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January 31, 2007
Wednesday Errata
I hope that's the right use of that word. I mean to say that it's this'n'that.
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Driving home from school (dropping the Dude off at work!), I listen to NPR and the news. They were reporting on the reaction of the Turks to the situation in Iraq, esp. in relation to their own internal racial tension what with the Kurds getting in the way and all that. (I'm sorry. I can't resist a good pun this early.)
Back to the point. I also can't resist telling about when a non-native English speaker gets an idiom just a little off...this Turkish man was saying that this group wanted to have the best of both worlds: "They want the cake and to eat it all." (Get it? It's usually "They want their cake and eat it too," even though that's gramatically incorrect.)
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Here's another non-native gaffe. A Bosnian friend of mine from The Department Store was sitting with me in the break room, and she was giving me advice about working. She said that my husband would understand if so-and-so didn't get done this week because I had a lot of hours to work. "You're a working girl, after all." I giggled and told her I understood and then lovingly (because she's also a Christian) explained about that idiom. She blushed and then thanked me for telling her about idioms.
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It's amazing about idioms. They have meaning you'd never suppose. They catch you by surprise and then you make a fool of yourself. Oh well...que sera sera, after all.
| By The Newest Worker | 08:35 AM
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Comments
Wow.
I wouldn't have corrected the Bosnian because I didn't know the true meaning of that idiom.
I feel stupid.
Posted by: Carrie at January 31, 2007 09:56 AM