words

[cellio]

Overheard in the office: "My tires were slippy and didn't have any gription". I've heard "slippy" where "slippery" was meant before; this seems to be the same linguistic quirk that produces "prolly" when the word is "probably". But "gription" was a new one for me, and quite entertaining. (It would be clever were it intentional.) We all got a good laugh out of it. (The coworker was not serious; the neighbor he was quoting was.)

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Yesterday at a meeting the CEO introduced a new employee, who previously worked in the military as a translator specializing in Hebrew. So the CEO said "can you say something in Hebrew for us?" and the employee said "ken" (yes). I found myself longing for the idiomatic knowledge that would have allowed me to respond with the functional equivalent of "smart-aleck". Oh well. :-)

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I have a very nice ex-boyfriend who lives in Japan. When pestered by Japanese or English-speakers for a chunk of the other language he usually says "this is something in Japanese/English". Occasionally "your shoe is untied". *giggle*

A.
wishing she were good at languages.