Versus

Does it bother anyone else besides me to see “vs.” used over and over again to mean “and”?

I’ve seen it on the news, I’ve seen it in professional papers (I do proofreading) and I’ve even seen it in a speech given by the president of the university I work at - and he studied in America for several years.

Is this just because they’ve played too much Street Fighter (Ryu vs. Ken)? Why don’t they just look in a damn dictionary and figure out that it means “against” and not 'and"?

Mr. Penguin.

You only have to go to your local wang ka (cyber cafe) to notice where these kid’s english education comes from.

Also, in this big bad Taiwan world, everything is a competition. No one is just a mere “and”, but indeed a hidden battle…

Well said Rabidpie.

And in my company, “I doubt” means “I believe”. My bossboss has introduced that meaning and it’s spreading like hell.

[me screwing up something]
“Hey Bob, I doubt it’s your fault”. [my wife is my boss and she says that often]
[me grinning, yeah, you are right…]

Or when the boss wants to be nice:

“I doubt you did good work” :smiley:

What this place needs are engrish teechurs…pronto!

[quote=“Rabidpie”]Mr. Penguin.

You only have to go to your local wang ka (cyber cafe) to notice where these kid’s English education comes from.

Also, in this big bad Taiwan world, everything is a competition. No one is just a mere “and”, but indeed a hidden battle…[/quote]

It’s not just kids though… as I said, it’s adults who have spent time in America and speak very good English… they should know better.

Just for fun, I looked up “versus” in an English/Chinese dictionary, and got the correct answer. I also looked up several Chinese words, and they were all translated in English correctly. Crazy.

The fact so many Taiwanese who spent a couple years throwing sticky balls at a whiteboard in a local buxiban now regard themselves as masters of the English language doesn’t help matters either.

thought the popular alternative taken from the 2006 World Cup was PK