Hello,
Would someone please help me with the following questions? Thank you!
1. Re: Can "n*gger" be considered as "bro" between black persons?On Tiktok, a Chinese person told his experience in the US. One day he wore dreadlocks in an evening, and a black stopped him and said, "N*gger, "... He said the black mistook him for a black because of his Afrian hairstyle as in the dark, the black man couldn't clearly see his other physical features, i.e. skin colour, and tried to rob him.
I wondered why a black would call another black "n*gger" which is considered as an offensive word. Some Chinese Tiktok users said if it would be offensive if other races address a black "N*gger", but if between black people, "n*gger" could be considered as "bro", and the word is friendly. Do you think it is true?
2. Usage of 'dear' in the mainstream of English-speaking countries, especially in the USAA middle-aged American told me that he wouldn't address me and/ or other people "dear + given name" because 'dear' has a romantic connotation. - I found it is partly true because in informal business emails, my former American co-workers and supervisor never ever use 'dear + given name' when they wrote to me or other Chinese co-workers.
However an American client who is a woman sometimes would adddress me 'dear + given name'. Her male boss writes to me always started with 'Dear + name'. And I had a Canadian friend who was a professor, and he always started with 'Dear + my name' from the very first email. Well, there are never ever any romantic connotions in the words of theirs.
I think the usage of 'dear' depends on the mannerism of individuals. It doesn't necessiarily involve romance, does it?
3. Re: Do the British really don't understand American English? etcQuestions: - I put the same context at the end of this post.
(1) Do most British really don't understand American English i.e. eggplant, candy, potato chips? Don't most British watch American films etc?(I know what those correspondent words in BrE.)
I think the below context probably exaggerates or is just for being funny. Needless to mention about the differences between BrE and AmE, when I talked to Americans and British persons I met, they could easily understand my Chinglish. And for a time, when I talked to an American and used 'flat' to refer to 'apartment', and the American had no problem in understanding me.
(2) I wonder if it is inappropriate/usual for a waiter to address a male customer as 'mate' and use 'hey' instead of 'Hello Sir' etc?(3) Pronunciation of 'here'.In the below context/video, I heard the BRITISH waiter pronounces "here" as /hər/. The /i/ is missing from /hɪər/ the way I would pronounce. Is that Cockney accent if you know?
I looked it up on online
Cambridge Dictionary , and found either American or British English would pronounce /i/ in "here".
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dic ... glish/here(4) Intonation of "it's just ME, (raising)
In the video/context, the British waiter told the American customer "it's just me." the waiter raises the intonation of the sentence/"me". It's just a declaration sentence, but not a general question. Why does he raise "me" in his words? Does intonation suggest that he
is not sure that he could understand American English?
Context:
In a video on Tiktok, a British vlogger as well as English tutor impersonated an American and a waiter in England. He tried to told his Chinese audiences he couldn't understand American English. Here's the dialogue.
W= waiter, C = customer
W: Hey mate, can I take your order?
C: Hey bro, can I get a ?
W: Wait, are you American?
C: Yeah man, wassup?
W: It's just, uh, the translator isn't here. It's just me, so... umm..?
C: But we both speak English bro. It ain't like I'm talking another language, man!
W: Are you sure you speak English? Okay, mate, I can do this. so what can I get you?
C: Ok, can I get a tomato, egglant & zucchini sandwich, a bag of potato chips and a bottle of water? And some candy for dessert.
PS - I've made up my mind to follow BrE because I've found what I learnt is (relatively close to) British English in my schooling, though I would mix AmE and BrE now and then. For example, bottle, in AmE, "o" is /a/, "t" is /d/, while I actaully pronounce "bottle" as /ˈbɒt.əl/, so I try to adopt BrE in my writing/the post.
Anyone who would like to correct my writing mistakes will be always greatly appreciated.