Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Insidejohnmalkovich]

I have heard some foreign teachers get quite heated with their students, insistign they never say garbage can, but rather trash can or some other phrase.

I know that in Britain it is called a bin. (In North America a bin is a large container. It could be used for garbage or food or any other thing.)

However, I am unaware as to the importance of distinguishign between the words trash and garbage. You throw it all out.

I suppose one could call the receptacles in the classrooms wastepaper baskets, but the students and no few teachers throw all kinds of wet and messy garbage therein.

Please explain if there is an explanation.

[Yu_Bum_suk]

I've been teaching here 4 1/2 years and have spoken to hundreds of EFL teachers, and this is the first I've ever heard of this issue.

[cruisemonkey]

[Xuanzang]

I have no problems with either term. I also use them interchangeably with the kids.

[thegadfly]

I am from the American Midwest, and everyone I know calls it a garbage can...I am not sure if trashcan is a regionalism or not, but I DO know that when I went to Texas, folks got pretty heated when I asked for a pop instead of a soda...so maybe chalk it up to a regionalism, or smack the uptight FT in the noggin...I'd suggest the latter.

[lifeinkorea]

You infidels, you never say "garbage can".

[harlowethrombey]

Garbage can/Garbage day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7gIpuIVE3k

probably having flashbacks of this fateful, bloody christmas day. . .

[Gimpokid]

The only person who I've ever heard make a serious distinction between trash and garbage is my father who is admittedly a kind of eccentic guy.

According to dad garbage is something that can go into a garbage disposal or "insinkerator" and trash was everything else.

I don't think this is a very common thought process.

[Scotticus]

[Ya-ta Boy]

I've run into a few people who knew for a fact that garbage/trash/waste/basket/can/bin were not the same thing at all and would go on and on about which was which, but I never understood because I stopped listening when their eyes started glowing fervently.

[Gusss]

Rubbish bin

[Ut videam]

I've heard the same garbage/trash distinction that Gimpokid made.

Namely, "garbage" referred to food trash that, on a farm, would be discarded in a "garbage pail" and added to the pigs' slop. Trash referred to... everything else.

As I recall, the source of this distinction was rather dated. I don't think it constitutes common usage anymore. It does have a parallel in Korea, however, as people are required to separate their 음식물 쓰레기 (food waste) from their 일반 쓰레기 (general trash).

[ekul]

[ArizonaBill]

The word garbage may have a food waste connotation, but it typically is used to mean any kind of trash. The whole issue of what to call a refuse receptacle probably depends on the region you're from, though. I'm from the Midwest and I've always called them trash cans. I've also heard people say garbage (sans "can") synonymously, like "throw that empty bottle into the garbage," though this doesn't necessarily refer to the actual container, just the fact that a piece of refuse is going to be entered into a system whereby it will eventually end up in a landfill. Maybe that's that they mean when people say there's something wrong with the term garbage can? Although I hardly see how calling it a garbage can is bad.

[nate2008]