Job Discussion Forums

[steviok85]

I am sure it is not a Polishism, but strolling along the pavement the other day I had to chuckle (to myself) when my girlfriend said something along the lines of:
'Let's walk slowly - the pavement's all ice cream'... Icy. This time I corrected her.

[scot47]

'Polishism' does not sounmd euphonic. Call them 'Polonicisms'

[sharter]

There are few more expressions that involve the Polish for 'ice-cream'-sure you weren't confused?

[simon_porter00]

hur hur hur.......

[Mattthemartian]

Misuse of rather
"Wanna come for a drink , ya wee cutie?"
"rather not"
"oh, emmm ok"

Misuse of nervous
"dont be nervous, Matt"
"I'm not nervous, you moron, I'm flippin' raging"

'how are you'
Brilliant how just after a student grasps the concept of 'how are you'/'how you doing' etc they use it totally inapprtopriately.
"hey just phoning to see if you wanna come for a beer"
"how are you?"

Happy days!

[Master Shake]

Standing right in front of the doors when they're waiting to get on a train.

I know they don't know exactly where the train doors will stop. I know they are eager to snatch the seats so they can give their stopy a rest.

But every day I have to shoulder my way past throngs of people who know damn well they are supposed to let people get off the train/metro BEFORE they get on.

It's almost like playing American football against a really crappy team.


I guess this wasn't really about language...

[Mattthemartian]

Another non language 'Polishism' - strategic team queuing at the supermarket

[Master Shake]

[spiral78]

I've seen some pretty effective husband-wife team queuing experts at Tesco here in the Czech Rep. Perhaps we should organise some kind of international queuing olympics

[artemisia]

There's a Tesco in the Czech Rep.?

Never saw those 'fancy' British supermarkets in Germany. There, in the dirt cheap supermarkets of Aldi and Lidl, it was all a bit rough and ready. They didn't need to use teams - it wasn't all that unusual to be elbowed out the way in the long queues and the cashiers would practically fling your change at you. That was usual but it did annoy me when they slammed the bananas down. Once I dropped some coins in the queue and a dubious looking individual* swooped down to pick them up. I was just about to thank him until I realised he'd added my coins to the small change he was counting out to buy his cheap booze.

*Probably an EFL teacher

[spiral78]

There's been a Tesco in Prague centre since about 1996. Now, there are lots scattered around - we even have one in our small town. It's more along the lines of Lidl or Aldi, though, probably not what you'd consider a 'proper' fancy store.

I'm rather enjoying the one here - it's so obvious that they are testing the small-town market - exotic stuff like burrito skins or smoked salmon or asparagus appear once, then disappear forever:-)
They even tried fresh shrimp at one point. Not a hit here

[Sashadroogie]

Hic! American-style imperialist supermarkets hic will be defeated by our Slavic ingenuity hic...

[spiral78]

Our old communist INconvenience store required that one took a cart to be allowed inside, regardless of how much or little one wished to buy. This limited the number of customers inside the store at any one time, you see. It was quite common to have to queue outside the store, in whatever weather, to wait for a cart to be vacant, so that you could shop.

And if you wanted to be picky about brands, forget it! Who needs a choice of coffee, washing powder, cereal, yoghurt, or anything else at all?

Thank god we had a Tesco

[artemisia]

Okay, I know this is going a bit far off the beaten path, but in Asia everywhere you went you were, naturally, confronted with green tea. I did drink it (and I know it's good for you) but it simply wasn't a substitute for a good cuppa! Nor could I find proper coffee (a tragedy for me).

When I was finally pointed in the direction of a supermarket that sold what I wanted - sort of - I fell upon them with fervour and cries of joy. Up until that point, I'd never known Lipton teabags and Robert Harris coffee (all piss-weak) could be such an enormously exciting find.
Living in a foreign country can make you appreciate the 'small' things.

[Master Shake]