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What is inaccurate with those communities who bring offerings to a sculpture?

Kirran

Premium Member
I loved playing dumb at school. One kid, family from Lebanon, seemed to beg for it. He'd have snow peas or carrots for lunch, and I'd ask with a straight face, 'What kind of strange vegetable are you eating today, _________? Did you get it from an import store?'

Then he'd go on and on trying to explain to me how it was a common Canadian vegetable, but I'd say I'd lived in Canada all my life, and never seen it. It was fun for the watchers. Eventually he'd catch on.

Yes, Kirran I understand. But people who have never seen sarcasm or gentle teasing don't easily get it. A bit like idioms to any ESL person.

The monks I know have awesome senses of humour too. When Boss mentioned to a senior swami that the grass must grow fast in Hawaii, he said dryly, 'Yes we just cut this yesterday'. (It was like 3 feet tall, and overgrown.

Haha, yeah I do this to my Malaysian friend who lives at SV - 'Do you have trees in Malaysia? But, like, real full-size trees?' Fortunately he catches on from the start and rolls his eyes at me.

That's true, it is an idomatic thing, and I think is much more pronounced in English-speaking cultures, and especially Britain. But I do like to try and explain this to people who otherwise just think it's lying.

Some people use the terms differently - I told somebody really against sarcasm that story above, and she said that it wasn't sarcasm because it wasn't mean! :p

Haha, I like that one. Lying about the grass?
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Haha, yeah I do this to my Malaysian friend who lives at SV - 'Do you have trees in Malaysia? But, like, real full-size trees?' Fortunately he catches on from the start and rolls his eyes at me.

That's true, it is an idomatic thing, and I think is much more pronounced in English-speaking cultures, and especially Britain. But I do like to try and explain this to people who otherwise just think it's lying.

Some people use the terms differently - I told somebody really against sarcasm that story above, and she said that it wasn't sarcasm because it wasn't mean! :p

Haha, I like that one. Lying about the grass?


Trees in Malysia, yeah that's funny. We will say we live in igloos and stuff like that in the US or tropical places.

It can be so subtle. Another one that I've seen cause confusion is 'Here comes trouble'. I used it on a respected elder, but he didn't know the idiom, or realise the sarcasm, and gave me an odd look, like I thought he was a troublemaker. In reality is was a signal of respect. Then I also remember using it with my former Boss when a town troublemaker wandered into the bar. It was a literal statement then.
 

Kirran

Premium Member
It can be so subtle. Another one that I've seen cause confusion is 'Here comes trouble'. I used it on a respected elder, but he didn't know the idiom, or realise the sarcasm, and gave me an odd look, like I thought he was a troublemaker. In reality is was a signal of respect. Then I also remember using it with my former Boss when a town troublemaker wandered into the bar. It was a literal statement then.

Yeah, this is a very subtle aspect to language.

I remember reading about sarcasm in British culture, and this Indian guy saying how it took him a long time to clock on to the near-constant subtle degree of humour and sarcasm in the way British people talk, always with mild put-downs and jokes and so on. He says that there's sarcasm in India too, but it's always accompanied by big winks and nudges with the elbow and laughter - he said that meant that, unlike British sarcasm, it wasn't funny! In the UK you might well not even inflect at all, just say it deadpan - very subtle cues.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Yeah, this is a very subtle aspect to language.

I remember reading about sarcasm in British culture, and this Indian guy saying how it took him a long time to clock on to the near-constant subtle degree of humour and sarcasm in the way British people talk, always with mild put-downs and jokes and so on. He says that there's sarcasm in India too, but it's always accompanied by big winks and nudges with the elbow and laughter - he said that meant that, unlike British sarcasm, it wasn't funny! In the UK you might well not even inflect at all, just say it deadpan - very subtle cues.

The subtlety is so much harder in print form. In RT it can be hard enough. My former tenant, a Sri Lankan, but raised in Canada, got most of them, but one day in his vehicle, last spring I said I was getting itchy feet, and after some thinking about it, about an hour later, he told me about a Sri Lankan home cure or ayurvedic treatment for it, and was about to go shopping for some, or order it on-line. He laughed when I laughed and explained it. (Do you know the idiom? Some idioms are more widespread than others. People from Newfoundland here have some choice ones I wouldn't get.)
 

Kirran

Premium Member
The subtlety is so much harder in print form. In RT it can be hard enough. My former tenant, a Sri Lankan, but raised in Canada, got most of them, but one day in his vehicle, last spring I said I was getting itchy feet, and after some thinking about it, about an hour later, he told me about a Sri Lankan home cure or ayurvedic treatment for it, and was about to go shopping for some, or order it on-line. He laughed when I laughed and explained it. (Do you know the idiom? Some idioms are more widespread than others. People from Newfoundland here have some choice ones I wouldn't get.)

Yeah, true - even I miss things in text sometimes - and I'm pretty adept at my sarcasm! I even get 99% of @Tumah's jokes.

That was close, good thing he didn't actually go through with it and buy some! Yeah, I know the idiom.

You know even that - 'go through with it' - you can't know what that means just from the constituent words really.
 

Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Yeah, true - even I miss things in text sometimes - and I'm pretty adept at my sarcasm! I even get 99% of @Tumah's jokes.

That was close, good thing he didn't actually go through with it and buy some! Yeah, I know the idiom.

You know even that - 'go through with it' - you can't know what that means just from the constituent words really.

I worked with an elderly lady that had a ton of ones I didn't know. Mostly pioneer stuff, or sailor stuff. Yes, it's part of English.
 

Kirran

Premium Member
Not off the top of my head, but a young whippersnapper like you ought to be able to fend for hisself with that there google thingamajob. Try this ... Nautical Phrases | Everyday English phrases that were coined at sea.

Hey I am 22 soon, I'm getting on.

Here's one that isn't on there - the exclamation 'son of a gun' is derived from when women were first allowed to be sailors, and if they got pregnant on board they would often give birth behind the guns because that's where there'd be some privacy and it'd keep decks and gangways clear, so the child would be referred to as the son of a gun.
 
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Vinayaka

devotee
Premium Member
Son of a gun, I didn't know that. There are a lot about some of the more base things we do, like 'sitting on the throne' or 'gotta go see a man about a horse'. I liked 'copper bottomed'.
 

Kirran

Premium Member
Son of a gun, I didn't know that. There are a lot about some of the more base things we do, like 'sitting on the throne' or 'gotta go see a man about a horse'. I liked 'copper bottomed'.

English is a bit of a laugh! I imagine there'll be the emergence of a global trade English which will be a lot simpler, leaving more grammatically and idiomatically complex forms as the preserves of native speakers.
 

Nyingjé Tso

Dharma not drama
Vanakkam

Guys, don't talk about sarcasm, it's bullying. An SV gonna make a thread about it not starting with "what is right".

Joke aside SV, I like you just like every humain being on this planet. I mean, the problem is no that I don't like you (you'll have to try harder than that if you want me to hate you) it's that you ask the same questions, totally disregard the answers given to you and insult people like a 4y/o when you have nothing else to say, then you repeat ad nauseam this pattern.

Am not the one who's dishonest here. You are. You know why ? Because I've been giving serious answers in some of your threads but - strangely - you only referred to the sarcarstic ones.

That means that you actually read the honest answers, but choose to ignore them - thus not furthering a serious and productive discussion -and only focus on the sarscastic ones to victimize yourself and pass for poor little bullied innocent pure guy that was just asking an equally pure innocent question bouhou :(

This is an advice: cut the bull****, nobody is buying it, people are starting to grow tired giving you honest answer that are ignored or answered with stupid questions.

See, that was a serious and honest answer.

Meanwhile this thread is all like

giphy.gif
 

FearGod

Freedom Of Mind
Thanks for clarifying. Another hypothetical question, if I may. Assuming (again) that the Kaaba was relocated to a place outside of Masjid al-haram, what do you think would happen during the Hajj? Would Muslims circumambulate the spot where the Kaaba used to be? Would they circumambulate the Kaaba at its new spot? Or would they do something else altogether?

The direction of praying will be the same, towards mecca.
If the Kaaba destroyed or moved then Muslim will do the same in the same
spot regardless if Kaaba wasn't there, it's about the spot and not the stone.
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
Side question: Wow, in what timeframe were things that bad in Ukraine. How do you think things are now for people?


In late 90's. I'm not sure how things are now but I think it's the same or worse. The prices are higher. Before the civil war, the currency used to be 8 to 1 dollar and now it's 27 to 1 dollar. The average monthly salary is $200. To heat up the house at winter costs about 100$ a month I hear.

Just so you know, that wasn't my post you quoted, it was @George-ananda's
:What is inaccurate with those communities who bring offerings to a sculpture?
 

sovietchild

Well-Known Member
Side question: Wow, in what timeframe were things that bad in Ukraine. How do you think things are now for people?

In late 90's. I'm not sure how things are now but I think it's the same or worse. The prices are higher. Before the civil war, the currency used to be 8 to 1 dollar and now it's 27 to 1 dollar. The average monthly salary is $200. To heat up the house at winter costs about 100$ a month I hear
 
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