Lobal Warming

IABC board member Adrian Cropley and I reach across landmass and oceans to coach each other in the definition and proper use of colloquialisms, slang and jargon used in Australia and the United States.  What started as sniggering over double meanings of terms we use in our native lands has become a cultural lesson demonstrating that words and phrases used in ordinary discourse in one country might be taboo in another.  Our lessons take place via email where we share definitions, practice use in sentences and punctuate our point with factually correct, but politically incorrect videos. 

In addition to bridging cultural divides, our humorous attempts at proper use remind me of the difficulty in learning another language.  The dreaded verb conjugations are bad enough, but then you have the multiple meanings, slang and countless new acronyms employed by Gen Yers and IT geeks. 

So Adrian love, as we give thanks for the end of harvest season in the states this week and ruminate over our lack of exports, here are a handful of holiday-related double meanings to mull.   While many have triple and quadruple meanings, I’ve opted for simplicity for the sake of learning.

Thanksgiving:  1) when the original settlers landed and celebrated the harvest with little food; 2) another excuse for Americans to spend an entire day overeating

Turkey:  1) the flesh of large domesticated fowl roasted, carved and consumed in mass quantities ; 2) a complete and utter fool

Pumpkin: 1) a hard, round, typically orange squash mashed and overcooked in a sweet pie; 2) a term of endearment like sweetiepie, muffin or the Australian pet name love

Pilgrim:  1) one of the band of Puritans who founded the colony of Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620; 2) someone who looks like they just got off a boat (or yacht as they’re called in Australia) and hasn’t a clue where they are

Plymouth:  1) that place in Massachusetts where the pilgrims landed on a rock and remains the fascination of every tourist; 2) yet another U.S. automobile marque to meet its demise.

Foil: 1) aluminum wrap used to cover the fowl to prevent desecation; 2) to publicly humiliate an unruly relative at the Thanksgiving table; 3) in Aus, a $25AUD deal of weed

Football: 1) American game involving significant padding, an ovoid ball, tackling and brute strength; 2) a game played in Australia and other civilized countries involving a round checkered ball that’s actually played with the feet.

Give it a burl!  Much as I’d like to continue, the mob is arriving for Thanksgiving so it’s time for me to do a Harold Holt.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 at 1:48 am by Chris Grossgart and is filed under Gen Y, culture. Tags: Adrian Cropley, football, Harold Holt, pilgrim, Plymouth, pumpkin, Thanksgiving, turkey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.