Trans Oceanic Knowledge Exchange

[Sunbird she/her]

On 10/30/2016 at 8:41 AM, RippleGylf said:

I remember when I went to England a couple years ago, one of my favorite things was the squash. As far as I'm aware, squash just doesn't exist in the US. (So as not to confuse any who haven't had squash, it is a concentrated drink that you dilute with water.)

Is it exclusively in the UK? Europe? Everywhere that isn't America?

In the US, I've seen powdered drink mixes that you can add to water to get like, lemonade or fruit punch or whatever. I think I've seen little things that have flavor additives in liquid form too, and those must be pretty concentrated because the container isn't very big. But no, I've never heard of a similar thing called squash.

[Mestiv he/him]

In Poland squash is a form of tennis played indoors against a wall

[Sunbird she/her]

1 hour ago, Mestiv said:

In Poland squash is a form of tennis played indoors against a wall

This amuses me.

Actually, languages in general amuse me. That's one reason why I always enjoy going to my linguistics class that's taught by an Australian professor. He's always telling us fun things about how Australian English is different from American English and making jokes about how if Australia took over the world, everybody would be forced to eat Vegemite daily.

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

41 minutes ago, Nightbird said:

He's always telling us fun things about how Australian English is different from American English and making jokes about how if Australia took over the world, everybody would be forced to eat Vegemite daily.

Hey! We don't eat Vegemite daily! I personally detest the stuff. Besides, we're just gonna wait until WW3 comes along, then become reclusive, then when the dust settles, Australia will take advantage of the confusion, and take over the world

You have until WWIII guys, dw.

[Eki]

10 hours ago, Mestiv said:

In Poland squash is a form of tennis played indoors against a wall

It's also a plant!

[Sunbird she/her]

@Dankness Ascendant I know. We were just joking about possible punishments for people who refused to speak Australian English once the USA was  conquered.

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

13 hours ago, Eki said:

It's also a plant!

It's also really useful in PvZ

[Sunbird she/her]

Question for Australian Sharders: In Australia, what does the term "chips" mean, assuming you're talking about food? I know it means different things in England vs the USA.

[soyperson]

7 minutes ago, Ernei said:

How much you can learn about your own country while reading a topic on primarily US forum... O.o

Btw. I always thought that squash is another word for air hockey.

Not that I've ever heard.

For non-Americans, what do you call ping-pong?

[soyperson]

1 minute ago, Ernei said:

I meant it in Polish  

Oh. I understand literally no Polish, so I don't get it. 

[soyperson]

Just now, Ernei said:

OK, so either you're trolling me or there's misunderstanding. When I referred to squash as "air hockey", I meant that it is used this way in Polish language (or so I think, at least, and I'm Polish). Then you quoted me saying that you didn't hear of it, so I figured that I probably didn't write clearly enough that I'm referring to previous comments on the word squash in Poland and was taken that I meant it's used so in English, and so I wrote to explain I referred Poland/Polish language.

Now I don't get your comment.

There must be a misunderstanding because I'm as confused as you are. 

I have never heard of air hockey being referred to as "squash."

Squash, to me, is just a type of vegetable. 

[soyperson]

Just now, Ernei said:

OK, then may we just forget the few past posts and move on?...

 

For Americans here: Out of curiosity, how much do you learn about European history at school and about which countries in particular? For myself, I was taught about US history in a brief summary, altogether probably about a week's worth of classes.

I have history next semester, so I'll let you know. 

I know a bunch about European history, but only because I read a lot. 

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

6 minutes ago, Ernei said:

OK, then may we just forget the few past posts and move on?...

 

For Americans here: Out of curiosity, how much do you learn about European history at school and about which countries in particular? For myself, I was taught about US history in a brief summary, altogether probably about a week's worth of classes.

When I was in school, we had two major history classes—World History and US History. In high school (ages 13-14 to 17-18-19) World History was an overview of everything that happened in the world from the Roman Empire to present day. So American history didn't factor in for a while, but when it did, it was sort of more intertwined with other world events. For instance, the WWI unit covers the conflict itself, addresses US involvement while focusing more on European involvement (since let's be honest: we didn't get involved until the last minute) and covers the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations before it segues into the Russian Revolution.

American History is focused entirely on US history, beginning in colonial days and ending sometime after the 9/11 attacks. It addresses world events, but with a focus on how the US responded to and was affected by them. 

[Mestiv he/him]

59 minutes ago, Ernei said:

How much you can learn about your own country while reading a topic on primarily US forum... O.o

Btw. I always thought that squash is another word for air hockey.

Have a look at how it's played:

Spoiler

 

Personally, I haven't tried it, I prefer to stick with badminton, but I've seen squash courts in the sport centre I play badminton at.

[AliasSheep]

1 hour ago, Mestiv said:

Have a look at how it's played:

  Hide contents

 

Personally, I haven't tried it, I prefer to stick with badminton, but I've seen squash courts in the sport centre I play badminton at.

I've never played it, but I'd really like to play it - the facilities for it are rather specific unfortunately.  I know my dad used to play it though.

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

On 5 November 2016 at 3:47 AM, Nightbird said:

Question for Australian Sharders: In Australia, what does the term "chips" mean, assuming you're talking about food? I know it means different things in England vs the USA.

Depends we just general use the term to define both hot chips and what I think Americans call 'crisps'

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

4 minutes ago, Darkness Ascendant said:

Depends we just general use the term to define both hot chips and what I think Americans call 'crisps'

We call nothing "crisps." Flat, crispy, salted pieces of potato that come in a bag are called "chips." Hot, mealy ones are called "fries." 

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

On 5 November 2016 at 10:14 AM, TwiLyghtSansSparkles said:

We call nothing "crisps." Flat, crispy, salted pieces of potato that come in a bag are called "chips." Hot, mealy ones are called "fries." 

Stupid Hollywood. And kids shows. We call them both chips here. We call the skinny meaty ones fries. French fries.

[ParadoxicalZen he/him]

Mmm, I could go for some chips...not a big crisp fan either unless they're Walkers Sensations

[Elenion he/him]

20 hours ago, Ernei said:

For Americans here: Out of curiosity, how much do you learn about European history at school and about which countries in particular? For myself, I was taught about US history in a brief summary, altogether probably about a week's worth of classes.

I've actually learned quite a bit about European history, but only as it plays into larger world events. For example, in a modern world history class that I took we learned pretty in-depth about WWI and WWII, and as part of that we took a look at Germany's and Italy's economic woes and how they led to the rise of authoritarian regimes. In my US Government class we learned about the English and French governments of the 1700s to use as points of reference. However, we don't learn much about countries other than the UK, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, and Spain.

[Pinnacle-Ferring he/him]

In Israel we have some funny names for chips.

So the salty, crispy kind we call "tapuchips" which is an amalgam of the word "tapuach adamah"(potato- literally "ground apple") and the word "chips".

For the fried kind we commit an egregious grammar crime. We double the plural suffix. So we call them "chips", but in plural we call them "chipsim".

This has been an impromptu Hebrew lesson.

[soyperson]

6 hours ago, Pinnacle-Ferring said:

In Israel we have some funny names for chips.

So the salty, crispy kind we call "tapuchips" which is an amalgam of the word "tapuach adamah"(potato- literally "ground apple") and the word "chips".

For the fried kind we commit an egregious grammar crime. We double the plural suffix. So we call them "chips", but in plural we call them "chipsim".

This has been an impromptu Hebrew lesson.

Thank you for this wonderful impromptu Hebrew lesson! 

Does "adamah" for "apple" have anything to do with the biblical story of origin?

[Eki]

2 hours ago, bleeder said:

Does "adamah" for "apple" have anything to do with the biblical story of origin?

I think the "adamah" is the "ground" part. Adam was created from soil, etc. The fruit is never described as an apple in the bible.

[soyperson]

1 hour ago, Eki said:

I think the "adamah" is the "ground" part. Adam was created from soil, etc. The fruit is never described as an apple in the bible.

Oh, I see. That's interesting. Words are cool.

[Pinnacle-Ferring he/him]

21 hours ago, bleeder said:

Thank you for this wonderful impromptu Hebrew lesson! 

Does "adamah" for "apple" have anything to do with the biblical story of origin?

 

18 hours ago, Eki said:

I think the "adamah" is the "ground" part. Adam was created from soil, etc. The fruit is never described as an apple in the bible.

You're right. "Adamah" means ground and Adam's name comes from that word because he was made from the earth.

And yes, an apple is never mentioned in Genesis. The imagery of the apple came mainly from later Christian interpretations. In the talmud there are several opinions as to what the fruit was, including a fig (because Adam and Eve made clothes out of fig leaves after they ate the fruit) or even wheat. The wheat creates an interesting interpretation, though. Cultivating wheat was a huge step forward for mankind, enabling them to easily make bread. Could this be a kind of metaphor for mankind no longer depending on G-D and being hunter-gatherers and becoming self-dependant farmers?