American Jargon and Baffling Idioms

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American Jargon and Baffling Idioms
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What are some examples of language proliferation
in American English ?

• Old Terms
• Personnel Director
• Someone who is in charge of Insurance
• Salesperson

• New Terms
• Director of Human Resources
• Director of Risk Management
• Account Manager
  Service Representative

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Why is American English so proliferated?

• Because it is full of
• buzzwords, cusswords, puns, gags, show biz
  zingers, hyperbole, euphemisms, Latinisms, local
  colors, jargons, slang, and officialese.

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• What does the sentence mean It is clear that
  America faces a communications crisis that
  neither Berlitz nor bytes alone can solve ?

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Whats the meaning of the following idioms?

• As nervous as a long-tailed cat
• in a room full of rocking chairs
• Flat as a pancake
• Safe as Fort Knox
• Old as Methuselah
• Funny as a rubber crutch
• Raining cats and dogs
• Flying by the seat of your pants
• Coming up roses

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• Make waves
• Keep a low profile
• Leave someone out in left field
• Ballpark figure
• Get to first base
• Play for all the marbles
• A whole new ball game
• Get someone into hot water

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• Dont Frenchify your American pronunciation.

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• Dont show off by using the Latin/Greek
  equivalent of English expressions, such as per
  se, ad hoc, quid pro quo, and a priori, unless
  you are in the field of religion or law.
• Reasons
• You may misuse or overuse them.
• You may embarrass your non-native
  English-speaking associates.
• You may mispronounce them.
• You may make grammatical mistakes when using them.

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Other points about how to say things

• Tame the down-home accent and word choices.
• Beware of drawls and twangs.
• Speak at normal speednot too fast and not too
  slow.
• Try to repeat sometimes.
• Respect the silent period among the Japanese
  during business meetings.
• Keep in mind that your words may be taken
  literally by your foreign counterpart.

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Jargons

• Most jargons die out quickly.
• Using yesterdays buzzword today is as fatal a
  career move as rolling a Hula Hoop to the office.
• Jargons dont always come from the high-tech
  heritage, some low-tech words that have been
  around a long time and have been studied by
  foreigners may be a challenge for native speakers
  to understand.

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Coast Speak

• A lot of idiomatic expressions in American
  English come from California.
• For example share the life story with you
• consciousness-raising
• workshop on anything
• the use of the verb take a meeting, do drugs,
  flow

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General Confusion in Command

• Jargons used in the military and the space
  program affect the way people use the language.
• reentry
• burnout
• abort
• facilitya relief facility

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Oxymoron

• Jumbo shrimp
• Metal wood (golf)
• Fair tax
• Epic miniseries
• Guest host
• Bitter sweetness

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• laptop
• desktop publication
• read my lips
• spin doctor
• catastrophic health insurance

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Business Slang

• hog heaven
• gridlock
• leveraged buyouts
• number crunching
• power lunch/breakfast

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The You Nobody Knows

• Avoid using expletives (swear words) or slang
  expressions that have the four-letter words
  connotation (e.g. smart ass) even when the
  business seems to be officially over.
• Avoid the usual ephemera such as with it, go
  for it, and no way, even scratch the sushi."

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Officialese

• Acronyms should be avoided. Unless everybody
  knows what you are shortening, the best policy is
  to say the words out one by one.
• Found Under Carnal Knowledge
• APECAsia Pacific Economic Cooperation
• OPECThe Organization of Petroleum Exporting
  Countries
• ILGWU
• ASCAP

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Leave the Locals Local

• Dont imitate your hosts accent even though it
  is intended as a friendly joke or compliment.
• Never try to get a chuckle at the expense of the
  national cuisine or architecture or government.

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Words and Grammar

• Exaggeration and Euphemism can be taken
  literally.
• fantastic fabulous disaster
• idiot slave driver
• powder room comfort station
• Grammar
• I couldnt read hardly a word of your
  contract.

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Me Tarzan, You Jane

• Never go on to the next point until the last one
  is thoroughly understood. But never speak
  condescendingly, either.
• Ways of checking comprehension
• Its a complicated subject. Did I go too
  fast?
• Sometimes I speak too quickly. Shall I go
  over that again?

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Other Languages, Other Misunderstandings

• Am English British English
• Knickers plus fours
• At the end of the day Sth. will never be done
• Backlog
• (a list of order waiting (a hopelessly
• to be filled) overstocked
  inventory)
• Tabling an item at a meeting
• (put the discussion off) have the discussion

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• Am English British English
• Fill him in
• (provide him with (hit someone
• some info.) over the head)
• My presentation bombed.
• failure a great success

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• In Spain
• Discuss ? argue
• discutir
• Support ? financial aid
• Embarrassed ? pregnant
• Estoy embarazado

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• In France
• Demand ? ask
• Actual ? present
• In Japan
• You very rude to address
  someone directly
• No There is no real no
  in the Japanese lg.
• Our thinking is in parallel. ?
  We are in disagreement.