Was It Something I Said?

A guest speaker came in to talk about running an independent bookstore, and began the conversation by describing the logic behind his logo.  "We wanted something a bit . . . naff," he concluded.

Yes, yes, of course, we all nodded, and wrote "naff" in our notebooks.

This isn't the first stumble I've had over British slang.  Most of the time, the context will help you navigate these expressions without too much confusion.  Reversing the dates (as in, writing 15-10-1983 for October 15) is a struggle when we're working on production schedules, but after staring blankly at a calendar it's usually pretty easy to figure out.

It's more complicated when I'm the one inadvertently slipping up.  Once, when describing Thanksgiving to a classmate, I demonstrated a trace-your-hand turkey drawing (sample below).

Little did I know, the same words we use to describe the noise a turkey makes are terribly rude on this side of the pond.  There was a bit of blushing and a bit of "Oh that's nice" and we quickly switched topics to sweet potato pie.

Maybe we should stick to dessert.  Er, um . . . pudding.