amazing English languages
By Cat1993
@Cat1993 (511)
South Africa
July 16, 2017 12:24am CST
Amazing how the majority of the world can speak English but yet we don't always understand each other 100%. Lets take South African English... we say robot for a traffic light, we say chips for french fries, we call a gas station a garage. In Dubai I asked a taxi driver to drop me off at the robot(traffic light) and he looked at me as if I'm crazy hahaha. Every time I go overseas I need to adjust my language. At least my husband is open minded and learn to understand what I'm trying to say.
Sometimes when my step father talks (he's from the UK), he says something and then I have to pause the whole conversation to actually understand what he is trying to say.
I know Indians use the words: "same same". Now I use incorrect English and tell everyone same same when something is the same.
One language with soooo many different words in different countries.
Which English words does only your country use that a foreigner won't understand?
6 people like this
7 responses
@prashu228 (37524)
• India
16 Jul 17
Haha .. lol.good observation indeed. As of now I don't remember any ,which only we use...hmmm will think and let you know
3 people like this
@shikharava (1838)
•
16 Jul 17
How about cousin brother and cousin sister for male and female cousins!
They're just cousins to us
They're just cousins to us1 person likes this
@Cat1993 (511)
• South Africa
16 Jul 17
@shikharava lol when I use it in a conversation I will say my boy/girl cousin. I think if you don't use gender people will get the wrong picture
1 person likes this
@shikharava (1838)
•
16 Jul 17
The American idioms are more diverse in this regard. We say for crying out loud which is an alteration of for Christ's sake
We say for realises which came from for real as a childish idiom,. This actually means "do you mean it?," if interrogative, and "I mean it," if affirmative.
And there are many more ways to say one thing or the other. Truly English is a *crazy language (idiom alert)
*So keep up your dibs and let your spirits rolling (more idiom alert)
*So keep up your dibs and let your spirits rolling (more idiom alert)1 person likes this
@Cat1993 (511)
• South Africa
16 Jul 17
I think many of us actually know a lot of American sayings as our TV is mostly full of American shows. We also use some of the American idioms. Ps talking of shows... I love the american show: my 600lb life. I love how you Americans can argue with a doctor
1 person likes this
@Cat1993 (511)
• South Africa
16 Jul 17
@shikharava here a doctor gets much more respect than there.
1 person likes this
@Letranknight2015 (51914)
• Philippines
16 Jul 17
If only I could speak the languages of nations from other countries..I honestly don't know why the english languages connects people across the world.
1 person likes this
I happen to like the idea of a language connecting us 
@cahaya1983 (11116)
• Malaysia
16 Jul 17
Robot for traffic light sounds so cute! Do you call a real robot something else then?
1 person likes this
