English Phrases That Might Have Got You Fired

If they’d noticed them.

Just sent "Once more the British English phrase “They could not organise a piss-up in a brewery” finds its natural home in Taiwan." to the boss as the last line in an email about yet another makeup class rescheduling. It’ll be ignored, as they all are.

Hopefully yáll can share something more creative.

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I’ve called a few colleagues Gammon before. I don’t think they got it.

My basic strategy is to use their word games against them. Read the air so to speak and then act as appropriate.

Often times I just use Their logic against them. The everything is black and white logic. I will ask questions like “what if so and so does not work?” The blue screen looks I get. I giggle inside.

Or I will say to them the 5 Ps of great success. They believe it is a compliment not a critical point. (Prior preparations prevents poor performance)

My fortune is I work in Taiwan for a USA company. My colleague s are not my direct report. They just
Blow lots of hot air

Good for you.

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I find that Taiwanese bosses don’t understand the phrase ‘win win situation’ and use it incorrectly. It usually just means they (the bosses) ‘win’. e.g.

“The student wants a 9AM class on Sunday. It is a win win situation”

Or

“There is no textbook. The student wants you to teach financial articles in the lesson. It is a win win situation.”
“Will I be paid for the extra responsibilities and prep time?”
“It is very easy, only 10 minutes”
“So I can see how the student wins, and you win, but how do I win?”

Etc

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What’s a gammon?

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Middle aged white guy with opinions somebody doesn’t agree with

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I never heard this before

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It’s a limey thing

You call them Gammon to their face? You better hope they don’t get it

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I had to look it up too

Gammon is a pejorative popularised in British political culture since around 2012. The term refers in particular to the colour of a person’s flushed face when expressing their strong opinions, as compared to the type of pork of the same name.[1][2] It is defined in this context by the Oxford English Dictionary as “various parasynthetic adjectives referring to particularly reddish or florid complexions”.[3]

In 2018, it became particularly known as a term to describe either those on the political right or those who supported Brexit.[1][4] Due to its referencing of skin colour, there is controversy as to whether the term is racist.[a]

" Limey " (from lime / lemon) is a predominantly American slang nickname for a British person that has been around since the mid 19th century.[1][2] “Limey” is considered a derogatory remark.[ citation needed ]

This one I know its derogatory already.

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Had a junior high school student who always used to flirt with the girls. One day I told him to get to work and stop being such a ladies’ man. Was confronted after class by the worried principal and indignant student who had diligently looked up the term “ladyboy” on his cellphone.

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They just win doubly. Seems like a logical take :slight_smile:

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It’s a type of processed ham popular in the UK. It became a thing during brexit. Now it’s just an insult thrown at someone who you don’t agree with.

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That was the topic. If they knew I would be walked.

Calling someone a sick cunt for doing a bang up job

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I think that is called ‘English’, stop trying to run away with the ball.

Its basically bad bacon, like imagine bacon, now try to imagine bacon that is bad. Congratulations you are now imaging a ‘gammon steak’

They put the ‘steak’ in cause ruining bacon wasn’t enough, they wanted to take a dig at beef while they were at it. :grin:

I didn’t know gammon, and from the above definition I wouldn’t apply it to Taiwanese, but I left The Yook long before 2012.

I’m probably a limey from a US perspective. The Scottish diet is probably a bit too unhealthy for the description to be really applied to a Scot, but that’s perhaps a bit too nuanced a consideration for your average septic (septic tank=yank, ryming slang)

I believe limey comes from the Royal Navy use of limes to prevent scurvy.

Which was a good thing.

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Dunno. Do Americans use the phrase “piss-up”? If so, then you have a point, but putting the “British” in is likely to make it slightly more offensive to Taiwanese, so still worth doing.

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We do not.