one spot five

Kes · Post by **Kes** » Wed May 31, 2006 8:53 pm

Hi, I have a whole company here in Germany where they all say spot instead of point to show decimals, ie 1.5 becomes one spot five instead of one point five. Has anybody heard this before? My students swear people from other companies do it too... They are advanced level and I told them "hey, if the others understand you then it's okay, but it's not official English". But maybe it is?

sbourque · Post by **sbourque** » Wed May 31, 2006 9:32 pm

I taught in Germany (a few years ago) and never heard that one. And don't the Europeans use a comma instead of a period, i.e. they would write "1,8" ? as in "eins komma acht", where we would say "one point eight"?

Of course, the German language is changing quickly. A friend just e-mailed me about a new term: Verkehrrowdies, drivers who succumb to road rage.

strider · Post by **strider** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:51 am

For the smallest piece of punctuation, the "spot" has quite a few names.

I agree that, when talking about numbers, we say 'point'. For example, 'the value of PI is three point one four one'.

When we speak about the internet, we say 'BBC dot com'.

In writing, it's called 'full stop' in British English and 'period' in American English.

But I would say that 'spot' is more for a picture (the artist used very small spots to draw a cloud) or for other non-writing uses (he has a large red spot on the end of his nose')

In France, a comma is used instead of a decimal point (the value of PI is three comma one four one). So, be warned - if you see the figures 12,123 for example, it means a little over twelve if written by a Frenchman or more than twelve thousand if written by an American!

Amy_H · Post by **Amy_H** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:49 pm

Hi Kes

I've been doing Business English courses in Germany for years and I've never heard "spot" instead of "point" (or instead of "full stop" or "period" or "dot" or even "comma", for that matter). That's weird. And here I thought I'd heard 'em all....

Sounds like an internal "company special". What sort of company is it?

Amy

emile · Post by **emile** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 12:34 am

Sometimes words and phrases spread through a company like 'memes'. For example, I did testing at a company where everybody used to say 'in term of...', and in a college where I worked, it was 'reinventing the wheel'.
The phrase can become so normal to the users that they swear everyone uses it and refuse to believe it's wrong. And even English teachers can get confused, too. Here in Malaysia, people say 'handphone' and I picked it up and used it when I was in America.

my site: www.roadtogrammar.com

Amy_H · Post by **Amy_H** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 9:43 am

Hi emile

It sounds like you think "reinventing the wheel" is not a well-know phrase.

Or did they just use it the wrong way?

Amy

emile · Post by **emile** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 12:51 am

It sounds like you think "reinventing the wheel" is not a well-know phrase. Or did they just use it the wrong way?

I mean it's a cool phrase, but when you hear it at every single business meeting you attend, it becomes a well-worn cliche (actually, 'well-worn cliche' may also be a well-worn cliche). But it illustrates how people in a certain organisation spread their own particular brand of English, for better or worse.

I also remember when I attended boarding school, hearing slang expressions that I never heard anywhere else other than that school. It would be interesting to do research on such a thing.

my site: www.roadtogrammar.com

tigertiger · Post by **tigertiger** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 3:46 am

emile wrote:
It sounds like you think "reinventing the wheel" is not a well-know phrase. Or did they just use it the wrong way?

I also remember when I attended boarding school, hearing slang expressions that I never heard anywhere else other than that school. It would be interesting to do research on such a thing.

Some thoughts, a bit of a ramble.
This isn't very clear but bear with me.

Perhaps one spot five can be likened to a colloquialism.
Like in some parts of the Midlands of England you may be greeted by "Aye up duck". Or in Bristol, children are 'dappers'.

and re-inventing... could be likened to a colloqial use.
For example in some parts of the North of England you will here the phrase "wait while" which is the same as "wait until"

There are also regional uses and social group uses of language.
In the 80's yuppies were prone to say 'chiao' in stead of goodbye.
People who indulge in wacky-backy (especially stoners) also have thier own lingo.

Perhaps with the school specific slang this could be likened to language as part of cultural identity. Your ability/inability to use the slang would show a level of belonging to the social group. Maybe why first years get so many beatings.

Kes · Post by **Kes** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 1:13 pm

Hey Tigertiger, thanks for reinventing the wheel

I do not think it is strange that a group of people in a company would invent thier own phrases, I was just wondering if maybe it was correct English that I missed out on by not having studied economics (a problem for lots of Business English teachers I'm sure). But it obviously isn't, or someone else would have heard it too. It's an investment company by the way.

Thanks for helping everybody!

tigertiger · Post by **tigertiger** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 4:05 pm

glad we could help. Hope we were 'spot on'

Amy_H · Post by **Amy_H** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:20 am

Kes wrote: It's an investment company by the way.

Now, that sounds like it just might just have something to do with it, Kes! Isn't 'spot' a favorite word for those investment guys anyway?

Thanks for the clarification, emile. Yes, there do seem to be lots of people 'reinventing the wheel'. And organizations do like creating their own special language flavors. I once got my hands on a copy of one company's internal "jargon dictionary". It had been written solely for the purpose of clarifying internal company jargon. I suspect it had been written only half in jest.

Of course, it included a lot of jargon and buzzwords that you hear in other companies, too. But there was also some etremely "original" stuff in it. Original, that is, for outsiders.

It was hysterical.

Amy

emile · Post by **emile** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 12:30 am

I once got my hands on a copy of one company's internal "jargon dictionary". It had been written solely for the purpose of clarifying internal company jargon.

I've seen these, too. A call center gave me a list of acronyms which included such gems as 'FTS', which stands for 'follow the sun'. I thought I'd gotten mixed up in an Aztec cult, but apparently, a call center is FTS when they have different shifts to deal with Asian, European and American callers during daylight hours in those countries.

I suspect it had been written only half in jest.

I dunno... some of these multinationals seem to take 'Dilbert' cartoons as their policy guides.

my site: www.roadtogrammar.com