Day 20: Improve Your English

[Ute42]

.

I've been letting my place in Germany for 16 years through all kinds of distribution channels. Until 2017 all my guests were German. In January 2018 I decided to start listing with airbnb and I thought, I might now get international guest, time to polish up my English.

At the time my english was kind of ok on a smalltalk-level, what I was completely lacking was the vocabulary around hosting, bedding, cleaning and the like. In order to improve my english in this specialised field, I decided to start reading in the english community center. Because refering words would pop up in this forum for sure and they did.

Whenever I found a word that I didn't know I looked it up in some online dictionary. Next thing I did I created a spreadsheet with all these new words, an airbnb glossary. This is how it looks:

Sometimes though an online dictionary is not sufficant to find out the meaning of a word or an expression. A while ago some Robin in Australia opened a thread entitled:

• Stirring the pot

I couldn't find out what that means. So I sent Robin a privat message and asked him flat out: Robin, what means stirring the pot? Here's his answer:

• I will answer one expression with another....Stirring the pot is linked with Playing the devils advocate!! When you 'stir the pot', you keep the contents on the move, you stop them from boiling over but you keep some action going on in the pot! To bring that into context here Uté it means you keep the thought alive and in others minds by reactivating a worthwhile discussion. You keep on bringing up the same conversation.

Ok – thank You, I've got it. But Robin didn't stop explaining. He continuoued:

• And by playing 'Devils Advocate' you deliberately bring alternative ideas to the conversation. You will state an opinion you don't agree with for the sake of promoting conversation on a subject! Mark Rutte the Dutch Prime Minister may say that no more funds should be made available for EEU bailouts and Angela Merkel may disagree with him and say Germany and France have a duty to support the European community! Although you Ute, agree with Angela Merkel you deliberately take the side of Mark Rutte in order to bring new ideas up that may make both sides agree.

This was not the end of his explanation. Then he talked about the expressiveness of the english language, that it's like a river flowing to the sea, about channels and ditches, empty streams,

tributaries, directions and the ocean.

You must know one thing: Whenever You drop @Robin4  two lines, he comes back with 37 lines. Robin loves to write, he's a great writer an many people in the CC love him for that.

By the way: I learned another word from Robin:

• Jibber Jabber

Have You ever seen that before? I found the word in one of Robins posts:

• But company 'jibber jabber' like that don't instill me with confidence.

I forgot which company he was talking about, but it doesn' matter in this context anyway.

I continued to read in the english CC and while cruising through the lines, again and again I came across the word „bleep“, and it was always accompanied with 2 asterix' in front and in the back:

• **bleep**.

It's easy of course to find out what bleep means, that's the sound a bird makes when it tweets. But **bleep** came up in so many places and in so many contexts and none of them was bird-relatet. I just couldn't figure out what the meanig of it was.

And then this happened: In 2015 I hosted a group of 4 young religious women. While checking them in they told me that they will not check in, because they didn't like my place. I was furious. This was the first time in one and a half decades that someone refused to check in. In 2018 I told this story in the Comminity Center. I wrote:

When I looked how it came out in the community center, I saw this:

• For the first time in 15 years, 4 young religious womed from **bleep**,
  all wearing a **bleep**, refused to check into my place bc they didn't like it.

Aaaahaaaaa, now I understood. Airbnb has a discriminating word detector in place and whenever such a word pops up, it get's erased and replaced by **bleep**. All of a sudden everything made sense. Ever since this incident, whenever I talk about people from that area, I refer to them as „People from an area that starts with „a“ and ends with „rab“. The airbnb detector never cought me on that.

My best source of new vocbulary is the lovely @Susan17  in Dublin. While an average english native speaker has a vocabulary of 20.000 word, I think she has 60.000 words to choose from and she does. Here's a list of words I found in her recent threads:

• incendiary, knick-knack, skedaddling, flashing shamrock deely-boppers, Begorrah, malice or sleight, misogynistic, funnelling, beano, feisty side, Geezer, pesky, besmirch, abdicate, villain, astroturfing,

I had to look all these words up. Meanwhile I have restrikted myself to not reading more than 2 Susanposts per day, because it's so much work for me. Same as with Robin in Australia, sometimes I cannot find out the meaning of the words she uses through a dictionary, so I have to ask her. Recently she used the word:

• jack sh*t

Did You see how clever she is? She's putting an asterix into the second word to fool the airbnb bad word detector. So I had to asked her and here's her answer:

• Well, "jack sh*t" is a slang term that originated from the poker world, and refers to drawing an opening hand of Jack, two, unsuited (of different suits - hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades) - and it's considered to be the worst possible hand you could start with.
  
  - Did you have a good hand?"
  - "No, I had jack sh*t"
  
  In terms of everyday use, there's not a whole lot of difference in the terms "sh*t" and "jack sh*t", and both are interchangeable.

So far we've been talking abount reading in the Community Center. Now what about writing?

If You are from South America, Asia, Greenland or whereever You may come from, don't be shy to write in this community center of ours. I have never seen anybody making a remark about someone elses english being poor. This really never happened. If You don't get something, look it up and if that is not enough, ask the Person who wrote it.

You may end up with a new CC-friend in Ireland or in Australia.

Schöne Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

joj joj @Ute42  don't you know driving a convertible during winter is not a smart thing to do? 🙂

Get well soon bejb 😉

[Ute42]

@Branka-and-Silvia0, @Sarah977 , @Robin4 , @Stephanie , @Susan17 .

Hi Branka, You are right. Here's what happened.

I wanted to buy a new Billy Regal from Ikea and I wanted it quick, my husband was not available for transport with his SUV and his trailers. So I thought I'll pick it up with my convertible. You may now think, why is Ute driving around with her convertible in the middle of december? Well, there is no december. Last week we had outside daytime temperatures bewteen 10 and 15 degrees centigrade. Donald Trump says there is no climate change, I'm not sure if he's right.

So I drove to Regensburg, bought the Billy regal, opened the convetrible top and put Billy on top of the front passenger seat. The end of the shelves ended in the open air. The problem with this way of transportation is, that You cannot put up the Windschott of the car anymore. The Windschott is a protector that most convertibles have behind the drivers- and codrivers neck, to prevent the air to blow around Your head. Driving without the Windschott is terrible, really.

Then I drove back home 60 Kilometers on the german Autobahn where there is no speedlimit. And I didn't have a headscarf to protect myself. Back home I realised, that I just had caught a terrible cold.

But I do have my Billy Regal inhouse.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

you see @Ute42  I know you better than you think 😉 :)))

[Helen427]

Take Care @Ute42 -  if it's the flu a tipple of a spirit is a great cure for you!

[Miloud0]

Salute,

@Ute42 thank you too. I hope for you good health in so near future 

Thanks, 

Miloud

[Robin4]

@Stephanie  @Susan17  @Branka-and-Silvia0  @J-Renato0 

I am leaving Ute out of this post because she is not well and needs all the uninterrupted rest she can get!

I have another expression which I do use from time to time when Ade queries what I have done with my time!

We have eldest daughter Sarah coming over here for Christmas and I wanted to get the place looking good for her. The cottage 'glory vine' was getting totally out of hand so, first thing this morning I got to it with the pruners and gave it a radical hair cut! I should have taken a before pic but this was after I was done with it and had it looked like it was manageable!

Ade got up and in an almost accusorial way said..."What have you been doing with your morning"? 

To which I replied.....

"I have been up since 'Sparrow fart' trying to clean up the garden!"....Sparrow fart meaning, the crack of dawn. Presumably that's what Sparrows do when daylight arrives, they drop a fart!

Is this saying used anywhere else?

Cheers.......Rob 

[Stephanie]

We have sparrow's fart in Britain too @Robin4 House is looking smashing!

[Robin4]

@Stephanie 

Steph, the house, the garden never lets up, every day there is hours of work!

Sarah and Lisa arrived, we all sat out in the garden.....about 25c, not a breath of wind and we laughed and enjoyed the moment. About 8.30 pm I got a chicken, mushroom and cashew stir-fry together and....I feel like the luckiest guy to be alive!

There is something magical about having your family around you at Christmas time! 

Cheers.......Rob

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Robin4  I never heard this expression 🙂

oh I envy you.... summer in the garden.... :))))

Here is winter and I live on the very busy and loud intersection with a bus stop but that's not all... a few days before Christmas many merchants bring Christmas trees and sell it everywhere around my building and under my windows. It would be fine... even romantic... if they wouldn't use chainsaws from 6 AM until 10 PM 😮 😮

... and while other normal people bake cakes and clean their homes for tomorrow, I am painting furniture in my long term rental to be ready for new tenants at the begining of January . I was the only customer today at the paint shop 😄

[J-Renato0]

Hey  @Robin4 
We have sparrows here and certainly they are farting all around the country when daylight arrives!
Anyway, we do not use this idiom here.
It is interesting that this type of bird seems to exist anywhere, throughout the world!

About birds - "a little bird told me" is very usual here.

Another one that is funny and is usual here - "Pigeon that poops on the head of the faithful"
Do you the Australians use this idiom there?
Example:
That politician is a pigeon that poops on the head of the faithful - > Situation to apply it -> The governor said he would not raise taxs, gullible voters elected him... but he did the contrary!

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@J-Renato0 @Robin4 

we don't use same expressions but we say:  better a sparrow in the hand than a pigeon on a branch

it means better less but for sure, than more but uncertain

[J-Renato0]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

Here we have the same idiom but slightly different - The meaning is the same
"a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"

@Robin4  would say - A kangaroo in the corral is worth two in the bush ? 🙂 Just kidding mate! 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Ute42  Here's a quintessentially Canadian expression that's right up your alley- "F**ckin' the dog". Means standing around doing nothing, especially when there's work to be done.

[Robin4]

@Sarah977 

I have used one for a number of years which may have come from elsewhere in the world Sarah, maybe you can enlighten me!

It was a favourite expression of my fathers when he came in after a hard day on the tractor! He would say..."I'm as dry as a lime burners boot"!!

I think the reference was that lime absorbs moisture but, where the 'burners' bit comes in I have no idea.....where there ever such a thing as 'Lime Burners'........who wore boots?  

Cheers.......Rob

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  Can't say I've ever heard that one before. Nor ever heard of lime burner. But a Google search says it was an actual job:

"Worst Jobs in the Middle Ages -Lime Burner- When building a mortar to build a cathedral lime is used. The lime burner was in charge of heating up the kiln which reached 1,100 degrees. When heating the chalk dust appears that can burst into flames. This dust can also suffocate you and this is especially dangerous when with the kiln for 48 hours at a time."