Stereotypes, slang, and colloquialisms in different countries.

Singularity wrote:Apparently, chock-a-block derives from old nautical English, meaning something along the lines of 'choke-full' combined with the 'block' used in a pulley system.

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/chock-a-block.htm

So in retrospect, this must be one of the few old English words that became an everyday word in old German, the basis of Swiss German.

i'm german and i never heard that

bmpalmann wrote:We've got "Not the sharpest tool in the box", "Not a smart cookie" and i think there's also one about brick walls when referring to intelligence.

'Not a smart cookie' is an Americanism.

Although perhaps the most true comment about stupidity is 'Empty barrels make the most noise'. Along with 'Simple minds are amused by simple things.'

@Ben: It's if you can't hit something people say "You couldn't even hit a brick wall"

America: "He's one fry short of a happy meal"

Blaze wrote:@Ben: It's if you can't hit something people say "You couldn't even hit a brick wall"

Nope it's not that i've never actually heard of that one before. I've remembered the one if referred to earlier now
It's "Thicker than a brick wall"

@Thom: Quite possibly.

Sakiara wrote:

LordRemington wrote:Canadians:
- Super Friendly (Ned Flanders Style) Pretty true, we say sorry for other people running into us. There are exceptions though.

I'll bet you greet each other like this: "Well, how-didly-ho neighborino!"

I have the impression that all Canadians are like Bob and Doug McKenzie. For those that don't know...


Eh, take off you hoser.

My impression of Canadians is they often talk without breath or punctuation.

One time I was vacationing with some friends at Club Med in Guadeloupe and the youth activities organizer at the time was, you guessed it, Canadian. The first night he introduced himself to us and after he left we looked at each other asking what the hell he just said.

Blaze wrote:@Ben: It's if you can't hit something people say "You couldn't even hit a brick wall"

How about these two then?

"He couldn't hit a barn door with a Banjo!"
"He couldn't hit a cow's backside with a barn door!"

Presumably because he missed the barn door with the banjo

Some dumb ones I know

"Thick as two short planks!"
"A sandwich short of a picnic."
"Like talking to a brick wall."
"Somewhere there is a Village missing an idiot."

There are alot more australian colloquialisms and slang I could share. However most are not appropriate for the forum

sjhorm wrote:I have the impression that all Canadians are like Bob and Doug McKenzie. For those that don't know...

Lol, no. Those two are more redneck-y. They are pretty funny though.

Singularity wrote:My impression of Canadians is they often talk without breath or punctuation.

Nope, not true at all. I only know a couple of people like that. But that's due to their personality and not that they are Canadian.

Aussie colloquialism

Silly Duffa- means your being silly..... but duffa like?

Ah-MER-ica:

-Everyone pronounces America like above: true
-Everyone down south says y'all: untrue- I actually don't know too many who do
-Everyone is morbidly obese- more than elsewhere, I'd say, but mostly untrue
-Everyone is an idiot- I know a number of really smart people because I take all the classes they take. Then I go out in public and realize that I conduct everyday business with the smartest .001% of the population.
-All the smart people are Asians, love Asians and specifically Japan to the point of obsession, have no life, or are a combination of the above- extremely true

I'll come up with some more stereotypes for other people, later.

These are all ones I have heard atleast once

"Throw a skit"- to get very angry

"Squizz" - To look e.g "take a squizz at this"

"Bungie Smugglers"- a sort of swimming thong for men

"Chuck a yewy"- To do a U-turn

"She'll be apples"- She'll be okay

"Bludger" - Lazy person

"bottle-o" - liquor store

"Crack onto (someone)" - Hitting on someone

"Daks" - pants

"hooly dooley" - WOW

Righto I was watching Oprah (yes on occasion I watch Oprah) and another thing that people from other countries a lot of times seem to get wrong came up, but particularly in america.


When people say "hey an Aussie", a lot of time they will pronounce "aussie" like this "aw-see" when you are supposed to pronounce it like this "ozzy".

I heard that a lot when I've met people from overseas. To be clear, not pronounced "aw-see" its pronounced "ozzy".

Not sure if this is a colloquialism or stereotype, but I felt like sharing

See, this is where I sometimes get confused because "aussie" sounds very much like "Ossi", which is what you call a member of former East Germany (they speak funny, too) and word-wise it's too close to Austria as well. =/