The one American thing or pastime you find hard to get into...?

[Angela Harlem]

i speak for all of us, BEG

 

[susanp6]

Soda gets called pop in England - not sure about Wales or Ireland but on the west coast of Scotland we refer to it as ginger! Different from a piece of ginger

 

[GibsonGirl]

What's soda called in other countries?

South Africans call it "cool-drink."

 

[GibsonGirl]

but Union wipes the floor with League

Rugby League.

 

[LJT]

Actually, AFL (Australian Football League/Aussie Rules) was the first "coded" football ever. We have this show called 20-1 which counts down the 20 best of any given thing and recently the topic was Aussie inventions and we were proud to lay claim to the first code of football. This little fact floored me. I thought Soccer/football was surely the oldest and first. While it may be the oldest, it wasn't a recognised code of football until after we invented AFL.
So! Confused yet? We play football (Soccer), also AFL, and we have the Rugby Union and Rugby League codes as well - both very similar games but Union wipes the floor with League (which is another topic altogether )

Ball mad, we are!

Of course there is also International rules

 

[TheQuiet1]

Nope but I've got it! It wasn't an 'lt' ending- it was teached/taught. Americans would say 'teached' right? Whilst we'd say 'taught'.

Wait! Wait! I've got it now- learned/learnt. That was the one! Third time lucky there.

The big thing that I ABSOLUTELY cannot stand about the USA (and I'm sure it hacks off Americans too) is this phrase:

I could care less.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that it came from the States. It is THE most irritating phrase ever. It means the exact opposite of what you want it to mean and that's why it annoys me so much.

 

[Kristie]

I think it's supposed to be "I couldn't care less"
but we're lazy states-people
I admit I'm guilty of leaving out the "n't"

 

[trevster2k]

What do guys call mosquitos? Some parts of Canada, we call them mosquitos while in others they are just flies. Same thing with soft drinks, some places everything is pop but elsewhere everything is coke (even though Pepsi owns Quebec and Newfoundland)

 

[Kristie]

I don't think I've ever heard mosquitoes referred to as "flies"... and the only place I've been where they call it all Coke is southern Indiana/Kentucky.



here's a random fun mosquito fact: When Lewis and Clark did their exploring one of them (can't remember which) kept a diary in which he spelled "mosquitoes" 17 different ways.

 

[GibsonGirl]

What do guys call mosquitos? Some parts of Canada, we call them mosquitos while in others they are just flies. Same thing with soft drinks, some places everything is pop but elsewhere everything is coke (even though Pepsi owns Quebec and Newfoundland)

Anything that has wings is a "fly" in Newfoundland, as you'll know. It was very confusing initially. I'll never forget that first summer when we went out in the woods with my mother's friend, who kept on commenting on all the "flies." It was a real WTF moment. There were dozens of mozzies around and very few actual flies.

Hey, here's an American thing I can't get into! The Price Is Right.

 

[trevster2k]

Anything that has wings is a "fly" in Newfoundland, as you'll know. It was very confusing initially. I'll never forget that first summer when we went out in the woods with my mother's friend, who kept on commenting on all the "flies." It was a real WTF moment. There were dozens of mozzies around and very few actual flies.

Hey, here's an American thing I can't get into! The Price Is Right.

We like to keep things simple in Newfoundland, which is why so many dialects involve muttering and slurring of words, haha

Speaking of flies...

A Torontonian, a Nova Scotian, and an old Newfie went into a bar and each ordered a beer. Each found a fly in their beer.

The Torontonian looked in his beer and said, "Hey bartender I have a fly in my beer. Give me another beer."

The Nova Scotian looked in his beer, found the fly, reached in an picked it out and continued drinking.

The old Newfie looked in his beer, saw the fly, grabbed it by the wings, shook it over the glass and yelled, "Spit it out!"

 

[GibsonGirl]

That's a good one, trev, I haven't heard it before. Gotta love the Newfie jokes, eh b'y. Of course, you're only allowed to tell them if you're from Newfoundland or you live in it!

I have a sudden desire to go listen to some Buddy Wasisname tapes. DA CHOPPER!

"Remember the part in Star Trek where they goes from nutting to warp factor 10 like that, they're gone ? Same t'ing. Only t'ing is I went straight up. I was flattened out like a nipper on a windshield. My sonny by, I went from 6 feet to 2 inches flat just like that. Me, my son I'm gonna tell ya me arsehole come right up in my t'roat. I had to glutch to make me underwear go down over me eyeballs. And if it weren't for the fact that I got me chest muscles all built up up here old man, I never woulda been able to pick me arm up off the seat and shift that shifter back down in first and slow 'er down a bit, old man. And when I looked out I come away with two links of picket fence, and the wife's clothesline pole and all her dozen sets of brassieres stapled on to the clothesline. And thank God the wife is a D cup cause every one of 'em was acting like a parachute and slowin' me down. You seen that movie ATwister"? My son, tornadoes got nuttin' on what this devil of a machine picked up my son."

 

[trevster2k]

^

I found that hard to read at times and I know what it says, I pity the CFAs trying to read it which is most of the people here except for AOD, you and me.

Now listen folks, we're firm believers in the fact that Newfoundlanders can communicate more quickly than anyone anywhere on the face of the earth. Before we go any further in this show, we're gonna proceed to demonstrate that fact to you and here's how we're gonna do it. Ray and I will give you standard, boring English expressions and Cocky here will turn it into Newfunese. Ok?

Kevin: You never told me that.
Ray: You look surprised.
Kevin: You never told, we never practiced this.
Ray: You don't need the practice, sure look at you, you can do anything. See now if you can interpret this in Newfunese. "Despite the present adversity, maintain your composure".
Kevin: "Hang on to yer drawers!"
Ray: Very good!
Kevin: Right
Ray: Right
Kevin: They liked that, they liked that. There's nutting to that sure, nuttin' to it.
Wayne: Now listen Kevin, try another one. Try this one: "I am highly agitated, I'm think I'm headed for a nervous breakdown."
Kevin: "Me nerves is rubbed right raw".
Ray: You don't need to be nervous for this. Sure you're doing a wonderful job
Kevin: Yessir, buddy.
Ray: This one should be fairly easy for ya. "Pardon me sir, to what are you referring?"
Kevin: "Wha"?
Ray: They don't come any better than that, do they b'y?
Kevin: Job to get it any shorter than than, hey? That's what we calls efficient language, hey?
Wayne: "The financial situation is so depressing I think we're headed for total economic collapse."
Kevin: "Da arse is gone right out of 'er".
Ray: Now Kevin, I'd like to change the pace here for a minute and just see if you can take your ears back, go back a few years, and think of someone by the name of William Shakespeare. Are you familiar with William Shakespeare?
Kevin: Oh yes, oh yeah, I knows him from a long ways back, he got the welding shop down in Musgravetown, yeah.
Ray: No, no, no
Kevin: Bill, Ralph's brudder?
Ray: No.
Kevin: Yeah, Bill, whatever, yeah, Ralph's brudder that owns the welding shop. YES HE OWNS THE WELDING SHOP IN MUSGRAVETOWN! I KNOWS CAUSE I OWES THE BUGGER 50 BUCKS!
Ray: No.
Kevin: Whatta ya mean no?
Ray: No the fella I'm thinking about was a man who put wonderful words on paper.
Kevin: I dunno about that buddy, but he can weld the arse on a cat. Bill, Bill, write on paper. He's lucky if he can put an X down by his name.
Ray: Probably if I recited this for you it might come back to you and tell you who he is. "To be or not to be, that is the question." William. Translation?
Kevin: "You is or you isn't, I figgers."
Ray: That's not bad.
Wayne: Try this one: "I have temporarily lost control of certain involuntary muscles due to laughter."
Kevin: "I pissed meself."

 

[GibsonGirl]

That's what makes it all the better! No-one else will be able to appreciate that, apart from the select few of us who have been fortunate enough to hear it. You people think New Yorkers talk fast? (Okay, other thread, but never mind.) Wait until you hear a Newfoundlander going full throttle!

Um, something else to keep this on topic...

Why you would douse dried meat in a sticky, sweet coating (I'm talking about beef jerky, here.) It should be covered in spices and salt! Biltong, mmm.

EDIT: HA! I didn't see your edit before I posted. That's classic! "Da arse is gone right outta 'er"

 

[verte76]

I can't get into American football or basketball. I hate it when they're going to the end of a football or basketball game when I'm waiting to watch tennis or figure skating. This stuff bores me to death. I hate the way they're always stopping the clock, etc, etc, I just don't like it.