English words only ever used abroad

BigHandsOliverKahn

BigHandsOliverKahn

Well-known member
Just been reading a Zimbabwe newspaper and came across the word "ulultate" and had to look it up.

Got me thinking of other times I have interacted with people from abroad who have thrown in an English word that has taught me something about my own language.

One example Indian colleagues would say is, "please do the needful" where needful was being used as a noun. Never heard that word used in that way before.

What other examples have people encountered?
 
Everyone commonly uses ‘waiter’, and no doubt ,like me, coincidentally combines it with simultaneously clicking their fingers 😁

edit to add ‘waitress’ to the list.
 
in South Africa traffic lights are Robots, getting "directions once i got the "tern lift at the robots" . . . . . eh! i drove on for miles looking for an actual robot

floppy discs were called stiffys. The IT guy of the client (south African) was talking to one of our people (english) and asked him "did he have a stiffy" to much confusion all around.

In spain they dont really use the V sound. V's are B's. but many Spaniards for some weird reason when saying Pub say Puv, and there is absolutely no rational reason for it.
 
In IT there is what’s know as a Router pronounced “Rooter”.

Sat in a meeting in Sydney and I said can someone please reset the “Rooter’ everyone was in apoplexy as in Australia a ‘Rooter’ is a serial shagger.

They pronounce what I meant as ‘Row (as in an argument) Ter’

You live and learn 😂👍
 
Russians often confuse ‘w’ and ‘v’ for example ‘it’s wery big house’.

I noticed they tend to use the word ‘seldom’ when speaking English instead of the more commonly used ‘rarely’.

For example, ‘I seldom go to this area of the city’.

They have a couple of sounds in the alphabet that don’t exist in any of our words. For example ‘ы’ is pronounced as if you’re gagging on something.
 
Graves said:
Russians often confuse ‘w’ and ‘v’ for example ‘it’s wery big house’.

I noticed they tend to use the word ‘seldom’ when speaking English instead of the more commonly used ‘rarely’.

For example, ‘I seldom go to this area of the city’.

They have a couple of sounds in the alphabet that don’t exist in any of our words. For example ‘ы’ is pronounced as if you’re gagging on something.
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Love the Cyrillic alphabet.
 
Ollygon said:
When I was in Singapore once, a shop assistant called me "Uncle"
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Yes, that's one I've come across too. South Asians use Uncle as a term of endearment.

seasideone said:
In IT there is what’s know as a Router pronounced “Rooter”.

Sat in a meeting in Sydney and I said can someone please reset the “Rooter’ everyone was in apoplexy as in Australia a ‘Rooter’ is a serial shagger.

They pronounce what I meant as ‘Row (as in an argument) Ter’

You live and learn 😂👍
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I also got caught out by the word 'root' whilst in Oz. I think I told someone in the office to "go and have a root over there" after they asked me where something was. I sat there wondering why everyone was laughing in hysterics. 😂
 
Graves said:
Russians often confuse ‘w’ and ‘v’ for example ‘it’s wery big house’.

I noticed they tend to use the word ‘seldom’ when speaking English instead of the more commonly used ‘rarely’.

For example, ‘I seldom go to this area of the city’.

They have a couple of sounds in the alphabet that don’t exist in any of our words. For example ‘ы’ is pronounced as if you’re gagging on something.
Click to expand...
the germans also have an issue with Vs and Ws,

the aston martin wankwish comes to mind at its press launch
 
Squirrel is another English word Germans find hard to pronounce correctly as S in German is said like a Z. Try saying it replacing the S with Z😀😂
 
seasideone said:
They only use it to people who they think are very old - the female equivalent term is Auntie (Surprise!).
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Funnily enough, Russians can use ‘uncle’ (in Russian ‘дядя’), to refer to an encounter with a stranger.

For example: ‘что тебе сказал это дядя?’
- what did that guy say to you?

Auntie (тетя) for a woman can also apply.
 
Tio Tia which is uncle aunt is commonly used in Spanish as well as a general term for guy, good guy. Es un buen tio,

When I lived in SA a friend down there spoke 4 or 5 of the African languages, and all of them used the uncle in context of guy person etc.
 
BigHandsOliverKahn said:
Yes, that's one I've come across too. South Asians use Uncle as a term of endearment.


I also got caught out by the word 'root' whilst in Oz. I think I told someone in the office to "go and have a root over there" after they asked me where something was. I sat there wondering why everyone was laughing in hysterics. 😂
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My first day in the office in Phoenix, Arizona, I had a very pretty secretary giving out the stationery and unaware of the differences between English and American English, as I noticed she had missed giving me one item, so I asked her in total naivety, "Excuse Me Luv. Do you have any Rubbers?"
 
I was working on Long Island and got a very strange look when I told a young office girl I needed a rubber. My mate who smoked found out they say cigarette where fag means something else🤣
 
At a meeting of our UK-USA company about 20 years ago, I described a colleague as someone who “liked to drink beer and smoke fags”.

The Kentuckian in the room looked very strangely at him. He had to have it explained to him. Later he said he first thought I meant said colleague liked to get drunk before going out to shoot homosexuals.
(I think I’ve told that one before... as have others, above)
 
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