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Our Cultural Differences thread was getting too long, so I am restarting it. What do you call the rooms in your home? For example, we have a family room, a living room, a dining room, an attic, a basement, bedrooms, bathrooms, a mudroom, and a kitchen with a breakfast nook. Is that similar across the country...and across the pond? | ||
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quote: Well, I have a bedroom, a hall, a living room, and a kitchen. (Incredibly small apartment.) My parents have a real house, though.  We use most of the words you used, Kalleh. We don't have a 'family room'. That's probably what we call the living room. (We all hang out and watch tv there.) Some people have a 'formal living room'--we did when I was a kid. That's also known as 'the room no one uses' because it has 'the furniture no one is allowed to sit on'. You forgot office. My folks have a room off their bedroom where they have desks and computers and bookshelves. That may have been intended to be a den at one time, but because of how it's used, it's called the office. They have what would really be considered a breakfast nook (btw, that is so fifties it makes me giggle). Our family refers to it as 'the table'. "Turn the TV off, let's actually eat at the table like real people." They do have a 'formal dining room'. We only use it at Thanksgiving. And for wrapping presents. What? It has a big flat table that no one uses! When I was a child in Kentucky, we had attics, basements, and crawl spaces in the eaves. No one builds basements in Houston. (It floods. Often.) And I've not yet lived in a house with an attic or crawl space here. Mudroom? That's so Martha Stewart. Umm, the garage could be a mudroom, I guess. You left out foyer/entryway. That's a big thing here. "A marble foyer! A marble entryway!" | |||
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We call the rooms pretty much the same as you, Kalleh, although I don't really know what you mean by "family room". Judging by WB's response, it's another living room. We don't have "mudrooms" either. Perhaps the weather here is rather less inclement than that in Chicago, but I've never heard of a rooms built specifically for the removal and storage of muddy outer clothing, even in farm houses. That would probably take place in the scullery, which I suspect you'd call the "utility room". The scullery would usually be built adjoining the kitchen - often it forms part of the kitchen - and would contain the washing machine, etc. WB's mention of the "formal living room" sounds just like the Front Room (note capitalisation) that existed in many British homes until 40-50 years ago. It was only used for formal occasions such as entertaining the local vicar, and no-one was allowed to touch anything otherwise, apart from dusting. [This message was edited by arnie on Wed Jan 28th, 2004 at 1:45.] | |||
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We have a new conservatory and it is smart! French windows open into it. We have a lounge and a play room. We have a loft. There is a hall by the front door and a pantry by the back door. Junk is stored in the garage (none of our neighbours use theirs for cars anymore the car stays on the drive). | |||
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Interesting! I brought this whole subject up because one of my U.K. friends didn't understand "mudroom." Perhaps it is a midwest type of room. It is usually located directly inside the back door (directly inside the front door would be the foyer). It often has hooks for kids' coats (though ours doesn't), places for boots, and the floor is easily wiped up after muddy shoes. Ours is rather large so we have our washer and dryer there; we feed our pets there; our recycling bins are there. I forgot our pantry, which we made into our "computer room." WinterBranch, I am surprised that you haven't heard of "family rooms." It is often where the family gathers (theoretically!), and we have our piano, our TV and lots of family pictures there. Some homes have what they call "great rooms" which I believe are a combination of a family room and kitchen. Some homes also have libraries, which I definitely wanted when we bought our home. We have built-in book shelves in our living room, and when we first moved, we called it our "library." However, that soon ended. Some homes have music rooms, too, and in fact our family room was built with a specific acoustical specification and cork floors to accommodate the previous owner's occasional concerts. I suppose we could have called that our music room, but that sounded a bit too sophisticated for us! Oh, and then some homes have dens. Often the den is where the office is located or the television or it has an area for reading. Graham, do you mean a real conservatory, i.e. a greenhouse? I would love that! I also desperately wanted a playroom for my kids. What do you use your loft for? And, what do you mean by "lounge?" I think of a lounge in an office building or as a place for cocktails outside the home. Perhaps it is what we call the rec (recreation) room? That is a room that some homes have with pool and ping-pong tables, exercise machines, a bar, etc. [This message was edited by Kalleh on Wed Jan 28th, 2004 at 9:23.] | |||
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OK. Downstairs we have the living room which is at the front and the front room which is at the back. The front room is however used as a bedroom because my Mom couldn't climb stairs and we have never turned it back to its original use. Also downstairs are the kitchen (which was still sometimes called a back kitchen regardless of its location) and a hall. There is also a toilet and an outhouse connected to the house and a garage, a greenhouse and a shed which aren't part of the main building. Upstairs leading off the landing we have the front bedroom which is used at the moment as a kind of second living room specifically for me and two back bedrooms one of which is indeed a bedroom although the othe small room (previously known as the box room) is now my rather tiny study. The only other room is the bathroom also leading off the landing. Ask again in a couple of months we're thinking of relocating my study into the current downstairs bedroom (i.e. the former front room which you will recall is at the back) and relocating my Dad's bedroom into the current study (former box room). Clear? Good.  Every silver lining has a cloud. Read all about my travels around the world here. Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog. | |||
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This is so interesting! We here in Georgia have a sunroom! But it can only be used in the Spring or Fall, it is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.. and it is not connected to the HVAC.. But it's a wonderful room for peace and quiet and privacy at any time. My last house in Georgia had a mudroom - and I wish I had one now.. it housed the coats and boots and shoes and washer/dryer.. and pet supplies. I turned my "sitting room" into a library... so we have living/den room; library, and dining room, which is never used except for holidays... ridiculous, but there you have it! | |||
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Our lounge is our front-room or sitting room. It has the telly (boo) and my hi-fi (hooray) as well as a sofa and chairs. It is where we eat on our laps and entertain. Conservatories are very common here. Ours is typical: a uPVC and glass affair stuck on a low brick wall. It is no Eden Project. Our loft is our roofspace. As it is too small to inhabit at all (for me) or for any length of time (my partner), we don't call it an attic. We also have an under-stairs cupboard. Does every non-bungalow in the world have one of them? | |||
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(Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young singing: ) "My-y-y-y house is a veryveryvery fine house, with two cats in the yard..." This describes where I live expect for the fact that, in all honesty, it's a dump. I moved here about two years ago with the intention of having the trashiness of the place be a motivation for me to work my butt off so as to move out of Illinois to a real nice spread. Oddly though, I find myself entirely comfortable in a dump! I feel like a gorilla in a zoo sitting in his tire (tyre) and enjoying the sunshine. It consists of a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, and an office which, but all rights, should be the "living room" but that implies having guests over which is not part of the overall plan. Another "room," one which is increasingly used in this country, is the separate storage facility for which I pay $60 a month to hold crap that I never use, that no one would ever want to buy, but which is too good to throw away. You know the saying about possessions possessing you? That's a very American concept. In my last (much nicer) place, I had a "Pillow Room," a spare bedroom filled with between 400 and 500 throw pillows. It was a great room to have parties in and play "Mole" - no rules, just burrowing through all those damn pillows. My goal at that time was to open a "Pillow Theater" like one I had seen and completely fallen in love with in California - No seats (except for a few way in the back for people with bad backs or whatever) but, instead, thousands of pillows for audience members to sit on, lounge around, throw, etc etc. It was a great idea until I found out what the insurance was going to run me! During that time, a co-worker introduced me to one of his wife's relatives who had been born and raised in China and was over here to experience American culture. She was quite surprised to see some 500 pillows in one room and asked if all Americans had rooms like this. With a straight face I, of course, said yes. (A sidenote: As part of my introducing her to American culture, I took her to a Chippendales show and she was absolutely appalled. Apparently they don't have that sort of entertainment back in China!) | |||
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CJ - That reminds me of what George Carlin had to say about "stuff"... one keeps getting bigger houses to put their "stuff" in... In your case, you rent space for your stuff.. In the Atlanta Zoo, for 20-odd years, we had Willie B. - a famous gorilla, who lived for all to see with a tire (tyre) and a TV... in concrete and glass. He was finally released to pleasant surroundings (i.e. grass and trees) with other gorillas.. where he produced offspring galore! My son (who was 6 yrs old at the time) and I had our nose pressed to the glass while he roped in one of his cousins for a little "relief"... What's in the pillow room now? | |||
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We'd dream of a house full of stuff. Ours is just full of crap. Has anybody found a way of disposing of books? I just can't bring myself to do if. | |||
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We have a wonderful book sale in the U.S. by Brandeis University. I'd venture to say that everyone here from the U.S. has heard of it. They have a massive book sale yearly that helps the university, and we donate our books to them. The trouble is, we also attend the sale and probably buy more than we give!  We have found some real winners there, though. That is where I found our copy of Stevenson's "Home Book of Great Poetry." We hadn't been able to locate one anywhere else. Graham, I am still intrigued by your use of "lounge." It surely doesn't mean anything like that here at all. A lounge is a place to drink or a place to relax. By the way, do they still have drawing rooms in England? Or Parlors? | |||
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quote: Unless it is literally falling apart, the answer is simple - One simply does not dispose of books. You don't throw paper currency away if it gets too crumpled, now do you? Old books, like old wines, only improve with age although, to be honest, there occasionally are jarring exceptions to this rule. (See related new thread elsewhere.) | |||
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quote: A house full of crap?!? You lucky bugger. How we lonnnged for crap to keep us warm in our house. Of course, by house, we mean shoebox...and by warm we mean just the tips of our ears ands noses freezing off. But if you try to tell that to kids today..... They won't believe it. I love that skit (and that was just my riff on it, not a quote). I think I love it so much because I sat and watched my mom and my uncle (her brother-in-law)do the same bit--only without any reference to, or knowledge of, Monty Python. My Uncle: "When I was a kid, we'd cut pictures of turkey out of magazines and eat them for Thanksgiving dinner!" My Mom: "When IIIIIII was a kid, if my brothers and sisters and I had been really, really good? We got to go watch other kids eat ice cream!" | |||
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Quote '..."When I was a kid, we'd cut pictures of turkey out of magazines and eat them for hanksgiving dinner!"...' "Magazines? You 'ad magazines? In our 'ouse we 'ad ter draw our own pictures using old brickdust and water. And we 'ad ter make the paper oursen from owd cabbage leaves what we took from t'dustbin!" Richard English | |||
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.... the rainbow came in Black and White | |||
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"Well, WE had it tough! We had to attend a holiday office party, all 53 of us, with nothing to do for entertainment but shake hands! It was so boring that when two of us shook the same number of hands, it was considered noteworthy!" "Human hands?" "Aye." "Oh, you were lucky!" etc etc. I'm so pleased to see I'm not alone in loving this bit. TrossL has told me that she taught her two kids the entire Dead Parrot Sketch, among other Python bits, and that with very little coaxing they perform them for company on a fairly regular basis. That's either a sign of excellent parenting or a precursor of hefty psychoanalysist bills to come. | |||
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Kalleh, CJ is obviously shameless when it comes to getting a laugh..and he is quite the stooge. We ate dirt when I was growing up, and were glad to have it! It was so hot, we hung our heads of the car windows to get relief.. Red lights were torture. My bad for neglecting Monty Python w/my children.. my son learned to love it in his 9th grade literature class.. Good teaching, eh? | |||
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My bad, too, for never even watching Monty Python! Asa always encourages me to rent one of his movies, but I never seem to. Now, I have another cultural question. What do women call their purse where you are? Today, my assistant admired my "handbag," though I always call it a "purse." My grandmother used to call it a "pocketbook." What about you men? My husband as a "wallet," though my father calls it a "billfold," and my son uses a "money-clip." | |||
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Here women carry a handbag. A purse is carried inside the handbag and contains bank notes, credit cards and coins, etc. Many men carry a wallet for notes and credit cards. A few men use a purse for coins, but most carry them loose in their pockets. | |||
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Kalleh .. My purse is well, my purse. My billfold, which is not really a billfold, but a change purse, checkbook.. is where I keep the $$$$.. Men carry billfolds.. boy, that looks weird in print! But they also call them wallets. My grandmothers, may they R.I.P, always called their earrings, Earbobs... isn't that funny? Maybe just in the south.. One never hears that word today. Remember those little plastic squeeze coin purses that were around when we were little? You could get about 52 cents in there if you were lucky. New subject: When I was in London, all the speed bumps were marked HUMP... the teenagers I chaperoned thought that was very funny!! | |||
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My favorite London story is the taped reminder in the "tube" that says, "Mind the gap!" (i.e., be careful of the space between the train station floor and the train.) I hadn't seen "Hump," but I can see where teens would consider that quite funny! Yes, I do remember those cute little coin purses. Oh, and I carry a wallet in my purse. If it has a checkbook (one of those big ones), we call it a "French purse." Arnie, if men were to call their wallet a "purse" here, I think people would wonder!  | |||
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Two points. The "train station floor" is called the platform. It is common to all British railway systems but not those in some other parts of the world where the single entrance carriage (coach) with steps is used. If this system were to be adopted in the UK our commuter railways would just not work. At busy times less than one minute is allowed to load and unload a train - and that might be several hundred passengers. And how you you make the announcement so succinctly were you not to say "mind the gap"? Richard English | |||
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quote: "Watch your step" might be one way. | |||
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Is hump only a single-entendre in the US then? I had a German friend who once came and told us that he had seen somebody humping in the corridor. We laughed, but apparently the German for limp is hump. Ten years later, I'm still saying humping not limping when talking to my wife. | |||
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quote:That's the case here too, Richard. I just forgot! Graham, we do talk about camel "humps," though I don't think the word is used that much here, no matter what is meant. The most common way I hear it is referring to dogs "humping." | |||
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Indeed. But the warning is a specific one. At certain stations, where the track is curved (and this happens on the Tube quite often) there is a significant gap between the train and the platform. Warning the passengers that there is a gap at this particular station is a good way of preventing the kinds of delays that inevitably occut when people fall between the train and the platform - as has happened. Richard English | |||
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I think you are right, Richard. There probably isn't a better way of saying it. I wasn't criticizing it at all. In fact, I thought it was rather heartwarming to see that they were taking such care of their passengers!  While we would use "gap" in that way, I don't think you would see "mind" used that way often. One might say, "Watch for the gap," though of course that's 4 words. | |||
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..."French purse" is another useful but snigger-provoking word, if you're in the right group. I do believe we've gone down that road before... | |||
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The use of the verb "mind" to mean "be careful about" is very common in UK English. I had assumed that it was also used in US English. "MInd what you say"; "Mind you're not late"; "mind you wash your hands and face"; "mind you don't fall" are all very common exhortations here. Richard English | |||
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And we shouldn't forget, "mind your manners!" Every silver lining has a cloud. Read all about my travels around the world here. Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog. | |||
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"Mind your p's and q's." She also said, frequently, that I was a trial and an error. | |||
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And where exactly did the expression "minding your p's and q's" come from? I've heard about British pubs - pints and quarts - but I'm sure others of you have heard different origins. Mind the Gap! | |||
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My guess is that the p's & q's warning refers to calligraphy. The vertical line goes on the left side of the p and on the right side of the q. Errors might produce "Mississiqqi" and "puiz." But it was never used precisely that way by my mother; she simply used "Mind your p's and q's" to mean "Pay attention to details." Watch your step!!! | |||
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I meant: Watch out for The Gap - that store with the expensive jeans | |||
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I meant watch your steppe!! | |||
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I always steppe carefullye on greate aride plainse which are so numerouse here in Georgiae. Don't lose your footing on the lava flow! | |||
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quote: No-one seems to know for sure. Michael Quinion's World Wide Words site gives the two theories already mentioned, plus a few others. | |||
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A British poster in another Web forum referred to a couple as "getting on like a house on fire", meaning they had a very harmonious relationship. This was met with blank incomprehension from a couple of posters from America. Is the phrase unknown over there? (Note that we are talking about "getting on", not "getting it on".  ) | |||
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My parents. native speakers of General American Dialect, used that expression, but with a minor change or two: "They're getting along like a house afire." | |||
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"Getting on like a house on fire": I wouldn't get this, either. In fact, I don't see how you get harmonious from a house on fire. I read of a Cuban word today that is interesting. I don't think we have one like it, do we? The word "jinete" means "jockey" in Spanish. The word "jinetera" was coined to mean "female jockey" because she rides the tourists. This is a woman who wears sexy clothes and lingers on curbs. Yet, she is not a prostitute, per se. She never talks about price (at least right away), and if she isn't attracted to the man, she will say no. The jinetera will start out as a date and will stay with the same tourist for his entire length of stay. In fact, the jinetera may be like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman." | |||
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My mother always used the expression: Getting on like a house on fire! - to mean that two people were compatible, in sync.. I think Julia R. and Richard D. got along famously like a house on fire in Pretty Woman. Which reminds me.. I was ragged unmercifully recently because I said I had cooked enough food to feed Sherman's army... another expression with which I was raised.. We either had too much food for Sherman's army, not enough food for Sherman's army, or if the house was messy, it looked as if Sherman's army had visited.. I guess this would only happen in Georgia.. Happy Birthday, George Washington! | |||
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This is quite a common expression in UK English and it simply implies speed. A house fire progresses rapidly and that's the comparison that's being drawn. Richard English | |||
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Prostitution is very common in Cuba and I have heard the expression jineteras used to describe all types. Cuban prostitutes range in class and cost from those who walk the Malecon at night, through the slightly better ones what walk the tourist beaches (they are not allowed to stop, so you have to negotiate on the move. If you halt then one of the hotel security men will ask you to move along). Generally Cuban nationals don't get into the tourist hotels - not because they are banned but because the only currency accepted is the US dollar and they will only earn Cuban Pesos in their normal occupation (which is one reason why prostitution is so common - it's a good way of getting dollars). Some tour operators (I only saw evidence of Italian operators when I was there) will arrange a holiday in Cuba with a companion whom you can select before you book. She will then stay with you as if she were your wife or girlfriend and can use the same facilities as can any other tourist. The ones I saw were all very attractive and well-dressed. Richard English | |||
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quote: No. Getting on like a house on fire implies much more than speed. Sprinters don't run like a house on fire. Two people, snogging though they have only just met, would be getting on like a house on fire. Phrases like faster than a whore's drawers or quicker than a rat up a drainpipe simply imply speed. | |||
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quote:  Of course, we in the U.S. can't have holidays in Cuba.quote:Graham, those are both great phrases! I haven't heard them before. | |||
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Colder than a witch's tit. Colder than a well digger's ass. Slicker than snot on a doorknob. | |||
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(Mostly for Americans) Here is a TEST designed to determine if your dialect is Northern or Southern. | |||
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Strange, Jerry, because I came out as 58% Dixie, and I have never lived in the south! I imagine it was a few answers where I debated. I suppose I do say gym shoes, though I put tennis shoes. Then, I really have only heard the word "roly poly" once or twice, though I can't say I've heard of the others. As far as soda, pop, soft drink, etc., I mostly say "drink" or "diet Coke." Not to get too gross or anything, but your phrase about slicker than snot on a door knob? Being a literalist and all, I know that eventually it will dry....and then it won't be so "slick!" | |||
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Like most internet tests, this one was fairly amusing and, at the same time, highly questionable. I came out 49% Yankee possibly because I've also lived in Illinois (13 years now), New Hampshire, Florida, and New Mexico (2 - 3 years each), Mississippi and California (about a year each), not to mention another dozen or so years on military bases overseas. They say the term for throwing toilet paper over people's homes is called "toilet papering" in New York City. Having been born and raised in a suburb of NYC, I question this on two counts: 1.) We always called it "TPing" just across the state line in Connecticut, and 2.) Very few of us had arms good enough to loft a roll of toilet paper over a skyscraper. [This message was edited by C J Strolin on Mon Feb 23rd, 2004 at 12:03.] | |||
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