How did you find this place - do you remember?

lyle_from_minneapolis · Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:24 am

Sheena, this is a case where English falls short. Friend is just plain vague.

johneek · Post by **johneek** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 9:45 am

"...this is a case where English falls short. Friend is just plain vague."

Not to mention the way we use the word "love."

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:16 am

Sheena, this is a case where English falls short. Friend is just plain vague.

I see. Thanks for clarification of that linguistic question.
John, in fact, both these words are desemantising (losing their initial meaning) in Russian as well at the time. But i am the person of stereotypes "grown" in childhood, hence my attitude. And in this case, i do not think stereotypes are something to avoid.
Dane, that'd be a "nil-nil draw".

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:41 am

Over here "friend" might be somebody that you've met once or a few times - closer to an acquaintance perhaps. "Mate" is mostly used for somebody with whom you've had a longer and deeper friendship and in the context usually means 'of the same sex'. "Best mate" is often the "mate" you have known the longest and spent the most time with. However, "best mate" is not limited to one. People often say things like "one of my best mates".........

Therefore:

"He's a friend of mine" - I've met him and we 'get on'
"He's a mate of mine" - he's a really good friend
"He's my best mate" - he's my best friend and I'd do anything for him

It's interesting that these days face to face contact doesn't necessarily constitute the basis of a friendship. As an example, Brian and I got to know each other via this forum and became good friends. Many months later I stayed with him in Canada and that friendship became a "mateship" very quickly........ we 'clicked' as it were. We have cyber conversations usually every week and talk on the phone regularly and are genuine "mates". Given that he and his wife have been on vacation for two and a bit weeks it's been a tough time because we haven't been able to chat and I missed it immensely!

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 11:19 am

Damn, now it's getting even more confusing! I understand now why Oz is called "down under", cause the terms are exactly vice versa with what i got used to... well, at least, "mate" is a "meeting point".

Thanks everybody for the answers. I'm gonna be taking these nuances into consideration which probably would help me understand other people & what they say and mean better...

nukebass · Post by **nukebass** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 12:29 pm

Then you also get into the differences between the Queen's English, America's English, and the "correct" Southern (American) English

I don't hear mate too much here, but there is buddy and other such words. Is German the same way with one word for "friend"?

I found this place a long time ago by using yahoo or google and searching for Rickenbacker forums (back in 99, I think). I was looking for truss rod info, I think, but never posted anything. I found this place again after checking out the rickenbacker.com forums and had to remember my old password. I figured it was me since I didn't believe NukeBass was very common. Then I got my info updated and have been checking in daily.

sharkboy · Post by **sharkboy** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:38 pm

Sheena, I think I can promise we'll keep confusing you and ourselves, as context and underlying meanings seem to be stronger than actual text. Then there is how we type and spell that increases the challenge.

Some people here have an incredibly dry wit that makes literal understanding the message even more difficult. We all seem to speak the same words, but each of us has our own language.

My super secret method is to try to get the general idea of what is being said and try to assume the most innocuous meaning when I can't decipher it through context.

sowhat · Post by **sowhat** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 3:04 am

Well, since i'm not always "literally speaking" either, i can relate.

So there's no chance i could ever understand English speakers? Well, no problem. Some say people can understand each other at 15 % maximum, even if they speak the same native language.

sharkboy · Post by **sharkboy** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 4:28 am

Language is an amazing thing. I suppose that we do _even better_ than 15%. I suppose the biggest modifiers are wanting to understand and listening (reading), which probably make up the biggest portion of any successful discourse.

Some of us out in the western US love the sound of "correct" Southern (American) English to which Ryan refers, but occasionally we need a translator into our accent/dialect-free English. Then again, I sometimes need a "like, totally" filter.

johneek · Post by **johneek** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 5:48 am

Even when two people grew up in the same country, speaking the "same" language, the communication barriers are not trivial. The whole process is amazing when you think about it. We conceive a thought, we "code" that thought into words. Our "code" of course is unique to us and determined by filters such as our personality, experiences, gender, social status, race, and education (among many others).

Then we actually transmit this "coded" message. How accurately its transmitted is dependent on the medium (voice, typewritten, in person), sentence structure, and other intangible details like our ability to inflect words in appropriate ways.

Of course then comes the tricky part, in that the person to whom you are communicating has to hear the transmission, and then "decode" it into an idea or thought, but has to use a completely different decoding device and set of filters than the one used to construct the message in the first place.

When you think about it, the fact that we can actually communicate beyond the pure transfer of simple information is amazing, but I believe inherently part of being human. It also imposes on us a responsibility to consider not only what we want to say, but how the individual for whom our message is intended, will "hear" it. We've tried to teach our kids that they should not let anything come out of their mouth, except what is good for edifying and building up others....Easier said than done...no pun intended.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 7:01 am

I was sitting one day in the galley at McMurdo Station when two guys passed my table on their way to the chow line...they had just got off work at their jobs as army cargo handlers, one from the U.S. and the other from New Zealand. They could be differentiated from a distance by their respective countries' uniforms and insignia...in addition, the American guy was black with an accent that sounded to my ear to be from Detroit. The amount of their conversation I overheard went like this:

"Ma-a-an, 'em muthah-f*ckahs be actin' like sh*thead dawgs..."

"Aw, yeh, mite, ah noy wutcha mine..."

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