No, we have MANY white collar contractors too. Secondment is specifically about being loaned from one department or company to another with the idea that they will return to their original role. We’ve done it with clients when we’ve been working with them on a project and they don’t have anyone at their end to act as a project manager.
Yeah, that’s essentially the setup for us - when I say “our India dev team”, on paper they’re a separate company from ours, under the overall umbrella of our parent company (this might change as our parent company merges some new acquisitions in with a more sensible org structure).
The other person, although actually on-site with that (UK) client, is still getting paid by our company (but by our UK office, not the South African one - I can’t imagine earning Rands but living on pounds would work very well)
I worked in Prague for a German owned company. So I was paid in Euros, but needed Crowns for day to day expenses and pounds to pay my mortgage and other bills back in the UK. I suddenly developed an interest in currency markets!
Here in Canada I was seconded from my Militia regiment to a Regular Force unit for a year. In my Federal Government job I was seconded internally in the department to work with Immigration for a year and a half, then later seconded to Treasury Board for 2 days a week for several months. The term is standard in the Canadian military (and presumably other British-descended militaries), and probably made its way into the Civil Service with the post-war influx of veterans.
I’m pissed!
US: I’m angry or annoyed
UK/AUS: I’m drunk (annoyed would be I’m pissed off )
I’m Rooting!
US: I’m Supporting (something or someone)!
AUD: I’m Having sex (with someone)!
That support sense is only “Rooting for”, isn’t it? I don’t see the two terms as confusable.
Right - and there’s also “Rooting through” and “Rooting around”, which both mean searching for something.
Some more baffling Americanisms: -
‘Most everyone’ or ‘most everything’…
Erm…? Surely it should be ‘almost everyone’ or ‘almost everything’. That’s a strange one.
Also: ‘a ways’, for example ‘it’s a ways down the road’. Just…odd.
Oh, and: ‘couple things’ or ‘couple people’. What happened to the missing ‘of’ in the middle?!
Elided out. Just like y’all elide out the “rces” in Worcestershire.
As for “most everything”, again, the “al” in almost is dropped
But we still spell/write out Worcestershire the same. I see those expressions written out like that (i.e shortened). Makes this British brain pause for a second.
Also, Worce = ‘wuss’, so that does work.
This is an Australism, and pronunciation-based, but…
Watching this trailer, someone says “here’s a blog you might like” with a long o, similar to “bloog”. Not only have I always heard it with a short o, closer to “blag”, it never even occurred to me that someone might pronounce it the other way. (Since the word derived from “log” as in “log book”, does anyone say “loog book”?)
It tends to be institutions.
For Americans still baffled by this, I think it exists in most American dialects too, as a distinction between:
- Going to church
- Going to the church
And (as it is above) it’s also a way of distinguishing whether one is just going to a place, or one is to be a recipient of the services of that place;
Going to hospital = I am a patient; going to the hospital = I might be delivering flowers or visiting a patient or something else
Going to school = I am a student; going to the school = I might be dropping off my child or delivering a parcel etc.
That sounds like blog to my British ear!
I think that’s the perfect way to explain it. Using ‘In the hospital’ to describe when someone is receiving in-patient treatment just sounds… a little off to me.
Not that I would argue that it’s an especially useful distinction, and it’s not a general rule for any sort of place (for example if I said “I’m going to airport”, people would look at me funny) but it exists for school, church, hospital, prison, college, university, court and probably a few other institution-type things I can’t think of right now, but not every institution - for example it excludes library, museum and bank.
Also you can go to town, but you must go to the city, or just go downtown.
Otherwise it just sounds weird.
When you’re alone, and life is making you lonely
You can always go
to the Downtown
Mine too. I think the issue is that Aussies and Brits have an actual short “o” sound that is distinct from a broad “a”, and most Americans simply don’t.
I watch a fair bit of YouTube, and I can’t tell you how many “un-baaxing” videos I’ve seen.
If you live in Walford you tend to ‘go up west’. It’s clearly the only other locality in their fictional universe. Why else would everybody be employed within Albert Square?
You’re forgetting Leigh on Sea, where various relatives live, between cameo appearances (cf. Queensland in the Australian soaps). And there are occasional boltholes abroad (all of which can be reached from London City Airport): was it Marbella where Peggy had the immortal line “I come all this way to bury you - you could at least have the common courtesy to be dead when I get here !”