I was speaking to my friend from China today, and she was telling me how she has to be very careful about what she says to her Chinese friends and family. Here is an example that she gave me, and we both thought it quite interesting.

A very famous actress in China, who was adored by the Chinese people, came over to the U.S. to act. When she went back to China for a visit, she put the whole country in a dither, according to my friend. Why? Well, she reported that she was "so happy to be returning to China." The Chinese were up in arms! How could she be so disrespectful?! The reason? She should have said how happy she was to be returning home. My friend says when she talks to her friends and family in China, she must only say "home" and never "China"...even though she has lived here for years now.

It must be like the North-East of England then.

We lived and worked there for six years and eevery christmas they asked us whether we would be going home for Christmas.

Sorry, Graham, it takes years before you even qualify as an adopted Geordie! If you're from the South- just because you're now living in Cambridge doesn't mean you are!- you'll still be from "Down South" for at least 50 years or so. With a bit of luck any grandchildren born up here MIGHT qualify as Geordies!

<showing-his-ignorance icon> uh, what's a Geordie? I don't know of any place called Geord.

I can tell you that if I were to move away and then said I was going to visit the U.S....no one would think a thing about it. I suppose I can understand the concept, though, as it surely shows pride for the country.

Another story she told me about the same actress was that she came over to the U.S. and played a concubine to a British man in a movie here (I don't know the movie because my friend didn't know her name). Once again the entire country was up in arms about that! How dare she play a concubine to an English man!

quote:

what's a Geordie?

<sigh> The ignorance of some people!

A Geordie is a native of Tyneside, ie, people from around the River Tyne, in North-East England. The major city is Newcastle. They must not be confused with denizens of Wearside, people from Sunderland, who are known as "Mackems".

quote:

Originally posted by Erik Johansen:
Sorry, Graham, it takes years before you even qualify as an adopted Geordie! If you're from the South- just because you're now living in Cambridge doesn't mean you are!- you'll still be from "Down South" for at least 50 years or so. With a bit of luck any grandchildren born up here MIGHT qualify as Geordies!

So true. Also in our street lived Cockney Alan, who had a broad NE accent and had lived up there for 40 years. We had no chance.

We weren't in Geordieland anyway - rural county Durham. To be a Geordie I think you need to be North of the Tyne. Even the Southern Poofs who live in Gateshead don't really count.

If you come from Sunderland you are a Mackem, but that is an extremely new derivation. Geordies go back much longer.

If you come from Hartlepool, I think you are a Monkey-hanger.

The "Geordie" name is possibly derived from being supporters of George II in the Jacobite War- I've heard it was because the accent sounds somewhat Scottish to outsiders that seamen would say something along the lines of "We're not Scots, we're Geordie's boys!" and the name stuck.
However there is another possible reason, that being that the inhabitants of Tyneside are doolally tap like George III!

And yes, people from Hartlepool are known as "Monkeyhangers"!

In context I can understand "doolally tap like George III!"

George the First was always reckoned
Vile, but viler George the Second;
And what mortal ever heard
Any good of George the Third?
When from earth the Fourth descended
(God be praised!) the Georges ended.

Walter Savage Landor

Honestly, I have read this thread and I feel like I've stumbled upon a foreign language. It LOOKS like English, but it makes no sense! Why would you call people Mackems? Why Monkey-hangers? Southern "poofs"? What the heck is doolally tap?

I'm laughing aloud and I'm totally confused.

Y'uns talk funny.

The origins of "Mackem" are obscure. A common belief is that it was an insult coined by shipyard workers in the 19th century in neighbouring Newcastle to describe the Wearsiders. The Geordies would "take" the ship to be fitted out that the Mackems "made", hence "mackem and tackem" ("make them" and "take them"). Alternatively, this phrase may refer to the making and tacking into place of rivets in shipbuilding.

The OED has been unable to locate the term in print before 1988, although "we still tak 'em and mak 'em" was found in a sporting context in 1973, implying that the phrase was older, but with nothing to suggest that "mak 'em" had come to be applied to Sunderlanders. This was one of the words that the BBC programme Balderdash and Piffle was looking at.

Not all Sunderland residents accept the adoption of the term, pointing out its supposed roots as an insult, and its use as a derisory term by Geordies. The two cities have a history of rivalry on and beyond beyond the football pitch, dating back to the early stages of the English Civil War.

Denizens of Hartlepool are known as Monkey-hangers, because they did just that; hanged a monkey. During the Napoleonic wars a French ship was wrecked offshore. The only survivor was a pet monkey. The good folks of Hartlepool, fearful of a diabolic French plot, hanged the monkey as a spy.

A "poof" is a derogatory term for a gay man (much like "fag" in the US). If you were to believe Northerners, all men from the South of England are gay. You'll notice I used a slightly more PC version in another post: "Southern softies".

"Doolally tap" is an old Indian army phrase meaning "mad". Deolali was/is a town in India noted for its heat and flies, which quickly sent mad anyone unlucky to be posted there for any length of time.

EDIT: I forgot "tap". I think it was Urdu or Hindustani or some other Indian language word for "fever".

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,

Thanks for the "doolally tap" explanation! I was going to ask for an origin but hadn't got around to it. We don't actually use "poof" up here, it's "puff"!
Re. the mackems. We on Tyneside pronounce make and take more or less in the usual manner, but Wearsiders pronounce them "mack" and "tack".
You also say that Wearsiders made the ships and Tynesiders fitted them out but there were plenty of shipbuilders on the River Tyne in the past- no more alas, we're down to our last one and it's days are numbered.

Also, the people of Hartlepool seem quite fond of the monkey hanger nick-name, you can buy furry monkeys complete with nooses from tourist shops in the town.

Thanks for the explanations.

quote:

Honestly, I have read this thread and I feel like I've stumbled upon a foreign language. It LOOKS like English, but it makes no sense!

I had the same thought.