他のスレッドで見つけた英語表現について質問するスレ ッド

[Kyoko_desu]

thread title
PG-rated : 40 reasons to think that the Japanese are superficial

Post #97

in the US, at least where I live, people of often talk about "the weather". Seems a bit more superficial to me than food. Or "How 'bout dem Packers".


Firstly, "How 'bout dem Packers" is more properly "How about them Packers?", isn't it? "packer" is someone who puts something into a container or the people who crowd together, but in this sentence, the first letter "P" is capitalized, so it might be a proper name. So the people called Packers are commonly known in the US? And they talk about Packers in a light conversation just like they talk about weather?

Oh I just found "Green Bay Packers" an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, "Anderson Packers", a former NBA team from 1949 to 1950, and "Chicago Packers", the former name of the Washington Wizards NBA team from 1961-1962 on Wikipedia. The second one is very old and third one is not used anymore, so maybe Sukotto-san meant Green Bay Packers? Weather and sports can be a good topic when you just wanna have a light conversation, can't they?

Another thing I could think of is:
"How 'bout dem Packers" is a title of a well-known book or TV programme in the US although I didn't get a good result when I searched for one on Google.

Is any of my guess a bingo? Maybe none of them is?

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

 

[leonmarino]

お～～！久々の質問やね～！きたーーーーーーーーーー！なんちゃって。

えっと、Ｈｏｗ ａｂｏｕｔ ｔｈｅｍ Ｐａｃｋｅｒｓ は「パッカーズの調子はどうでしょう」って意味ね。天気についてのお話を始めるみたいにいい話題が思いつかない時に、こうやってスポーツの話しを始めると。だからＧｒｅｅｎ Ｂａｙ Ｐａｃｋｅｒｓの話なんじゃない？

そのスレはある誰かさんのだからオイは無視してるけんね。（笑）

詳しく説明できなくてスンマセン！

 

[nice gaijin]

leon's pretty much got it; it's just something you say when you can't think of anything else. It's like saying 寒いですね！

An older and more common version is "How 'bout them Yankees?" You could substitute any team name I suppose, but the Yankees and more recently the Packers are commonly used.

 

[White Rose]

There were some there that would slot me for the tennies on my feet.

From the context, at first I thought "slot" there probably means to "steal", "attack" or something like that.

Close, but no cigar Mr Fortescue

Sorry to drag this up, but ive been reading through this thread and i know what this means.

It's uk army slang for 'kill'. so hes saying he wouldnt trust the people there not to murder him for his shoes.

 

[White Rose]

Oh and one more thing - i'm interested if you can figure this out.

put yer yer yer, and tell us what yer yer can yer, cuz yer yer can yer more'n my yer can yer.

To my shame, it took me years to figure out what this meant when i was a kid. my dad used to say it all the time to annoy me when i was little.

 

[Kyoko_desu]

leon and nice gaijin-san, thanks so much for the answers but now I have new questions.

Is "how 'bout dem (some popular sports team name)?" like a set phrase? Or they just start talking about one, say, "Did you see the Packers' game yesterday?"
アメリカでは、いつも、決まり言葉のように "how 'bout dem Packers?" と聞くことが多いんでしょうか。それともちょっとアレンジしてみて、「昨日のパッカーズはすごかったね/悲惨だったね」とか、「パッカーズは今シーズンは優勝できるかもね。」 みたいに話し始めることもよくありますか？

By the way, now I'm so itching to join some American chatroom and use this when they can't find a good topic to chat about! (But I know I wouldn't be able follow them and would get ignored unless it's the Japan oriented chatroom, pupupu)

Another question is "This works only in the US, right? " Here in Japan, especially in Aichi, we would say 「最近ドラゴンズはがんばってるね～」. (You know, the baseball team Chuunichi Dragons is based in Nagoya, Aichi.) leon, what sports team could be the topic like this in Holland? What sports are popular there?

White Rose-san, hey, thanks for joining this thread! Now I have a new teacher, yaaay! :happy: And you have already gave me such an interesting question! But unfortunately, I just noticed I'm running out of time, so I will post my reply to your posts later today or tomorrow morning. See you till then!

 

[leonmarino]

Another question is "This works only in the US, right? " Here in Japan, especially in Aichi, we would say 「最近ドラゴンズはがんばってるね～」. (You know, the baseball team Chuunichi Dragons is based in Nagoya, Aichi.) leon, what sports team could be the topic like this in Holland? What sports are popular there?

Football. Some (mentally impaired or intellectually challenged people) might call it "soccer". (Kidding folks!! Take it easy..)

So in our case, we'd say something like "hebbie Feyenoord nog gezien?" (d'you see Feyenoord?) (Which is the club from Rotterdam). If you're not sure what the other (Dutch) guy is asking about, it's a good guess to think in football-terms. For example, a few weeks ago a friend asked me, with a big smile on his face: "So, how was your weekend?" I thought for a second, did I tell him anything about what I was going to do this weekend? Then I realized Feyenoord had lost that weekend, while his club Ajax (rivals for life) had won.. He saw my Feyenoord socks (yes I wear them!), so he asked me about my weekend.. Football is a big thing here I can tell you.

Anyway, the Dutch have pretty funny words when it comes to "not having anything to talk about". We might just say, quite out of the blue, "poe poe" (pooh-pooh), which doesn't mean anything. It's just an expression of.. Being tired a little and having nothing to say, something like "pffff...". Similar is "heh heh", which also is an expression: "I am a bit tired and have nothing to say so I'll just say 'heh-heh' to break this uncomfortable silence". Other examples are "so", "nou nou" etc.

はい、今日のオランダ語講座は終わり～！（笑）

 

[Kyoko_desu]

Originally Posted leonmarino
Football. Some (mentally impaired or intellectually challenged people) might call it "soccer". (Kidding folks!! Take it easy..)
Anyway, the Dutch have pretty funny words when it comes to "not having anything to talk about". We might just say, quite out of the blue, "poe poe" (pooh-pooh), which doesn't mean anything. It's just an expression of.. Being tired a little and having nothing to say, something like "pffff...". Similar is "heh heh", which also is an expression: "I am a bit tired and have nothing to say so I'll just say 'heh-heh' to break this uncomfortable silence".
Other examples are "so", "nou nou" etc.

Oh yeah! football! I just remembered seeing some European guys always chatting about beer and football in the chatroom I used to go. So football is one of the most popular sports there, but what's wrong with calling it soccer??? And ... haha, Dutch language has such funny sounding words as poe poe and nou nou. English speaking people say "so" or "weeeeell" like that, don't they? I wonder what we say under the same situation ... 「え～っと」? I really can't think of any words for now. 「と、言うことで・・・」 maybe?
Anyway, thanks for the Dutch Lesson, hey, you've gotta do that sometimes, it's interesting and fun! (Hehe, just remembered the YouTube link on VERY IMPORTANT Dutch words , which Dutch baka-san posted in the audioblog thread.)

Close, but no cigar Mr Fortescue
Sorry to drag this up, but I've been reading through this thread and I know what this means. It's uk army slang for 'kill'. so hes saying he wouldn't trust the people there not to murder him for his shoes.

Now, White Rose-san, thanks for explaining me the UK army slang "slot" now I understand it completely. But what does "no cigar Mr Fortescue" mean? I mean, I guess it means "not 100% correct" from the context. Is it another UK slang? And who is Mr. Fortescue?

Originally Posted by White Rose
put yer yer yer, and tell us what yer yer can yer, cuz yer yer can yer more'n my yer can yer.

Hmmm, this is so hard! yer yer yer? my yer can yer????
Must sound pretty much like the Japanese local dialect of the area I live at, seriously! because we use alot of yer sound in our speech, lots of yers and nyaas, hehehe. Well, White Rose-san, now I can't wait to read your answer, yes, I throw my hands up!

 

[Mycernius]

Oh and one more thing - i'm interested if you can figure this out.

put yer yer yer, and tell us what yer yer can yer, cuz yer yer can yer more'n my yer can yer.

To my shame, it took me years to figure out what this meant when i was a kid. my dad used to say it all the time to annoy me when i was little.

Not from Yorkshire by any chance? BTW I do know what is means

 

[leonmarino]

A guess without using my friend Google.. Isn't "yer" a word for a female sheep? Because we call it "ooi" (ok that doesn't make sense but it comes close anyway). And "yer" sounds a bit like "here" and "hear" too.. So, summing it up:

Put your Yer here, and tell us what your Yer can hear, because your Yer can hear more than my Yer can hear.

Just a wild guess though.

 

[White Rose]

So football is one of the most popular sports there, but what's wrong with calling it soccer???

Soccer is the american word.

Rebellious b*stards! That land belongs to the queen!

(joke)

Now, White Rose-san, thanks for explaining me the UK army slang "slot" now I understand it completely. But what does "no cigar Mr Fortescue" mean? I mean, I guess it means "not 100% correct" from the context. Is it another UK slang? And who is Mr. Fortescue?

I said that just to annoy you

'Close, but no cigar' means that your answer was close, but not quite correct.

And 'mr fortescue' is a gaming reference, so if you decide to ever use this phrase, id drop that bit

Hmmm, this is so hard! yer yer yer? my yer can yer????
Must sound pretty much like the Japanese local dialect of the area I live at, seriously! because we use alot of yer sound in our speech, lots of yers and nyaas, hehehe. Well, White Rose-san, now I can't wait to read your answer, yes, I throw my hands up!

put your ear here, and tell us what your ear can hear, because your ear can hear more than my ear can hear.

If you say it in a south western english accent, it sounds like a load of 'yer's



and i forget who asked me but no i'm not from yorkshire, im from devon.

 

[Mycernius]

I can hear Phil Harding saying that to Tony now
"C'mere Tony. Put yer yer yer and see if yer can yer wot I can yer"

Just slightly off topic, but a Brummie Joke for you
(UK residents would understand)
One Brummie meets another brummie fishing in the cut.
First Brummie goes, "What 'as yow caught?"
Second Brummie "I caught a whale"
First Brummie, "A whale in the cut? What's yow done with it?"
Second Brummie "I threw it back"
Firs Brummie "Yow threw it back. Why dids yow throw it back?"
Second Brummie "It got no spokes in it"

 

[Kyoko_desu]

One which my fellow Southerners should be able to read quite easily, but which may cause others some trouble.

CM DUCKS
MR NOT DUCKS
MR2 DUCKS
CM WANGS
OMR DUCKS

I just remembered this, hehehe.

By the way, Mycernius-san, would you explain me the joke? I can't get it.

 

[nice gaijin]

the jokes are a bit different, but they are both making fun of accents ("yer" in the south western English accent, and "CM ducks" in the southern American accent). I thought someone did explain it somewhere, but i'll put it here for you.

See 'em ducks?
'em are not ducks
'em are too ducks!
see 'em wangs (wings)
oh, 'em are ducks!

'em is a shortened way of saying "them" in a southern accent, it sounds like they're just saying the letter "M"

 

[undrentide]

Just slightly off topic, but a Brummie Joke for you
(UK residents would understand)
One Brummie meets another brummie fishing in the cut.
First Brummie goes, "What 'as yow caught?"
Second Brummie "I caught a whale"
First Brummie, "A whale in the cut? What's yow done with it?"
Second Brummie "I threw it back"
Firs Brummie "Yow threw it back. Why dids yow throw it back?"
Second Brummie "It got no spokes in it"

I did not know the word Brummie until I looked it up in dictionary!
This reminds me of a person I met at Narita Airport several years ago - he was from Birmingham (or Northampton? I'm not sure now...) and he was a very pleasant person but I had a bit hard time to understand his speech ... had to pay 120% attention

 

[Mycernius]

I just remembered this, hehehe.

By the way, Mycernius-san, would you explain me the joke? I can't get it.

It is to do with regional accents.
Brummie is a resident of Birmingham, a city in the centre of England.
The cut is slang for a canal.
Yow is you.
A whale, on which the punchline hangs on, is the way a Brummie would say wheel.
When asked what he caught he said wheel and threw it back because there were no spoke in the wheel, as in bike wheel.
Have a read on wiki

 

[nice gaijin]

I feel foolish, I thought she was asking for the joke she quoted to be explained

 

[Kyoko_desu]

Thank you very much for the explanations, Mycernius-san and nice gaijin-san. I finally got the joke of the whale, hehehe, yeah I'm always slow. nice gaijin-san, please don't feel that way, it was my fault not quoting Mycernius-sans joke there. いつもnice gaijin-san のことをとっても頼りにしているんですから、これから もどんどん教えてくださいね。

originally posted by undrentide
This reminds me of a person I met at Narita Airport several years ago - he was from Birmingham (or Northampton? I'm not sure now...) and he was a very pleasant person but I had a bit hard time understanding his speech ... had to pay 120% attention

Wow, but you did understand him alright, didn't you? Sugoi!
I'm always having a hard time understanding my Phillipino co-workers. Their English is totally different from the one I learned at schcool, and we have to talk in a loud machine sound. But, I LOVE talking with them, it's so much fun!

 

[Qutiepie]

Younger Brits' English is more understandable than previous generations to me at least,British actors David Niven and Michael Caine are two Englishmen I always had to earfully emphasis and full concentration when watching their films duh.

 

[nice gaijin]

Having a faint understanding of how accents work (rhotic vs. non-rhotic, etc), my biggest problem with English dialects is local vocabulary. I recall a scene from the movie "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," where one Englishman retells a story to another, and there are subtitles (in English) so the audience can understand what they're talking about! In that case, the story was laden with slang terms that utilized a rhyming scheme (bird's nest = chest, nuclear sub = pub, and so on). I found a transcript, see if you can make sense of it!

Rory? Yeah I know Rory. He's not to be underestimated, you've got to look past the hair and the cute, cuddly thing - it's all a deceptive facade. A few nights ago Rory's Roger iron's rusted, so he's gone to the local battle-cruiser to catch the end of his footer. Nobody is watching the custard so he turns the channel over. A fat man's north opens and he wanders over and turns the Liza over. 'Now **** off and watch it somewhere else.' Rory knows claret is imminent, but he doesn't want to miss the end of the game; so, calm as a coma, he stands and picks up a fire extinguisher and he walks straight past the jam rolls who are ready for action, then he plonks it outside the entrance. He then orders an Aristotle of the most ping pong tiddly in the nuclear sub and switches back to his footer. 'That's ******* it,' says the guy. 'That's ******* what' says Rory. Rory gobs out a mouthful of booze covering fatty; he then flicks a flaming match into his bird's nest and the man's lit up like a leaky gas pipe. Rory, unfazed, turned back to his game. His team's won too. Four-nil.

even better, I found a youtube video of this scene. Warnings all around for language and violence!

 

[leonmarino]

That reminds me of the famous Trainspotting "Choose life" scene. Not much slang in here, just a Scottish accent (and not too heavy in my opinion) and an interesting monologue.

 

[Mycernius]

Nice Gaijin. It is Cocky Rhyming slang, a form found in the East End of London. Some phrases have made it into general English use, well in the UK anyway, others are still only found in the East End.
Just soem most people would recognise:
Brown Bread - Dead,
Mutton and Jeff - Deaf
Dog and Bone - Telephone
A butchers - To look at


Rhyming slang - Wikipedia

 

[JimmySeal]

It is Cocky Rhyming slang

Hehe. You mean C0ckney. (sorry for the 1337, but the swearword detector starred out the first four letters.)

I've also heard of "apple <- apples & pears - stairs" and in another youtube clip for that movie I heard "chevy chase - face"

 

[Mycernius]

Bugger, I didn't even see the spelling mistake

 

[Kyoko_desu]

Ah! I learned a bit about Cockney at school!

Oh, the first four letters weren't censored.