Ironically, the majority of the phrases mentioned are very general English Idiom, not special to Norfolk at all. What nurses in Narvk will really need training in is the ridiculous accent, especially in the really rural areas away from the semi-civillised Narch.
I'd even call them general English-as-in-the-language idiom, rather than general English-as-in-the-country. The only ones in the article that I didn't know were "blar", "mawther", and "jim jams", and the latter two sound vaguely familiar in that "I think I've heard them used in context and was fine" way.
(Actually, with the accent, I think I might just interpret "blar" as "blare", and not catch it as idiom at all.)
Patients, particularly the elderly, face being met with incomprehension when complaining of “feeling under the weather”, suffering “pin and needles” or experiencing problems with their “back passage”.
Honestly, the course only really needs to teach nurses the various euphamisms for "arse" and nothing else to be useful in norfolk.
I'm with the commenter who pointed out how obnoxious it is to write an article about the impenetrability of euphemisms out of their context while repeatedly citing "spend a penny" without ever explaining what it means (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=spend%20a%20penny).
So put it in a postscript, if you want to be coy. There's really no good reason to ever leave your audience hanging on what the title of your article means.
journalists do this all the time. and they're not the only ones.
we've recently receives a letter announcing all sorts of new changes to a program. and nowhere in the page-long statement are any of the *changes* actually mentioned ...
this is no different to the problems english-speakers have when they take 'book-perfect' french to angola, or 'common' english to louisiana ...
nevertheless - an excellent idea. if only our international students had 'perfect' english before arrival. idioms are the least of our problems when the person has learnt-for-the-test out of a book ... O.o
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-02 01:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-02 01:15 pm (UTC)(Actually, with the accent, I think I might just interpret "blar" as "blare", and not catch it as idiom at all.)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-02 07:13 pm (UTC)I'd never heard "spend a penny" before, but I got it from the context (and looked it up to be sure).
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-03 12:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-02 01:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-02 02:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-02 04:02 pm (UTC)Patients, particularly the elderly, face being met with incomprehension when complaining of “feeling under the weather”, suffering “pin and needles” or experiencing problems with their “back passage”.
Honestly, the course only really needs to teach nurses the various euphamisms for "arse" and nothing else to be useful in norfolk.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-02 02:44 pm (UTC)Bad journalist, no biscuit!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-02 03:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-02 06:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-02 07:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-04 02:52 am (UTC)we've recently receives a letter announcing all sorts of new changes to a program. and nowhere in the page-long statement are any of the *changes* actually mentioned ...
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-02 09:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-03 12:29 am (UTC)nevertheless - an excellent idea. if only our international students had 'perfect' english before arrival. idioms are the least of our problems when the person has learnt-for-the-test out of a book ... O.o
(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-03 02:02 pm (UTC)though technically the problems is *speaking* french, it's finding anyone who understands it :p
Date: 2010-09-04 02:51 am (UTC)crawls away to hide.