Same product, same name, but pronounced so so differently. Now, I wonder why that is. It confuses people like me.
Tag: english
exotic…not
Mr M is doing a bit of Italian through Duolingo (whilst I am doing my Irish) in lieu of our impending visit to Italy in December (all about that later) I can’t help but hear a few words here and there and they do get stuck in my memory. One of them is “Pomodoro” which mean “tomato”. On my way back home from work, I spotted this restaurant which I know is a chain in London (at the least) and it was called “Rossopomodoro”. Sounds very exotic isn’t. Now that I know what it literally translates to i.e., red tomato, it doesn’t sound so exotic anymore. Why would you want to name your restaurant “red tomato”? that is a bit odd isn’t? I am sure if we try and translate some of those exotically named restaurants to English, it would be quite funny. One such restaurant I remember in USA (?) is El Pollo Loco which literally translates to Crazy Chicken! 😆 Do you know of any such names?
What’s your name? … What!?!?
All of you know that I use a pseudonym for my blogging. Which I think sounds much better than my real name or so I think. My real name (first name + last name) has 24 letters in it. Yeah, just two short of the total alphabet set, but thankfully not all of the alphabets are used. It is not an uncommon name, but it is definitely pronounced wrongly even by most South Indians because it kind of rhymes with a God’s name who is a male deity. My last name (which is my dad’s) is not a common one and it is quite lengthy too. I didn’t think my name would give me stories to tell about until I moved here.
I had to fill up some government applications for which I had to first call them up and give them my details. I did spell out my name, all 24 letters and all, but when the postal application came through, my name on the address had the worst spelling ever. All my ‘a’ was replaced with ‘ay’ and the next letters missed. All in all, except for a few letters which cannot go wrong, all the other letters were wrong. We had a good laugh at that and were thankful that they chose to not fill the form with that name and let me write it. Small mercies.
Next came the gym. When I went there to enquire about the membership I told the guy at the helpdesk that I had been using their gym during my other trips using the weekly passes so I would be on their system. He asked me for my name and when I told him, he asked me to spell it. When I started on my last name after say about 6/7 letters he said ‘that should be enough. I am sure there wouldn’t be anyone else with that surname for sure’ and voila! there I was on their system. He looked at my documents and asked me why I haven’t taken my husband’s name which is much smaller and easier to pronounce. I told him that we weren’t looking to do that and this way we can have some fun looking at people’s responses. He then asked me how long it took my husband to learn my name. Not too long actually. Even though he is Irish, he is aware of Indian culture, religion etc…so he did pick up my name and its meaning faster.
One consultant who called up called me by a totally different name (I think he shortened my first name, but still it sounded so different) and I had to ask him twice before confirming that it was indeed me, even though I don’t go by that name and then continue the conversation.
I know that this is just the beginning and there will be so much more incidents to come. I can’t wait for it. I am gonna carry a small paper with my full name and what they can call me instead, like a visiting card. I think that will be much easier considering the alternative. My husband (I better refer to him as Mr. M from now on) suggested me to learn the NATO Phonetic Alphabet which will come in handy when I have to spell them out so that ‘a’ will remain ‘a’ and not get modified to something like ‘i’ or ‘y’.
Oxford’s Words in a Sentence
Ever since I read the list of words shortlisted for Oxford Dictionaries word of the year, I couldn’t help but wonder if we can combine all those words in a meaningful sentence. Here is my try. If you manage to write one of your own and would like to share it, please ping back to this post or tag it as #WordsOfTheYearSentence.
For reference, here are those words.
hygge, n.
mass noun] a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture)
Brexiteer
British informal a person who is in favour of the United Kingdom withdrawing from the European Union
Latinx, n. and adj.
Noun: a person of Latin American origin or descent (used as a gender-neutral or non-binary alternative to Latino or Latina)
coulrophobia, n.
extreme or irrational fear of clowns
adulting
[mass noun] informal the practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks
chatbot
a computer program designed to simulate a conversation with human users, especially over the Internet
glass cliff, n.
used with reference to a situation in which a woman or member of a minority group ascends to a leadership position in challenging circumstances where the risk of failure is high.
alt-right, n.
(in the US) an ideological grouping associated with extreme conservative or reactionary viewpoints, characterized by a rejection of mainstream politics and by the use of online media to disseminate deliberately controversial content.
woke, adj.
US informal alert to injustice in society, especially racism.
Here is my Sentence (you can use the words in any order) (if there are any mistakes please do let me know)
The hygge in my life was messed up this year when I woke to first the brexiteer’s rejoicing and then later the alt-right groups creating trouble for Latinx and other races and minorities making people fear them more than their fear of coulrophobia and wondering when the women will stop falling off the glass cliff and wishing that people grow beyond basic adulting and help us look forward in the future with some hope so that we don’t end up taking orders from a chatbot .
Mugachino ???
I hardly understood half of the words that was there in this new article “Ranga, bogan and mugachino among new words added to Australian dictionary” except for budgie smugglers because I remember some Australian Actor (was it Chris Hemsworth or Margot Robbie ? ) mention it in one of their interviews. Mugachino is so ….I don’t know…
In the recent years, languages are changing so much and so many slang terms are being accepted in the dictionaries. Don’t know if it is good or bad. But I know that it is going to be a lot difficult if there are too many slang terms added and if not everyone is aware of it. I already have so many problems with words while communicating with someone in English. Don’t need no more complicated slang terms to confuse every one now yo. At the least, we can get some good laugh out of those mix-up, as we always do. What do you think? Do you use any of these slang terms? What other slang terms you think are popular?
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