I simply can’t keep this stuff to myself any longer--it’s time for my fourth edition of “English is Funny”! By now, you should know the rules/guidelines for this blog. The purpose is not to make fun of anyone or what they’ve said--English is a third language (after their native tongue and Hindi) for most of my instructors and the students. That being said, they are so much more gifted when it comes to communicating than the English-only-speaking-Gora who sometimes even has a hard time with English! This is simply a good-natured attempt to share some of the interesting peculiarities in the spoken word between two former British colonies. I thought for sure that some of these words and phrases would have made my “English is Funny” blog by now, but apparently they’ve become so commonplace that they have somehow been overlooked! You will find them split up into three sections: work, flying, and general. At any rate, my hope is that you’ll have a few chuckles and a smile on your face after reading… ENJOY!
Work
“overalls” = flightsuits: I still get confused by these terms because it seems like only auto mechanics and farmers wear overalls--both those professions require much more physical labor than any pilot would ever be willing to do!
“uniform” = blues: The term uniform is particularly confounding because my counterparts have about 12 different types of uniforms, so it seems a bit discriminatory and disrespectful to all the other poor uniforms to only refer to one of them “uniform”…
“Tea club” – I’ve heard of Tea Parties (i.e. like that one in Boston a while back) before, but never been a part of one. Instead, I’ll have to settle for being a card-carrying member of the Tea club—bet you can’t guess what we’re all about :)
Flying
“Switch off on the runway”: for the longest time I thought it meant taxy (or taxi for my American friends) clear of the runway, but go figure, it actually refers to engine shutdown… fortunately that it’s been clarified, I won’t have any doubts if someone tells me to ‘switch off’!
“Then the aircraft started misbehaving”… okay, I know how to handle a misbehaving child, but what to do about an airplane misbehaving??! Send it to timeout, ground it, take away its’ allowance, or maybe give it a good spanking? As far as I’m concerned, an attitude adjustment of some sort is in order because I simply will not tolerate an aircraft acting up!
“Undercarriage” = gear: for some reason this term makes me think of cobblestone streets and the days of the horse-drawn buggy… clip-clop, clip-clop… once again, we can thank the Brits for this one!
“The intensity is kept down to avoid dazzling the pilots” – this was mentioned in the context of night lights and is completely accurate, but something about the phrase “avoid dazzling the pilots” is funny to me. Maybe it’s because I think of the term dazzle meaning to “impress deeply or astonish with delight”--now if only I could find a way to dazzle my instructor!
“Patter” – a painful method of cramming words into your skull so that you will become a good instructor (so we are told)
Deer menace, deer guards deployment, and deer chasing party; if you thought deer were nothing more than cute, harmless animals, you’ve never flown a plane into a herd of them or landed on them. Now you know why they’re a menace and guards must be deployed to keep them away! As for the deer chasing party, that just sounds like a fun game kids play and maybe some immature adults who are easily amused… like myself.
General
“We were foxed” means to be tricked or confused (and will soon be incorporated into my vocabulary)
“Mugging up” = rote storage of information in your short-term memory that is difficult to access after more than a day or so (at least for me!)
“Special teach points” – essentially the same thing as instructional points, but of course it implies that there are not-so-special teach points as well (maybe like patter?)
“Co-pupils” = other students: I don’t know why I feel like this term is slightly derogatory, when it really just means “a student under the direct supervision of a teacher or professor.”
“Torch” = flashlight: I would never have been allowed to have a torch in the cockpit before coming here! That’s because I’m more familiar with definition “a” rather than “b” (thank you thefreedictionary.com):
a. A portable light produced by the flame of a stick of resinous wood or of a flammable material wound about the end of a stick of wood; a flambeau.
b. Chiefly British A flashlight.
“Flick it” – means to intentionally or purposely turn/switch on/off, which is slightly different than the following thefreedictionary.com definitions:
1. (tr) to touch with or as if with the finger or hand in a quick jerky movement
2. (tr) to propel or remove by a quick jerky movement, usually of the fingers or hand to flick a booger at someone
3. to move or cause to move quickly or jerkily
“You’re looking smart” – yeah baby! I like this term, especially when it’s directed at me because it means you’re looking sharp, handsome, or beautiful.
“Hillock” = small hill according to Wikipedia… why don’t we just call it a hill for short?
“Jungle jim” = a tractor cutting grass or tilling soil, which really isn’t very close to what’s on my mind when I hear it mentioned – See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_gym
“Stop screwing my happiness” – a fairly clear and direct phrase describing injustice, if you ask me!
“This thing” – said when one is at a loss to find the right English word describing something and doesn’t feel like wasting the time to try to think of it… kinda like the phrase “you know what I mean right?”
"The purpose of this is not for the guy in front of the class to take his pants off" - in other words the intent is not for you to embarrass yourself in front of everyone, but there's a possibility that it could happen... pretty colorful way of putting it if you ask me! HAHAHA!
