What Happens Next: A Gallimaufry

melancholic romantic comic cynic. bi & genderqueer. fantasy writer. sysrae on ao3.

assbutt-in-the-garrison:

shiphassailed:

tigerpellets:

image

I NEVER KNEW THIS

I NEVER KNEW THAT WAS WHAT AMERICANS MEANT WHEN THEY SAID “QUITE” 

WHY DIDN’T ANYBODY TELL ME

SUDDENLY THAT ONE SONG THAT GOES “HELLO I MISS YOU QUITE TERRIBLY” MAKES LIKE A MILLION TIMES MORE SENSE

are you serious british people

i feel like this means i’ve been overestimating your enthusiasm about things for my entire life

this is quite eye opening

I spend a lot of time around academics from the US and UK, and this distinction has actually been a major topic of conversation at various times, because of how it impacts on their shared perception of colleagues’ work. As in, Americans will say X academic is “quite good”, meaning s/he is awesome and deserves a job/publications/talk invites, but a British person will usually assume they mean the opposite - that this is someone they don’t need to bother with - and vice versa, And every time this has been explained to a particular group, everyone has basically gone, oh SHIT.

Meanwhile, we Australians sit back and point out that we don’t really use “quite” in either sense (though when we do, it’s the UK version): instead, if we say someone is “pretty good”, we mean they’re fucking brilliant, but if we say they’re “all right”, we mean “yeah, not really”.   

(Source: tigerfeel, via oceanskysailor)

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