A handy guide for our fellow Europeans, and others trying to fathom weaselly Brit-speak. Suggest you have this to hand at the next meeting [h/t Nicholas Pialek]
This blog is written and maintained by Duncan Green, strategic adviser for Oxfam GB and author of 'From Poverty to Power'. More information on Duncan and the book is available on the From Poverty to Power official website.
It is a personal reflection by the author. It is intended to provoke debate and conversations about development, not as a comprehensive statement of Oxfam's agreed policies - for those, please take a deep breath and read the Oxfam International strategic plan or consult policy papers on a range of development issues.
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June 7th, 2011 at 8:55 am
Really useful, and indeed true! (Said by an Italian with a Scottish partner…)
June 7th, 2011 at 10:23 am
OUCH! Too, too close to the truth…or should I say, “not bad”?
June 7th, 2011 at 3:47 pm
I think we need a gender-sensitised version – what British men say and what British women say and what they mean. Then perhaps us Brits might start to understand each other
) There’s always hope…
June 8th, 2011 at 1:23 am
suddenly all the years I spent working for OGB as an aussie (whatever you do, don;t mention the word “convict”) are illuminated!
June 8th, 2011 at 1:45 am
Oh…now I see where we Canadians get our “politeness” from!
June 8th, 2011 at 3:00 pm
A German friend pointed out another thing we Brits do: a long drawn-out “hmmmmm..” noise which sounds like “I am thinking about your interesting comment” but actually means “I am not even bothering to think about your idiotic contribution”.
June 9th, 2011 at 11:41 am
I am particularly fond of interesting and that drawn out hmmm you speak of Gus.
Love it.
June 12th, 2011 at 12:12 am
I like this posting and it should be pointed out that Americans, speaking to other Americans, speak with the same kind of disquieting subterfuge.
June 13th, 2011 at 4:41 am
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…
June 15th, 2011 at 5:39 pm
But when a Japanese says “quite good” he means “you’ve blown it”.
December 16th, 2011 at 4:54 pm
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.
January 20th, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Neil, at least in the old days, when an Indian said “quite good” it meant “excellent”
January 23rd, 2012 at 5:25 am
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.”
February 2nd, 2012 at 5:28 am
…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!”
February 11th, 2012 at 2:37 am
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”
February 23rd, 2012 at 11:46 am
“When you get a minute”
means
“Do this immediately”
what others think
“There’s no rush to get this done”
March 27th, 2012 at 9:06 pm
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.
January 18th, 2013 at 5:00 am
Darn it, stop giving all our secrets away! We understand each other perfectly, thank you (which is surely the aim of the game).