Now You're Speakin' My Language (or Dialect)

[The Joy of Erudition]

No, it's making a joke as if they're two different things, when it's just a different pronunciation. (But maybe you're joking, too.) (•‿•)

[Karin]

The Joy of Erudition wrote: "No, it's making a joke as if they're two different things, when it's just a different pronunciation. (But maybe you're joking, too.) (•‿•)"

Yes, two pronunciations of the same thing.

[YouKneeK]

Speaking of different pronunciations, I recently was educated by an audiobook that the UK pronunciation for “geyser” sounds like “geezer”. Geyser is pronounced guy-zer in the U.S., and a “geezer” is a derogatory term (or sometimes tongue-in-cheek, depending on the context) for an elderly man.

So when the audiobook narrator read that “a geezer sprayed into the air”, I was hit with a very unexpected mental image before the other half of my brain caught up and I realized what it must have meant. Then I had to Google to confirm if that’s really how geyser is pronounced in the UK. I feel fortunate that I experienced this misunderstanding via an audiobook and not in a live conversation!

[E.D.]

In the UK the word geezer is also used to describe an elderly man, although it's a bit old fashioned now and mainly used in the south of England around London I believe. So yes, we generally pronounce geezer and geyser the same way (as geezer).

[Karin]

YouKneeK wrote: "Speaking of different pronunciations, I recently was educated by an audiobook that the UK pronunciation for “geyser” sounds like “geezer”. Geyser is pronounced guy-zer in the U.S., and a “geezer” i..."

Geezer is incorrect, of course, since geyser comes from Geysir, which is one specific geyser in Iceland and ey is never pronounced like a long e in English. Icleandic is very phonetic.í is close to how we say ee. ey is sort of like a long a, but not exactly.

Now, this is probably more than many of you really want to know, but film fans of the Norse gods might like these videos, too, and I have a place to let you here the ey sound.

However, we say it wrong, too, since s is never pronounced like a z, etc, but it's better than geezer, for one thing.

The problem on Youtube is that you have a lot of non-Icelanders trying to teach people how to pronounce things that have accents. Icleandic is very old--close to Old Norse.

Here is an Icelander in her second video about how to pronounce Norse mythology names. at 8:53 she gets to Freyr, which will show you how to say ey (but it's almost impossible for anglophones to say this vowel as Icelanders do) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxJvd...

If your a fan of the movies about Thor, Loki, et al, this one plus her first one that has over 3 million views, will show you how our ancestor Snorri Sturluson recorded them for all time (yes, it was an Icelander who recorded Norse mythology so it wouldn't be lost for all time. All Tolkein fans owe him a huge debt for two of his books.) Here's the first one she made https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0lWO...

[Anna]

If you missed the discussion about Australian English in the TV thread you can catch up here. Any comments you have on the subjects, please post them here in this thread you're currently in!

And what I'm currently most interested in, chocolate! Do you have a favorite brand of chocolate you can only get in a certain country? What sweets/foods from your own country do/did you miss if you (have) live(d) abroad?

For me it was obviously licorice/liquorice. We did get Danish licorice in Malaysia, but it's not the same as the Finnish stuff I'm used to. And same thing with rye bread, only Danish options available, not at all the same thing.

As for chocolate, all British and American chocolate brands I have ever tasted are absolutely disgusting. Swiss chocolate is the best, and I agree with Jacqueline that Lindt is great! The rest of my family likes Milka more, but I'll stick with Lindt. Finnish chocolate ranges from pretty good to absolutely disgusting, with some small brands having really excellent new vegan products! (All my global chocolate tasting opinions are from my pre-vegan childhood.)

[Leonie]

I have to say that US chocolate (Hershey's) is...not what I'd prefer. I really like Lindt - particularly the dark chocolate Lindt balls, and of course, good old Cadbury's Chocolate.

I particularly like Cherry Ripes, which are apparently a very Australian Cadbury's chocolate bar. And of course there are Tim Tams. Which are chocolate biscuits. Here's a link to them if you've never met them. (And you really should.) https://www.arnotts.com/products/tim-tam
And then there's the Tim Tam slam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8hEo...
This demo uses coffee, but Milo is also traditional, and port...

Then there's the glory of the Licorice Allsort. Mmmmmm

My husband's from New Zealand, so I have been introduced to NZ chocolate - Whittakers, which is rather nice too. Mal likes the Peanut Slabs.


We haven't lived overseas, but we've travelled quite a bit, and I do have to say that we were rather grossed out by the weird orange stuff that people in the US refer to as cheese. It also seems to appear in Canada on occasion. And then there was the bread. Sweet.

It was one of the things we craved when we got home. Fresh, not sweet, plain bread, with butter and vegemite.

But Canada has Maple Biscuits! And there are the most amazing churros in Disneyland.

[Kandice]

Lindt is my favorite chocolate. The truffles are to die for. I also like a lot of very dark chocolates, especially when someplace like Trader Joe's has a sample pack.

I occasionally make cocoa dusted truffles at home, but wish I knew a place to order a chocolate other than American chocolate for the base.

[Jemppu]

Kandice wrote: "Lindt is my favorite chocolate...."

Heartily seconded. The order goes: Lindt, Karl Fazer... Ferrero? And everything else comes after those.

I am reminded it is again the season for Fazer's Mignon eggs. A delicacy.
(https://en.biginfinland.com/fazer-mig...)

Marabou's milk chocolates take unreasonably much shelf space in stores around here, given they're quite consistent at being uselessly tasteless. (Come at me, Swedes).

[CBRetriever]

Perugina (Italian) chocolate from Italy is excellent but it's available in a lot of countries including the US

Chocolat Bonnat from France: https://www.worldwidechocolate.com/sh... - I ran across this brand at a chocolate salon in France and loved it

Raisin Dores which totally turned my hated of chocolate covered raisins upside down. These are wonderful with golden raisins soaked in Jurançon wine and are made in Pau, France (yes, the same Pau that the Tour de France goes through every year). My company had a research facility there and I was always begging anyone who went there to bring some back. It was difficult to even find them in Paris

https://www.maison-verdier.com/en/pro...

and in Portland, Oregon I have been buying Marich Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Cashews. These are made in California. A local grocery called Zupan's also has them packed with their label on them.

[CBRetriever]

as far as licorice goes, my husband prefers Katjes from the Netherlands (available on Amazon)

https://www.amazon.com/Katjes-Kinder-...

and going back to Lindt, there's a difference between the taste of the chocolate between the US and what was available in France.

Kit Kats, the original candy bar, taste really different from country to country too. The ones in Canada are too sweet for me. The US, France and the UK have OK versions, but the best ones I tasted were from Switzerland

and in France, it was almost impossible to find hard candy, not to mention Fritos and Sour Cream. I'd go into a candy store and there would be absolutely no hard candies there; ditto for grocery stores.

[Kandice]

I like salty black licorice. I think it's usually packaged as Australian, but I don't know if it really is.

[Beth]

Kandice wrote: "Lindt is my favorite chocolate. The truffles are to die for. I also like a lot of very dark chocolates, especially when someplace like Trader Joe's has a sample pack."

Trader Joe's dark chocolate peanut butter cups are great. I love Lindt, too.

Typical kids' candy milk chocolate like Hershey's tastes like a sugary oil brick with a mild aftertaste of chocolate. Just foul.

[Kandice]

Beth wrote: "Trader Joe's dark chocolate peanut butter cups are great..."

I usually keep a pack of these in my freezer. The Sunflower Butter cups are also divine.

[Lizzie]

Ghiradelli chocolate has been my most recent favorite. If I am eating chocolate, I like dark, I like salted, i like caramel. I am not as big on chocolate as most of my friends. A basic American candy bar pickup then I generally grab a Snickers.

I have never liked licorice. My sister does so I bought her Stash licorice tea for Christmas one year. She didn't care for it, though she loves black licorice of most brands.

I want to try those Raisin Dores.

[Michelle]

I once had this phenomenal Australian licorice- it was chocolate in the center surrounded by a raspberry licorice log. I'm a raspberry fiend in any incarnation, but that combo was just right!

[Kandice]

Michelle wrote: "I once had this phenomenal Australian licorice- it was chocolate in the center surrounded by a raspberry licorice log. I'm a raspberry fiend in any incarnation, but that combo was just right!"

I am also a raspberry fiend! I even like those obnoxious Haribo Berry Gummies.

[Karin]

I only liked red licorice as a child (liked black later on), but it isn't real licorice.

I can't eat any of this now due to allergies and other sensitivities, so I enjoy my chocolate very plain as cacao powder or one brand of chocolate chips that is friendly to food sensitivities.

BUT, when I was growing up we spent several years in San Francisco (split and at two different times) so before it was such a big national brand, we visited the original Ghiradelli's store. Once I finished off a plastic container of their milk chocolate (not fair, I know, but when I was a teen I could eat as much as I wanted to--can't now, though!!!)

Some of my favourite chocolate growing up was before I ever saw Lindt, etc, and it was Cadbury stuff I don't see around here in the US.

[Raucous]

There's a local (small town Pacific Northwest) chocolate maker, The Cocoa Forge, that specializes in single source chocolate bars and that tries to preserve the character of the original bean. Each batch is different and I don't always love them but they're always interesting and "alive" in a way that larger scale commercial chocolate usually isn't. Don't get me started on other US chocolate. Sigh...

The candy store just down the street from there has a whole wall of licorice from Holland, Denmark, Finland, Australia, and other locations. I might be getting to the age where I probably shouldn't have a licorice habit but I just can't resist some of them. I know... Spoiled for choice.

My last direct experience with European chocolate was putting a couple of assortment bags in my luggage at the end of a trip to Switzerland. I hope that someone in TSA got to enjoy it because I certainly didn't. On that same trip I discovered that the person sitting next to me on the flight over had done the reception area art installation at the headquarters of a major Swiss chocolate maker. She had some fun stories.

[Michelle]

I used to have a friend many years ago from Belgium, and he would bring me back some fabulous chocolate. I think that's when I first realized that Hershey's was inferior. My sweet sister had gotten me a box of Godiva chocolates for my 50th birthday and those were sinful :)

[Michelle]

Okay, now I have chocolate on the brain :). Despite having tasted some incredible chocolate, my all-time favorite is made in America. I grew up in Philadelphia, and there is a company there that makes Dark Chocolate Peanut Chews. Apparently they were a WWII ration bar. I could eat those until they're coming out of my ears! Thank goodness the Wawa convenience store chain sells them down here in Virginia or I'd be hurtin' for certain :)

[Colin]

Michelle wrote: "I used to have a friend many years ago from Belgium, and he would bring me back some fabulous chocolate. I think that's when I first realized that Hershey's was inferior. My sweet sister had gotten..."

I used to go to Belgium fairly often and would bring back Leonidas for my wife and also folks at the office. Was that the one?

[Karin]

Worst chocolate memory:

We lived in Germany for a year. My only memory of my fourth birthday is that I was jealous and upset that my 2 year old sister got a larger chocolate heart to help compensate for her not getting any gifts since it wasn't her birthday.

Four year olds are so mature...

[Michelle]

Colin wrote: "Michelle wrote: "I used to have a friend many years ago from Belgium, and he would bring me back some fabulous chocolate. I think that's when I first realized that Hershey's was inferior. My sweet ..."

It was! Oh my gosh, the Leonidas was exquisite.

[Michelle]

Colin wrote: "Michelle wrote: "I used to have a friend many years ago from Belgium, and he would bring me back some fabulous chocolate. I think that's when I first realized that Hershey's was inferior. My sweet ..."

Colin, I'll love you forever if you bring me back a box ;)

[CBRetriever]

Callebaut is an excellent Belgian chocolate too

[Jacqueline]

Ferrero have a factory in my home town here in Australia and make Tic Tacs, Nutella and Ferrero Rocher. Not a fan of Ferrero Rocher or Nutella. My neighbour used to bring my kids the packs of Nutella that were rejected because the packaging was wrong in some way. They couldn’t put it back through the system but you could never get Tic Tacs because they can be tipped back into the system.

Every Christmas Lindt did a limited edition white chocolate and peppermint chocolate and I love them. This year they didn’t have them. So disappointed.

Tim Tams are an Australian icon. They recently had a dark chocolate and orange one that I loved. Yummo. Tim Tam Slam for the win.

Miss chocolate. I can’t have it after my gastric sleeve operation.

As I said over in the other thread I don’t like most American candies or chocolates. The rest of the world do them better. And all the bread is too sweet. Even the stuff that isn’t is still way sweeter than here. I buy my bread fresh from a proper bakery. Yummy.

[CBRetriever]

Jacqueline wrote: "I buy my bread fresh from a proper bakery."

in the US, those are hard to find. Houston, with a population of 2.3 million people, only had three bakeries that made proper baguettes and most of the bakeries there didn't make bread, but instead sold, cakes, cupcakes, pies, and other desserts. Portland Oregon, with a population of around 600,000, on the other hand has a lot of proper bakeries and a lot of sources for good baguettes.

[Beth]

Karin wrote: "I only liked red licorice as a child (liked black later on), but it isn't real licorice."

There's a brand of this kind of candy called "Red Vine"--informally we do call it "red licorice" but it's possible that its being labeled licorice by the manufacturer would violate food labeling laws. (i.e. calling pressed fake crab "krab" or "sea legs") (I am not in the FDA so don't treat this as fact.)

I didn't like licorice when I was a kid, and still don't care for licorice vines, but I do like a harder candy with that flavor now and then. I find as I'm older I enjoy sweets with stronger flavors, like aniseed cookies and tamarind candy, which I spat out in disgust when I was a pre-teen.

[Kandice]

I hate Red Vines! But I DO like those Red Ropes. I haven't seen them in ages, but they were about three feet long and came in a plastic sleeve. Does anyone remember those? Maybe they aren't made any more.

[Kandice]

Found them, but I guess they are now considered nostalgic, which is just an excuse to charge more. O_o

[Margaret]

While I love chocolate, I actually follow this thread for the language stuff. How did chocolate get onto it?

[Anna]

Besides languages, we've also used this thread to discuss cultural differences, as they are often related :)

[Michelle]

Margaret wrote: "While I love chocolate, I actually follow this thread for the language stuff. How did chocolate get onto it?"

Anna started it :)

[Michelle]

CBRetriever wrote: "Jacqueline wrote: "I buy my bread fresh from a proper bakery."

in the US, those are hard to find. Houston, with a population of 2.3 million people, only had three bakeries that made proper baguett..."

I think it depends on the region. Living in the Philadelphia area one could trip over real bakeries. Ahh...those were the days! Our friends are from New York City, and the said it's the same there. In Virginia Beach real- and good- bakeries are scarce. I actually regularly order a mail delivery from a bakery up north, and we are like little kids when the package arrives!

[Anna]

Also.

Chocolate is totally a language, and I'm fluent in it!

[Karin]

Jacqueline wrote: "Ferrero have a factory in my home town here in Australia and make Tic Tacs, Nutella and Ferrero Rocher. Not a fan of Ferrero Rocher or Nutella. My neighbour used to bring my kids the packs of Nutel..."

Cool! There is a candy factory in the town my husband grew up in (from the time he was 4) and his mother was a full time employee for 21 years--has been collecting a pension for 32 years (not making this up--back before 401Ks). He worked there at least one summer.

[CBRetriever]

Karin wrote: "has been collecting a pension for 32 years (not making this up--back before 401Ks).."

one of the benefits for me of working for a French company, though about two after the last merger (Belgian company had bought my division of a US company and then merged with a French company and then added another French company into the mix) future US employees were not part of a pension plan

to keep on topic: my spelling is now a tad bit confused after 5 years of gouvernement, appartement and adaptateur

[Jacqueline]

I had trouble finding normal black tea in Houston. We went to a supermarket and all they had was Earl Grey. The “black tea” offered at my B&B was Earl Grey and the black tea at Starbucks in the city centre was Earl Grey. Now I love Earl Grey but it’s not normal black tea. It’s a sometimes tea for me not an all the time tea. Got normal stuff everywhere else we’ve been in the US though.

Been to the US four times now. Been to LA, San Fran, Houston, New York and Vegas. Just working out where we’re going next as Hubby is planning his 60th birthday trip with the family. We’re spending his actual birthday at Disneyland. Again. We had our daughters 21st there too and have been there a couple of other times. When you go to the US you usually end up going through LA so we have a stopover there and spend some time at Disneyland. It’s my happy place. Hong Kong Disney not so much. They haven’t got the “happiest place on Earth” thing down at all. Not much smiling done there except for the Princesses and the other character cast members.

Houston is definitely different. Might be a Texas thing. Not a bad different. Just different. We went to Bogotá, Colombia, in 2013 and had to go from LA to Houston and then from there to Colombia so on the way back we stopped for a few days in a quirky B&B in Houston. I wanted to go to the Space Centre and go to a Honky Toni. I was into Linedancing back then. Didn’t get to the Honky Tonk though as I got sick with the flu and was too sick to go out at night. The Space Centre was amazing though.

I want to visit Portland Chessie. I told Hubby that I want to go to Portland next time we come to America. I’ve heard it’s full of bookshops and I follow Laini Taylor on Instagram and she always has lovely photos of food and the surrounds.

[DivaDiane]

When I did a few concerts in Oregon, my husband and I hung a week on the end to vacation around Oregon. It’s beautiful and so varied! We went inland and stayed in a friend’s cabin in the mountains. It was early spring, though so lots of places were closed. Then we went up the coast and finished in Portland. Wine country (south of Portland in the Willamette Valley is wonderful. We enjoyed (too?) many winery tours. And yes, bookstores in Portland. ‘Nuff said.

[CBRetriever]

The northern coast in Oregon is fantastic, Mt. Hood is nice to see and I love the Columbia River Gorge waterfalls:

http://www.columbiarivergorge.info/wa...

You have to get tickets now to drive the old road where you can get to the waterfalls, but there are public transport and tour options which might work better.

it's definitely a foodie scene here, but Houston was the same way.

and out side of Portland, there's Crater Lake and Mount St Helen (latest big volcano eruption in the continental US).

[Adrian]

Surprised to see no votes for Toblerone. Easily my favourite chocky although Cadbury and Ferraro Rocher will do at a pinch.

[Michelle]

I really like Cadbury as Fruit and Nut chocolate bar. I haven't tried Toblerone, although I've seen it in the Commissary. I might have to give it a try.

[Adrian]

When you have Toblerone you'll say: "Aaah... so that's what chocolate tastes like!"

[Michelle]

Adrian wrote: "When you have Toblerone you'll say: "Aaah... so that's what chocolate tastes like!""

I don't know, Adrian...it would be hard to beat the Leonidas!

[CBRetriever]

or the Bonnat

as for Cadbury, it's their mini eggs I like. The main problem with a lot of the Cadbury products is that they, in the US, are made by Hersheys

https://www.businessinsider.com/cadbu...

The only differences are the fat content and the amount of cocoa used in each bar. The US Cadbury bars use only cocoa butter as the "fat," in order to meet FDA standards. In the UK, the company is also allowed to use vegetable oils such as palm and shea.

This is why the EU didn't consider most UK chocolates to be "chocolate"

[Tamara]

CB Retriever, those Marich Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Cashews sound delicious. The chocolates you can get from gourmet makers are really nice - and expensive to match! There's one I found here a few years ago, called the Noosa Chocolate Factory, which sells some great combinations, like mango white chocolate-covered macadamias, and dark/milk chocolate covered and cocoa-dusted almonds and pecans (pecans being my favourite nuts, but expensive, so I don't often have them).

I'm Australian, but don't like Cadbury's chocolate. Once in a blue moon, I'll have some, but I find the texture cloying and the taste overly sweet and too milky. The chocolate itself doesn't have a good flavour, to me.
But I was raised on Swiss chocolate, since Mum had lived in Switzerland for a bit when she was a young adult (she worked in a chocolate factory, no less, for part of the time), and she had a friend who used to send her Lindt boxes... which she mostly hid in her room, so we couldn't get to them. But she shared some with us - before you could really get it here. I think Toblerone was the only Swiss-like chocolate you could get at that time. So she'd give us each a bar/block/stick/whatever you call the Toblerone thing at Easter. But it's changed since then, and I don't enjoy it anymore. Either it became sweeter, or my tastes changed.

Tim Tams are okay, but overrated. I think it's more of a nostalgia thing for people, rather than that they're actually excellent. Although everyone who feels like that would vehemently disagree with me 😎. Overall, I haven't missed Australian foods when overseas, but am used to them when here. I think it's just interesting to experience the stuff you can get in other countries when you're there. England has some yummy treats, but not healthy! Like these caramel wafer bars that come in a red and gold-striped packet, which you can now get at the supermarket here. Expensive, and I'm sort of horrified I ate them over there, but really yummy.

I went to Ghirardelli's in San Francisco, because I'd read about it as something you should do. It was a fun store, and they had good chocolate.

I loved the bread you could get in Austria. Dark, rye, interesting stuff that every shop could sell you - before it was widely available here. But there are still kinds unique to there. There are market stalls at farmer's markets here which sell similar things.

The candy in the US is pretty amazing, but filled with so much sugar! And artificial colours. I used to like the cinnamon chewy lips and bears.

Aand last 😁, in Tahiti, it was really hard to find brown rice. So many varieties of white, but only sometimes one variety of brown to be found. But their daily 'pain' (what we'd call baguettes, but nothing like) - to die for 👌

[Leonie]

Margaret wrote: "While I love chocolate, I actually follow this thread for the language stuff. How did chocolate get onto it?"

Well, I can combine language and chocolate if you like? 🤷‍♀️😂😂

Here, 'candy' refers to hard lollies. And when I was growing up, to sticks of candy, like Edinburgh Rock, for example.

A lolly basically means any thing that isn't chocolate.

Chocolates are individual chocolate sweets - plain, with fillings, as in the things you'd find in a chocolate box.

Chocolate bars are things like Cherry Ripes, Mars Bars, Toblerone's etc, but are called chocolate bars collectively, and by their individual names when you're referring to them specifically.

A block of chocolate refers to a block of chocolate.
And what people in the US would call candy floss, we call fairyfloss.

[Raucous]

Leonie wrote: "... And what people in the US would call candy floss, we call fairyfloss."

Wow. This hurts my brain. I think of "floss" as something that I do to keep my teeth healthy. This sounds more like anti-floss.

I don't recall ever hearing either of those terms in the US. In the north-central US, where I grew up, it was "cotton candy" and it was, well, disturbingly sweet (once was enough).

"Pudding" is another term that I have had trouble getting my head around. It's got a very specific meaning in the US (a sweet, creamy, typically milk-based dessert). The number of things called pudding on menus in the UK amazes and fascinates me.

[CBRetriever]

well, Tahiti is part of France....

btw, during the Summer Olympics hosted by France in 2024, the surfing competitions will be in Tahiti

and that kind of rye bread you're talking about is difficult to find outside of Europe. The bakery I go to in Portland has a lot of good bread though.

and eclairs - in France a normal eclair has chocolate icing as well as a chocolate filling. In the US, even the French bakeries use a cream filling.