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| Foreign words and phrases are useful only to English majors |
| I agree |
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10% |
[ 1 ] |
| I agree, but would add adult students to that |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| I think it also would be useful for more able Oral English students |
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40% |
[ 4 ] |
| I think all English language students would profit from it |
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30% |
[ 3 ] |
| I think that other than majors, other students wouldn't benefit |
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20% |
[ 2 ] |
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| Total Votes : 10 |
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Message |
FreakingTea
Joined: 09 Jan 2013
Posts: 167
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 Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:42 am Post subject: |
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| choudoufu wrote: |
| Non Sequitur wrote: |
| For example the French ‘cul de sac’, is shown as:..... |
sure......but in americaland (outside of boston) we don't use "culdesac."
we day "dead end."
"culdesac" would be less common than "fahrvergnügen." |
We say cul-de-sac in northern Kentucky. A dead end is different because it doesn't provide a handy way of turning around. Unless I've always misunderstood what cul-de-sac actually meant. |
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Bud Powell
Joined: 11 Jul 2013
Posts: 1736
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| Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 12:21 pm Post subject: |
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| FreakingTea wrote: |
| choudoufu wrote: |
| Non Sequitur wrote: |
| For example the French ‘cul de sac’, is shown as:..... |
sure......but in americaland (outside of boston) we don't use "culdesac."
we day "dead end."
"culdesac" would be less common than "fahrvergnügen." |
We say cul-de-sac in northern Kentucky. A dead end is different because it doesn't provide a handy way of turning around. Unless I've always misunderstood what cul-de-sac actually meant. |
In America, familiarity with this term is probably dependent upon location, age of the neighborhood, and socioeconomic status of the listener/reader. Newer neighborhoods in America (say, those built during the past forty years) generally don't end abruptly (a dead end). There's a house at the very end of the street. There's usually a rounded end to the street to allow people to turn around rather than to use someone's driveway for that purpose.
Be sure that the growing upper class in America knows what a cul-de-sac is.
I seriously doubt that the vast majority of Americans would be familiar with farvergnugen largely because it was used as an advertising slogan mostly in Europe and quickly passed from common usage. I also doubt that it has actually become a loan word (that is, included in the Oxford English Dictionary--- not the Oxford Dictionary. They're two completely different publications). I don't have an OED in my possession to support this, but I think that farvergnugen ranks somewhere in the lexicon of general usage with bootylicious which too, will fall into obscurity in a generation.
One interesting word which has crept into the English language and is in the OED (I know because I looked it up in the OED at my hometown university library) is the German schadenfreude. It means "derivation of pleasure from the misfortune of others". Not only is it in the OED, it's in online dictionaries. It is often used by psychologists and those writing about personality (in a medical context as well as in a literary context).
Would I teach schadenfreude in China? Probably not unless the class was composed of exceptional scholars of the English language.
Would I teach cul-de-sac in China? I'm not sure. I don't think I've ever seen one in China. |
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Harbin
Joined: 19 Feb 2013
Posts: 161
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| Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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| choudoufu wrote: |
sure......but in americaland (outside of boston) we don't use "culdesac."
we day "dead end."
"culdesac" would be less common than "fahrvergnügen." |
I'm from the south and understand cul de sec better than the German phrase for pleasure trip  |
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Sarcastro
Joined: 18 Dec 2010
Posts: 89
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
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| Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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| choudoufu wrote: |
| Non Sequitur wrote: |
| For example the French ‘cul de sac’, is shown as:..... |
sure......but in americaland (outside of boston) we don't use "culdesac."
we day "dead end."
"culdesac" would be less common than "fahrvergnügen." |
Im from Michigan and it would be the exact opposite. |
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Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
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| Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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| choudoufu wrote: |
| Non Sequitur wrote: |
| For example the French ‘cul de sac’, is shown as:..... |
sure......but in americaland (outside of boston) we don't use "culdesac."
we day "dead end."
"culdesac" would be less common than "fahrvergnügen." |
Wow!
Stop the world. Americaland wants to get off. |
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johntpartee
Joined: 02 Mar 2010
Posts: 3258
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| Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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"Dead-end" is different than "cul-de-sac" cause a cul-de-sac ain't! "Loop" would be closer (and more apropos).
| Quote: |
| Would I teach schadenfreude |
My former Chinese lady friend used this word in a text message; she was a functional English speaker, but far from fluent (I had to look it up). |
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Mr. Kalgukshi
Mod Team
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Posts: 6613
Location: Need to know basis only.
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| Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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American English has been heavily impacted by Spanish words. Unfortunately, most ESL learners have little or no knowledge of them. Were they to study and live in the U.S., they would benefit from knowing beforehand their meaning and correct pronunciation:
http://spanish.about.com/cs/historyofspanish/a/spanishloanword.htm |
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Non Sequitur
Joined: 23 May 2010
Posts: 4724
Location: China
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