In the know

Other than a very few words, English is the only language I speak. I take silly pride in being about to say “garage” in English (garage), French (garage) and Russian (garage) though I doubt someone from France or Russia would be amused. Especially if that person is trying to learn English. I think that must be one of the biggest roadblocks to learning any new language. Not getting the jokes, the references, the slang. Not being in the know.

When someone says, “We might as well be wearing red shirts,” a large number of people know this is a Star Trek reference to those hapless and usually unnamed non-speaking members of a Landing Party whose imminent “death by alien” is the first clue the society into which they have had Scotty beam them down is unfriendly. No so someone who is new to English and who doesn’t know about Scotty’s beaming abilities, either.

The Super Bowl of (insert competition here). Arm wrestling - potato chip flinging, we know this is THE Big Event.

The Edsel of (insert product here). A big uh-oh, maybe like New Coke.

“I think you’ve jumped the shark there, pal.” You’re wishing you could have a do-over while someone new to English is thinking the office staff just got back from a trip to the aquarium.

But I don’t think I’ll fret too much over this. Even computers have trouble translating. When someone in a brain trust somewhere designed a computer program which would translate from one language into another, one of the test sentences was “Out of sight, out of mind” which, when turned from English into Chinese and back into English, became, “Invisible idiot.”