Comments on: What Brits say v what they mean – handy de-coding device

By: christine san jose

christine san jose — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 04:00:45 +0000

Darn it, stop giving all our secrets away! We understand each other perfectly, thank you (which is surely the aim of the game).

By: Peter Atkin

Peter Atkin — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 20:06:44 +0000

I came across this article while trying to find a way of explaining to a French company why their letter of recommendation which seemed excellent on the face of it would have basically dammed me to ‘the deepest pit of hell’ to any English company, so along with my explanation to them which took me a little while to figure out I sent this link.

As a Brit, the old style to which the reference material for the most part is very accurate however it should be noted that there are some instances where this could be misleading.

Take the infamous ‘quite good’ while in normal Brit based circumstances this would mean to be barley acceptable but if used like this “this is quite good’ that would normally mean ‘it is very good indeed’; It could also mean ‘diabolically bad’ depending on the tone and context that it is used in.

British is like any other language, you have the spoken written documented side of it then you have the historical lived through cultural side of it, and that can change greatly from region to region or in Scotland’s case town to town, this would be very difficult explain to a ‘cultural visitor’ for lack of a better way of putting it.

But all in all very impressed, ‘I never really majored’ in English which means ‘I’m crap’ however I really appreciate the effort that been put into this small article / info piece, I shall use it as a reference from now on where applicable.

By: Foam Wrecker

Foam Wrecker — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:46:54 +0000

“When you get a minute”

means

“Do this immediately”

what others think

“There’s no rush to get this done”

By: David H

David H — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:37:54 +0000

When on the phone Brits say “No. I’m sorry…” what they mean is “You are wrong and I’m going on the offensive.”

What others understand “Finally he admits he’s wrong”

By: Kerri

Kerri — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:28:49 +0000

…and that reminds me of another:

- “Well, I’ll leave you to it then.”
- Brit means: “I cannot WAIT to get out of this room and leave behind the load of work I’ve just dumped on her desk.”
- What others understand: “How nice and respectful of my time, and what a demonstration of confidence in my abilities!”

By: Pam Burton

Pam Burton — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:25:28 +0000

Here’s another one:
“Leave it with me”
Brit means “Hell will freeze over before you see a solution to this problem”
What others understand” Oh I don’t have to worry about this. He/she has got it handled.”

By: Deepa

Deepa — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:11:57 +0000

Neil, at least in the old days, when an Indian said “quite good” it meant “excellent”

By: Londoner1998

Londoner1998 — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:54:04 +0000

I have one to contribute: ‘thank you for making the time to come long’, said by The Boss when they call you to a meeting room with not very good news… meaning: ‘we are going to be so unfair and makae your life so hard that is borderline illegal, but we don’t really care and can’t wait for you to go’.

Me, being continental replied: ‘I can’t not make the time for you, can I?’, to an stunned audience of senior managers… you live and learn.

By: Neil Craig

Neil Craig — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:39:05 +0000

But when a Japanese says “quite good” he means “you’ve blown it”.

By: Miganoush

Miganoush — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 03:41:21 +0000

Oh oh… very alerting. I should go back to my PF and dig out my appraisals of last 5 years to see what my Brtish managers’ve really said…