| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5] > | Have a nice day?? Thread poster: Jessica Noyes
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Strastran (X)
France
Local time: 05:22
French to English
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Nicole Schnell wrote:
Rather tell your fellow Britons that it is absolutely inappropriate to address an American woman with: "Dear" or, worst of all: "Love". (Reaction: "Have we met??!?", "Disgusting pervert!").
I agree, unless they're in the UK at the time, in which case it's perfectly acceptable. Just as it's perfectly acceptable for someone to wish me a nice day when I'm in America.
In Britain, depending on the region and your gender, you might get called dear, love, mate, duck, cock (yes, really), bab, darling and many other variants. None of them are meant in a sexist or patronising way - where I'm from older ladies often call me 'love' - and none of them are a profession of devotion. However, I would never dream of using them in America.
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Nicole Schnell wrote: I see discussions regarding the finer points between Northern, Southern, the South-West, Welsh, Irish or not, British or not. Yet 315 million people spread over 3.79 million square miles (9,83 million km2) are called "the Americans". Apparently finer points don't apply to this continent. 
I always appreciate your ability to get to the point so clearly... well said!
| | | | XXXphxxx (X) 
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:22
Portuguese to English
+ ...
| "American woman" | Jun 20, 2013 |
Angie Garbarino wrote: Nicole Schnell wrote: I see discussions regarding the finer points between Northern, Southern, the South-West, Welsh, Irish or not, British or not. Yet 315 million people spread over 3.79 million square miles (9,83 million km2) are called "the Americans". Apparently finer points don't apply to this continent. I always appreciate your ability to get to the point so clearly... well said!
The post was in response to:
tell your fellow Britons that it is absolutely inappropriate to address an American woman with: "Dear" or, worst of all: "Love".
| | | | Michele Fauble
United States
Local time: 20:22
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
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[Edited at 2013-06-20 23:03 GMT]
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Norskpro
Norway
Local time: 05:22
Member
English to Norwegian
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| Does it matter? | Jun 20, 2013 |
Whether "Have a nice day" is sincere, insincere, American, un-British, does it really matter? People say phrases like "Good morning","Good afternoon" and "Good night", whether it comes from the depth of their hearts or not. @Tom in London, imagine if you have just said good night to someone and they are planning on committing a murder! All those phrases that are used every day may not seem sincere, if you want to analyze every little phrase. Farewell, have a good day, have a nice day, they are ... See more Whether "Have a nice day" is sincere, insincere, American, un-British, does it really matter? People say phrases like "Good morning","Good afternoon" and "Good night", whether it comes from the depth of their hearts or not. @Tom in London, imagine if you have just said good night to someone and they are planning on committing a murder! All those phrases that are used every day may not seem sincere, if you want to analyze every little phrase. Farewell, have a good day, have a nice day, they are all variations on the same theme. They are courtesy statements; the glue in people's daily interaction. Maybe the reason many British people cringe at the expression "Have a nice day" has to do with snobbery. I learned early on from English friends "don't ever use the word nice. It is considered very common." It is such a good term, covering so many situations, that it is not easy to find a replacement for it. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Helmut Schleich complaining about the "new friendliness", | Jun 20, 2013 |
that is:
Have a nice day./Schönen Tag noch.
Have fun with it./Viel Spaß damit.
Unfortunately in German only.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cPkUuRWadU
from 3.53
| | | | Ty Kendall
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:22
Hebrew to English
| The kind of people I avoid like the plague | Jun 20, 2013 |
Norskpro wrote:
Maybe the reason many British people cringe at the expression "Have a nice day" has to do with snobbery. I learned early on from English friends "don't ever use the word nice. It is considered very common." It is such a good term, covering so many situations, that it is not easy to find a replacement for it.
I don't mean to criticize your friends, but that does sound like an incredibly snobbish thing to say. Fortunately, we aren't all snobs (or perhaps we're all snobs in different ways about different things! ).
Anyway, I agree with you about these phrases being "social glue". They're just phatic expressions , not meant to communicate information or be especially meaningful.
| | | | | I always have a lot of fun | Jun 20, 2013 |
Reading you EN native discussing about your own language and disagreeing, this could never happen with Italian (a small language spoken by only 60 million people).
I follow your discussions for learning something new about your wonderful language, but this is virtually impossible as you never agree, even among Brits.
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Strastran (X)
France
Local time: 05:22
French to English
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Norskpro wrote:
I learned early on from English friends "don't ever use the word nice. It is considered very common."
Good grief. That's absolute nonsense I'm afraid.
| | | | XXXphxxx (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:22
Portuguese to English
+ ...
Norskpro wrote:
Maybe the reason many British people cringe at the expression "Have a nice day" has to do with snobbery. I learned early on from English friends "don't ever use the word nice. It is considered very common." It is such a good term, covering so many situations, that it is not easy to find a replacement for it.
Are you sure they didn't mean "common" as in "overused", rather than "plebeian"?
| | | | Giles Watson
Italy
Local time: 05:22
Italian to English
In memoriam | Have a nice day/Buona giornata | Jun 20, 2013 |
Ty Kendall wrote: Anyway, I agree with you about these phrases being "social glue". They're just phatic expressions , not meant to communicate information or be especially meaningful.
Social glue or perhaps social solvents.
There is nothing intrinsically awful about the phrase "have a nice day", or the Italian equivalent "buona giornata", yet both elicit negative responses - to put it mildly, in Tom's case - among some native speakers. I have plenty of Italian friends whose reaction to "buona giornata" is distinctly diffident but they're old codgers like me.
I blame the media for this. "Have a nice day" has gained currency, if not acceptance, in British English in large part thanks to the practice of broadcasting unlocalised ("undomesticated", if you prefer) North American films and TV series, thus conferring disproportionate visibility, by reason of its infrequency in UK speech, on what is actually a very common idiom in the US.
Similarly in Italy, phrases like "buona giornata" and "cùrati/abbi cura di te (take care)" are used far more frequently in the dubbed soundtracks of popular American films and TV serials than is normal in the corresponding contexts in everyday speech.
FWIW
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 05:22
French to English
Angie Garbarino wrote: Reading you EN native discussing about your own language and disagreeing, this could never happen with Italian (a small language spoken by only 60 million people). I follow your discussions for learning something new about your wonderful language, but this is virtually impossible as you never agree, even among Brits.
It's really quite fun, seeing who's coming down on which side: I'd actually like to start a controversial topic and try to guess in advance who's going to argue what whether black is white or not
with a prize for longest, funniest and most convincing posts
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Rachel Fell
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:22
French to English
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Lisa Simpson, MCIL wrote: Norskpro wrote:
Maybe the reason many British people cringe at the expression "Have a nice day" has to do with snobbery. I learned early on from English friends "don't ever use the word nice. It is considered very common." It is such a good term, covering so many situations, that it is not easy to find a replacement for it. Are you sure they didn't mean "common" as in "overused", rather than "plebeian"?
I'm sure some people will say it's common, not in the overused sense, though I think I was encouraged (at school) not to overuse it and to find a variety of alternatives when writing.
It's just reminded me of that song about "Niceness" by Dame Edna Everage
[Edited at 2013-06-20 22:09 GMT]
[Edited at 2013-06-21 07:33 GMT]
| | | | | (Not enough creativity to come up with a title tonight, sorry) | Jun 20, 2013 |
Tom in London wrote:
"Have a nice day" is perceived as arrogant, presumptuous, unacceptably "forward", invasive, and verging on the personally offensive.
After all: my day, and whether or not it might prove to be "nice" (which is a horrible word at the best of times), is really none of your business.
Well, wishing someone a nice day seems to refer to whatever would make the day nice to that person (rather than the person wishing) and without actually prying into what that could be. Sort of like, 'may your day please you.' After all, 'goodbye' is, 'God be with ye,' and 'farewell' is self-evident. Why pick at, 'have a nice day,' then?
Edit: Ooops, I've just realised that I might not always enjoy it in Polish, after all... 'I wish you a good day,' (that's three words actually) said in a polite way is all right and actually on the courteous side, but a simple 'good day' could feel a bit too forward coming from a stranger. It's slightly cheesy even among friends, which it stops being when you add the magical first person verb that changes everything.
[Edited at 2013-06-20 21:37 GMT]
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 04:22
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| Not a Briton | Jun 21, 2013 |
Nicole Schnell wrote:
....tell your fellow Britons ....
I don't have any fellow Britons, nor fellow-Britons either. I'm not British.
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