Here at The London School, not surprisingly, most (probably all, but I don’t know) of our textbooks teach British English. Now in general, I do a LOT of reading, and many of my favorite authors are British. As such, I haven’t had too much trouble assimilating to phrases like “Have you got any biscuits?” (or even “Have you any biscuits?”) instead of “Do you have any cookies?” (although every time a student says “biscuits” I inevitably think the fluffy buttermilk kind), talking about what people do “at the weekend” as opposed to “on the weekend” (or simply “this/last weekend” as we usually say in the American south), and saying sport instead of sports and maths instead of math... but can someone please tell me what the hell a jumper is? See, when I was a kid, a “jumper” was like a dress, but I needed to wear a shirt under it. My childhood jumpers often had tops similar to the top part of overalls, and would’ve been indecent had I not worn a shirt underneath. However, as far as I can tell from our grainy photocopied textbooks, that is very much NOT what the British consider to be a jumper. The British jumper might be a sweater. Or possibly a generic shirt or pullover. All I can tell is that it is some kind of unisex top. I think. I checked my Russian dictionary to see if perhaps it might provide me with a Russian word I recognized, but all I found was джемпер, a simple transliteration of jumper into Russian. My students didn’t know what a джемпер could possibly be either. Bah. So if you know, please feel free to enlighten me.
13 comments:
I don't know any Russian, but I found this link that tells the origin and evolution of jumper.
Oh... Hello from a random guy in Nashville, TN!
A jumper is a sweater, usually one with a turtleneck, not a cardigan. Your students didn't know what a джемпер was? That's weird.
Kostia and I spend a dispropotionate amount of time discussing whether certain articles of clothing are кофта or not. It's more or less a cardigan, but some things I would call a cardigan are too thin to be a kofta in his opinion.
Have you noticed the similar discongruence between pirog/tort and pie/cake? Not everything pirog is pie, and not everything tort is cake.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences
This is a pretty good start about some of the differences in English between the United States and England. My students scratch their heads when they try to understand how a vacation that doesn't cover any holy days can still be called a holiday. I guess religion is losing some sway in the U.K.
I feel for my kids. I use an assortment of English texts and some are from Britain (I’d use English texts from Russia and France before I use our franchise ones) and they throw in a lot of u’s into words that the kids aren’t used to in American English (colour, neighbour, etc.). Don’t get me started on university versus college (It’s not called university football.) and ‘the’ before certain nouns (I’m going to “the” hospital or to “the” university–”the” being omitted in British English). Ah...the joys of trying to explain the oddities in my own native language to new learners.
I'm surprised you didn't learn that one in Korea. When discussing clothes, I've had numerous children tell me that they're wearing a jum-pah.
And I'm surprised that having been around Grannie in your early years you wouldn't know that a jumper was a knit pullover (altho sometimes, in Scots, also a 'gansie').
Yeah, a "jumper" will always be for me what it is for you, Jane, that dress-like thing that went over a blouse or turtleneck. I had them up until middle school. Usually they were corduroy.
I remember teaching a really terrible and embarrassing lesson on clothing on time to my kids who were preparing for their Cambridge exams. I thought I knew all the nuances, but I totally did not, especially when it came to stockings, tights, etc.
Yeah, a jumper ('jumpah') is a sweater in Britsh English. It's a sweater or a heavy overcoat in Korean. It's a dress-like thing worn over a collared shirt/turtleneck to me. I had one in highschool that I loved.
As for British words for clothing, saying muffler instead of scarf cracks me up. I picture people with car mufflers wrapped around their necks.
And is pirog related to the Polish 'pirogies' we always had at Autn Annies house, which were pastry filled with ground meat or cheese and covered with sauce -- delicious!
"mom", yes.
A Pierogi (polish) is plural of pieróg, and Pirogi (Russian) is plural of pirog.
Both mean the same yummy thing :)
My dad's side of the family is Polish, so I know ALL about the yummy pierogi :)
Jane - first off, congrats on the blog. Love it - wacky, fun, colourful, and always a delight. My PA is from Kyrgyzstan, and she's great, so Im sure you are having lots of fun.
second, Im a brit (married to a Russian girl living in Russia). Through and through brit - public school, poshy sort of accent, you know, the works. So for me, the following applies.
Sweater - usually a V-necked woollen knitted garment
Cardigan (kofta) - knitted woollen garment with buttons up the front and side pockets.
Jumper - knitted woollen garment, without V neck - might be a turtle neck, or maybe a roll neck or even a full high neck.
And what the bloody sodding hell is a flipping hoody?!!
Have fun and take care
I think Polish pierogi are more like Russian pelmeni, not pirogi. Having grown up in a Polish part of Upstate NY, I was very confused by the Russian pirog (sometimes pie, sometimes cake) and piroshka (a bun with something inside) - neither of which correspond to the pierogi of my childhood which were pasta with something inside - much more like ravioli.
wow - how do i even begin to reply to all of this? (after all, it's my morning nap time!)
i'll keep it short: a hoodie is a sweater with a hood. usually it zips up the front.
:-)
mante are related to the korean (and probably other Asian) mandu, which to me seem a little like the bastard children of mante and pilmeni....
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