I did a search on my emails, and surprisingly besides only a few times did an employment agent actually write it down - and I had spoken to them before. So it’s not always a ‘thanks for contacting us - we’ll be sure to get back to you’ kind of thing.
I’ll grant that it’s usually said earnestly and not as a blow-off kind of thing. Like anything, there are people who say things you can rely on and some, well less so.
Another example is the apartment building we moved into. The wi-fi router was placed in perhaps the furthest place from any other flat and I suggested if we moved it I had enough nice flat-white Cat-7 cable to wire up the place with ethernet. The foreman said “leave it with me” and last Friday he’s nicely wiring Cat 6-a (about the same as 7) for all the flats on the floor. An improvement of 20Mbps to 75 (British Telecom cannot do any better and Virgin isn’t here). Nice.
Two weeks ago his assistant had been shown how the shower curtain collapses when you breathe upon it and it was “leave it with me”. I reckon he just forgot.
I reckon I’m being too literal in my criticism of the phrase. I’m not the boss of anyone and it’s not like they owe me any money and need to be reminded.
I’m sure this british phrase has been covered on the Dope outside of the Pit of course.
I’d lived in Ireland a couple years before moving to the UK and here Alright?/You all right?/ is just a quick “how are you” and if you yourself haven’t already said the same thing to the other person there is no more to be said. It is exactly “how you doin’” and no more.
If you both stop is is customary to talk about the weather,
I think every language has them. For example, from working in France for a while I learned that it is polite to say “Bonjour” to a shop owner and any customers when entering. And “Merci, au revoir” when leaving.
It’s a way of showing that one is respectful and at least somewhat familiar with the local culture.
Let’s circle back to this soon. I don’t want to put a spoke in your wheel, so for now, let’s put a pin in it. I promise we’ll revisit at the next meeting.
I’ve been noticing that use of “do” in British speech for quite awhile. There’s a scene in Jon Pertwee’s first Doctor Who episode, from 1970, in which Brigadier Lethbridge Stuart meets the new Doctor for the first time.
Liz: Do you recognize him?
Brigadier: No. I thought I might do, but this man’s a complete stranger to me.
Doctor: Lethbridge Stuart? My dear fellow, how nice to see you again.
Liz: He seems to know you.
Brigadier: But he can’t do!
An American would have said “I thought I might,” and “But he can’t,” without the “do.”
I’ve heard Rachel Riley use that phrase (leave it with me) on the UK program 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, often when she didn’t immediately have a solution to a numbers round question. And then a few minutes later she will have a solution. Her math skills are awesome.
Apropos to this, last night I saw this clip of Emily Blunt on Graham Norton talking about telling her husband, John Krasinski, that wearing a baseball cap made him look “too American”. So he bought a tweed flat cap, and as he was walking back to their home a man on the street nodded at him and said, “Awright, mate?”
Nope, those are pretty common in real life, along with “What’s up?” or “Howya doin’?” Saying “how y’all doing” to only one person, however, will mark you as a non-Southerner. (It’s plural.)
Are you watching that show in the US? Because I remember the first series was available a few years ago (Netflix, I think) but haven’t been able to find any more episodes.
I’m mostly bothered by the pronunciation of “jaguar”. The original pronunciation in Spanish is “hah-gwar”. In American English, the “J” is pronounced the way it normally it is in English, but otherwise it’s pronounced the same as the original. The British just mangle it, and then make a point to correct people on how to pronounce it, particularly with the Jaguar car company. (Now, to be fair, the company decides how it wants to be pronounced, they could insist that it be pronounced “kumquat” if they wanted to, but still, it comes off as being arrogantly wrong.)
If someone said “leave it with me” here at work, I’d expect that they were saying that it belonged in their to-do pile rather than mine. And that, whether they finished it or not, it was no longer my problem. I’d make an entry in my desk notes: “transferred to X” and get on with the rest of my pile.