Saturday, December 23, 2006

TOTP - Top Ten British Phrases Jon And Rob Use

After hours of painstaking research Zack sent us an interesting list of the ten British phrases we use that make no sense to anyone abroad:-


Not our best show, but its holiday season and we are both just winding down from a year of hard work. Thanks to everyone who has sent us cards and pressies for Christmas, as our gift in return we've recorded a stack of shows that we'll be bringing you over the next week. If your family are driving you up the wall over the festive period then just subscribe to www.topofthepods.com on your brand new MP3 player, sit down, pop those headphones on, relax and enjoy our show.

13 comments:

edmarriner said...

Cant wait to to hear it.
I was'nt expecting a show 'till after christmas, cheers guys!

Anonymous said...

Great! A new show! Can you please promote me? Thanks. Hehe.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all the great shows this year - both of you. Your efforts have been much appreciated :-)

Have a good christmas/new-year/excuse to get drunk ;-)


Billy.

GiantKillerMantis said...

We call "petrol" "gas" and "diesel" "diesel".

We do have rolly bins in most places now, but we still call them "garbage cans" or "trash cans". I like the old-timey metal cans b/c you can pretend the lid is a shield, or slide on it when there's ice or snow. In my town we have green plastic cans for regular trash, and brown ones for recyclables. Go figure.

"rubbish" and "snog" are my favorite Englishisms, aside from rude words.

"Season" of a TV show: back in the day, all the new shows started in August. So it was the "new TV season," and so each year's shows were a "season". The whole thing, all the seasons of a show, we call a "series".

Sometimes we use "jinxed", too. We had an Uncle Jinx in our family. You can guess what his luck was like.

Anonymous said...

i want more rusty!

Anonymous said...

hi good show again didnt expect new ones pre christmass also regarding the bins i think it is green bins for grass and stuff. welle at least it is in my part of the country

Anonymous said...

hey jon and rob
all over australia theres plastic green rolly bins i dont think any one has used metal bins for ages and theres only green ones for everything we're so slack we dont even recycle things!
by the way this is the way i would say the words in the list
10 doctors clinic
9 indicators
8 pash
7 green wheelie bin
6 petrol
5 gob or outh :P
4 the box tele or tv any one of them really
3 series
2 bloke if you ask me that sounds pretty australian
1 dunno rubish???
well great show and have a great xmas and new year!

Anonymous said...

yeah what the? im sure there are lots of places that use wheelie bins outside the UK...

Anonymous said...

From British to American:
"Chips" --> "Fries"
"Biscuit" --> "Cookie"
"Lemonade" --> "Sprite" or "7-Up" (American lemonade has no carbonation)
"Plaits" --> "Braids"
"Braces" --> "Suspenders"?
"Bubble and Squeak" --> ??

edmarriner said...

nice show!
We've only recently got the recycling bin, dorset was one of the last.

Anonymous said...

I think your shows should be as long as they need to be, if you ramble on for 40 mins then you obviously had 40 mins of content.

I think you lost listeners because you stopped releasing regular shows, not because they exceeded 30 mins.

Kerrin

Anonymous said...

Wohooooo! You're back! Marriage has done Rob the world of good! Jon, going to the park is doing you the world of good!

Some words / phrases that I have found to be different between South African English (Nelson's, i.e. Nelson Mandela) British English (the Queen's) and American English (Steve Mc Queen's), are the following (PS, on trips to the US try to avoid using these phrases, they cause stares, hilarity, and may even lead to some stern reprimands!)

1. The lights on a car used to indicate a turn: South Africa - flickers

2. A traffic light: South Africa - Robot. You can imagine how people looked at me when I said, "Sure, I drove three blocks, turned right at the first robot, and left at the second robot"!?

3. The place that dispenses medication: South Africa - Chemist, America - drug store, or pharmacy (in posh places). I had a cold and said to someone "Where's the chemist, I need to get something for my runny nose?" They replied "There may be a chemist in the laboratory on the University campus, but why not just go to the drug store?"

4. The instrument on a car's steering wheel that makes a sound when pressed to alert pedestrians and other drivers: South Africa - hooter (yup, you got it right, it's called a hooter). Two years ago I was teaching at a conservative Theology faculty at Duke University in North Carolina, and I announced to a class of about 50 students for the ministry (that's vicars for the British, Pastors for the Americans) that I was known to repeatedly press the hooter when irritated in traffic.... Hilarity ensued....

Some differences between South African English and UK / US English that are less serious:

1. The thing one cooks on in the kitchen is called a stove in South Africa, whereas I believe it is called a cooker in the UK?

2. The thing that heats one's water for a shower or bath is called a geyser in South Africa (yup, like old yeller in jellystone park). Whereas in the UK it is called a boiler I believe.

3. Male undergarments (what Jon and Rob lovingly refer to as 'pants') are called underpants, and female undergarments are 'panties' (supposedly because they should be smaller than pants).

4. A pickup truck (what the Aussies call a utility vehicle, and the Americans call a pickup truck) is called a bakkie (that's the Afrikaans word for a small bowl - i.e. the shape of the space on the back into which all sorts of things are loaded for transport).

Well guys, thanks for the great work! You've made my year already!!!

Anonymous said...

The place that dispenses medication: South Africa - Chemist, America - drug store, or pharmacy (in posh places). I had a cold and said to someone "Where's the chemist, I need to get something for my runny nose?" They replied "There may be a chemist in the laboratory on the University campus, but why not just go to the drug store?"