Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I was thinking now we should have a thread for crazy words I'm not used to... perhaps it's selfish and all... but there is a post above me and I am infer that by tube he is meaning the subway?

It's funny my roommate is from London. He and I have like 3 words and common and that is about it...

Like he was talking and suddenly said something about the garage.... but said it like carriage, but with a "G."

Oh and flats... i mean flats... its just nuts... Half the time I have to stop him and go wait what is it a (word I never heard before/used that way).

Heh, come down here sunshine. We've got the pommy slang and the strine words for things. You'll spend your whole time scratching your head.
 
Heh, come down here sunshine. We've got the pommy slang and the strine words for things. You'll spend your whole time scratching your head.

OH man... I watch a show that I think that they have Australian accents and it's a science show... you should see me... If I didn't have TiVo I wouldn't know anything about new technology like the show teaches me...
 
OH man... I watch a show that I think that they have Australian accents and it's a science show... you should see me... If I didn't have TiVo I wouldn't know anything about new technology like the show teaches me...

Beyond Tomorrow?
 
Beyond Tomorrow?

Yes... I'm sorry if that is wrong not an Australian accent... I think that is it thought... Well that and the weekly science show that is on Friday nights in the US. It's like an hour long. Has Dan Duran as host. Well one of the girls in there this lady oh man... I can't understand a thing she ever says...
 
No offense but we Scandanavians have an inside knowledge about the Finnish and that is that they have the highest suicide rate in the whole of the world. I cannot remmeber it know but there is a place there that only has sunlight for like a couple of hours a day whole year round and its freezing cold
Most of lapland has a season called "kaamos" when the sun only comes up for about an hour. It lasts for a couple of months. It doesn't last any longer than that and even there it's about +20 degrees celcius in the summer. And during the summer the sun never sets so it's two months of pure daylight (the opposite of kaamos) known as the midnight sun.

But the high finnish suicide rates are actually thanks to our medical system that didn't "believe" in depression until a couple of decades ago. And it's been a slow start so still not everyone who needes medication gets it just because in finland getting depressed is a sign of weekness in a man. I think it's thanks to the many wars we whought last century and the male rolemodel we got from that.
 
As a Canadian living in the US one of my biggest pet peeves is Americans who call the United States "America," as though it's the only country on the whole continent.

Well I'm Canadian and I say "America" now, but sometimes I'll say "The US." Americans call it "the US", but I think that most people outside of the the US call it America. With my accent, if I said "The US", the statement stands out a bit, as it's not how most people refer to the US. It would be like me saying something that's obviously foreign from what they'd normally hear. If I say "America", I blend in more. If I say "the US", I stick out more, but not too much. If I call it "The States", I sound entirely American to everyone listening.

As a Canadian living in the US one of my biggest pet peeves is Americans who call the United States "America," as though it's the only country on the whole continent.

And it's funny how you're OK with referring to people from the United States as "Americans", but are peeved when someone says they're from "America." From what you're saying, then surely us Canadians are also "Americans." ;)

So as not to confuse our transatlantic friends still further, I would point out that the expression is "sweet as" (as in "sweet as a nut"), rather than "sweet ass", which, though certainly a viable phrase in itself, is, in the context, completely meaningless. :)

Yes, I know. I just say "sweet ass" anyway. :D I also hear statements like "That goal was rather sweet as (a nut)" when some people are talking about a particular footie game, even though it doesn't make sense. Rather confusing. When I say "sweet as", I usually pronounce it "sweet ass", and that's how I write it when emailing my friends. :eek:

But you're right.
 
There's a lot out there.

Before I was 20 I visited France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Tunis, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romenia, Lichtenstein, and Andorra.

I've also been to Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and China. Oh, and Mexico and Canada.

I was able to visit a majority of those countries because I lived in Germany and London for a combined 6 years.

To the OP: If you ever get a chance to go overseas, regardless of where it is, KEEP AN OPEN MIND. There will be things out there that are different, strange, quirky, and just downright odd...but those are the things that make travel, and life in a foreign country, that much more interesting.

Next on the list to visit: Morocco.
 
Most of lapland has a season called "kaamos" when the sun only comes up for about an hour. It lasts for a couple of months. It doesn't last any longer than that and even there it's about +20 degrees celcius in the summer. And during the summer the sun never sets so it's two months of pure daylight (the opposite of kaamos) known as the midnight sun.

But the high finnish suicide rates are actually thanks to our medical system that didn't "believe" in depression until a couple of decades ago. And it's been a slow start so still not everyone who needes medication gets it just because in finland getting depressed is a sign of weekness in a man. I think it's thanks to the many wars we whought last century and the male rolemodel we got from that.

I would really like to vitness that kaamos season. WOW. Anyway depression is a big thing in Denmark as well especially in the winter period. Summer is great but anyother period really sucks big time. Everyone I know wants to leave the country - no one wants to stay - and no one is happy :D Well I understand;)

There's a lot out there.

Before I was 20 I visited France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Tunis, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romenia, Lichtenstein, and Andorra.

I've also been to Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and China. Oh, and Mexico and Canada.

I was able to visit a majority of those countries because I lived in Germany and London for a combined 6 years.

That's alot of countries that you have visited, Please elaborate how you got the chance to see so many before you were 20?
 
There's a lot out there.

Before I was 20 I visited France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Tunis, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romenia, Lichtenstein, and Andorra.

I've also been to Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and China. Oh, and Mexico and Canada.

I was able to visit a majority of those countries because I lived in Germany and London for a combined 6 years.

To the OP: If you ever get a chance to go overseas, regardless of where it is, KEEP AN OPEN MIND. There will be things out there that are different, strange, quirky, and just downright odd...but those are the things that make travel, and life in a foreign country, that much more interesting.

Next on the list to visit: Morocco.

God forbid what your carbon footprint will look like :eek:
 
That's alot of countries that you have visited, Please elaborate how you got the chance to see so many before you were 20?

The Don Ditty said:
he made a pact with the Devil :D Yea, i'm curious about that too.

Nah, not quite. :p

I lived in Germany for 4 years and there were times when my parents would just load up the car with my brother and I and take off driving, usually without any plan, just to see where we would end up. I lived in England for 2 and because of relative cheap airfares throughout Europe and to Northern Africa, we were able to continue travelling after we moved to London.

My parents stressed that there was no greater experience than actually being in the country and interacting with different cultures and societies. My brother and I were incredibly blessed with the opportunity of being in a country that was in the middle with easy access to a number of other countries. I've travelled by train, ship, car, bike, and elephant. Oh, and rickshaw too.

Usually our jaunts to other countries took at least a week. We were blessed because my father's job gave him a "travel allowance" that provided money and time off to travel. He would honestly just let my brother and I skip school so we could travel.
 
Job, you are indeed one lucky SOB. (I mean that in a positive way). I plan on doing that once I get financially settled. Take in the culture, the history etc.
 
Job, you are indeed one lucky SOB. (I mean that in a positive way). I plan on doing that once I get financially settled. Take in the culture, the history etc.

I am so thankful for those 6 years. I can only hope that when I have a family I can do the same for them.

It's truely amazing, being able to travel like that. I would recommend it without a doubt.
 
I've spent a third of my life overseas, most of my friends have travelled extensively and we all plan on continuing that pattern into perpetuity.

Job's efforts are pretty much standard for my group of mates, most Aussies are rampant travellers - I don't know anyone who doesn't have a passport with a number of stamps - mainly because to go anywhere we need to go overseas.

I just can't imagine my life without travelling - planning on Europe next year - and neither can my mates. The few people I know who have never been out of the country are fairly insular and narrow-minded, not to say that everyone who stays put is like them but you really notice the difference in terms of our ability to put things into perspective.

Try not to plan on going to one place but to use that place as a base of your travels. You can use the UK as a base for travelling through Europe, Australia as a base for SE Asia, South Africa as a base for seeing the rest of the continent. Pick a place to go based on the other places you can get to from there.

If you for example pick Sydney then it's only a 3-4 hour flight to New Zealand, only 7 hours to Singapore, 9 hours to Japan, hundreds of South Pacific islands are just a short flight away not to mention the fact that as the biggest airport in Australia you can fly to almost anywhere domestically.

There are just so many options for travel from the UK, Australia and South Africa, not mention the other regions. So look as far afield as you can and then see where you can go from there.
 
Try not to plan on going to one place but to use that place as a base of your travels. You can use the UK as a base for travelling through Europe, Australia as a base for SE Asia, South Africa as a base for seeing the rest of the continent. Pick a place to go based on the other places you can get to from there.

Exactly. Use a place as a springboard to visit other countries.

It's always an adventure.
 
Incase some of you are further interested in New Zealand here is a further insight into the culture.

NZ Culture movies - Just enter and click on the movies, the middle top and middle centre ones, are probably the best.
Radio Ad
 
Advice that I hope to apply to myself this year: Get really, really lost. As an American, I am seriously hampered by my lack of knowledge of other languages. I can get by in French, some Spanish, can curse in Polish. With English becoming the lingua franca (oxymoron, but you get the gist) around the world, I'd like to go someplace where I cannot understand the language. I'd like to see how far goodwill and gesture, and a phrase book can get me through the day. Total immersion, totally exotic, linguistic free-fall.
 
Advice that I hope to apply to myself this year: Get really, really lost. As an American, I am seriously hampered by my lack of knowledge of other languages. I can get by in French, some Spanish, can curse in Polish. With English becoming the lingua franca (oxymoron, but you get the gist) around the world, I'd like to go someplace where I cannot understand the language. I'd like to see how far goodwill and gesture, and a phrase book can get me through the day. Total immersion, totally exotic, linguistic free-fall.

I'd really like to go somewhere where I am payed to speak to the people in English so that they get used to my language. And then on the downtime I would be speaking to them in their language (well I'd be listening to learn)... I've heard of rumors of such things but have no clue if such a situation exists.
 
I'd really like to go somewhere where I am payed to speak to the people in English so that they get used to my language. And then on the downtime I would be speaking to them in their language (well I'd be listening to learn)... I've heard of rumors of such things but have no clue if such a situation exists.

Check out teaching ESL (teaching of English as a second language) all over the planet. A great way to live around the planet!!!!
 
^^^That's true. Teaching English overseas is a good way to live somewhere else, but it's not as great a method to learn another language as you think, because some teachers find that they don't have as much free time as they thought they would to spend on learning a new language. Teaching English isn't a free pass......you still need to be an actual teacher! ;)

However, if you learn a language like Korean before you go (no, not for a few weeks.....we're talking about serious language learning for at least 12 months prior to leaving), then living in Korea will benefit you greatly because you already have a base to work with, and being bombarded with Korean all the time is effective if you already know vocabulary. It's a great way to learn to listen and speak, which are the two hardest part of language learning.

Going there in order to learn another language from scratch isn't effective because you won't have the time to start from the bottom. If poppe went to a place like Korea to start learning Korean, or if he only knew some very basic Korean, it would be difficult to learn it (not impossible, but difficult).

...I'd like to go someplace where I cannot understand the language. I'd like to see how far goodwill and gesture, and a phrase book can get me through the day. Total immersion, totally exotic, linguistic free-fall.

There are lots of places where you can't understand the language. Finding such a place isn't the hard part. ;)

When I went to Japan last month, people would start speaking Japanese to me (because I look more Korean or Japanese than anything else, for some reason :eek: ), and when they realized I didn't speak Japanese, they would start speaking English to me. Guess what I did? I pretended not to understand English. :p :D
Hey, I'm trying to practice my (survival level) knowledge of Japanese, and they're ruining my experience! Anyway, that forced them to listen to me speak Japanese poorly and slowly. At least I got some practice. :D
 
Ok this sounds really dumb. And well really it is, but still I am interested.

See I am in college right now so money is to tight to be traveling out of America and my parents never really had the chance to travel out of America. So the reason I ask is not because I'm ignorant to what is truly outside of America, but I would like you to tell me what is outside of America to you. Maybe pictures of the place you reside. Or what it is like to live in your country. Really this is just me being curious because people outside of my bubble are fascinating and I'd like you all to show me what it's like until I can one day see what it is like for myself.

Dude I feel the same as you. That is why i am currently working two jobs. Come January 08 i am outta here mum and dad.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.