was used by US types, I think. Clue is that it sounds like "stick".
I know what you mean about getting too cocky in other languages. We had visited Spain a few times and I was getting adventurous with the language. I had noticed that whenever I asked for a beer, I would be asked what measure I would like. Most of the time I would have a "grande", but on one occasion my wife had to pay a visit to the toilet and the nearest place was a rather posh hotel, and I thought it prudent to order two beers whilst I sat at a table and waited for her. I had decided two small beers (canas) would suffice, as I had the car.
I was surrounded by fairly well to do Spaniards including an elderly couple at the next table, who were devouring very expensive looking tapas. I had gone into a sort of daydream, when I became aware of a waiter standing at the table. As far as I can remember my order went something like this "Dos cervezas, conos, s'il vous plait". As soon as I uttered the words I realised there had been a disaster, and the old guy next to me stared at me incredulously. I had realised I had placed the order in a mixture of Spanish and French, but the guy's wife stopped eating and stared at me in disgust. The waiter arrived back at the table with the two beers, and they were the canas I thought I had ordered.
When my wife came back from the toilet I told her to down the beer in one and we were out of there. The stares followed me all the way out, and I looked up the little dictionary I had in the car. It convinced me that I had actually asked for "two ar**holes", in error, and we both laughed our socks off. However, when we returned to the UK I mentioned the incident to one of my colleagues, who was from Gibraltar. He went into hysteria, as apparently in Andalucia that phrase I uttered can also be construed as "two c***s".
I certainly felt like one when he told me what I had said, and it dawned on me why those stares were so vicious.
When I told others what had happened one of my adult granddaughters chimed in that was typical of the embarrassment I could cause. Thinking I was about to create a cheap funny I blurted out "Well, no c**t told me what it meant." Talk about frying pans and fires! To say it fell flat was the understatement of the year. Women just don't have a sense of humour at all.
