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When I moved to California for a while I once made the mistake of describing my food at a restaurant with "fine, thanks" when the server asked how it was. Appa
by neltnerb 6y ago
When I moved to California for a while I once made the mistake of describing my food at a restaurant with "fine, thanks" when the server asked how it was.
Apparently this translates very differently in the culture of the Bay Area where it means something like "I am very upset" whereas in Boston I think this roughly would be read as "I am satisfied, but don't really feel like chatting."
- fuzxi 6y ago"Good" is a California "fine", and "fine" is a California "pox be upon you".
- throwawayboise 6y agoRandomly reminded me of George Carlin's bit on that. It’s like “fine.” Another weak word. “How are you?” “Fine.” Bullshit! Nobody’s fine. Hair is fine. “How’s your hair?” “Fine.” That makes a lot more sense to me.
- dredmorbius 6y agoThere are clever words and/or phrases which do (or did) translate quite differently in British vs. American English. Starting with "clever" and "quite". Key generally being that on a scale of 1--10, Brits tend to hover in the 5.00000003 to 5.000000031 range. Any deviation from that is an extreme reaction.