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owlfish: (Flames of Vanity)
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Hair, learning American

posted by [personal profile] owlfish at 09:27pm on 20/09/2010 under ,
To call it cute might make you think the hairdresser did more than tidy up my strands, but I quite liked the effect. Perhaps it helped that she was charming company.

She taught me some American English: when visiting Florida, she had asked for 20 cigarettes as a shop, and the clerk started counted counting out 20 boxes of cigarettes. When she explained, he told her that she needed to ask for 20 packets, not cigarettes.

I went to Barkingside with hair still damp from having it cut. I had never taken that bus before, and so hadn't realized that I could get there in one fell swoop, without changing units of transportation. Last week, France; today, Barkingside; next week, Leicester.
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There are 8 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 

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posted by [identity profile] steepholm.livejournal.com at 08:50pm on 20/09/2010
So, if you ask for twenty packets, you get one packet with twenty cigarettes in it - and if you ask for twenty cigarettes, you get twenty packets with a total of 400 cigarettes?

I'm glad I don't smoke...
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owlfish: (Default)

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posted by [personal profile] owlfish at 09:42pm on 20/09/2010
Or something like that.

Many fields have speciality mathematics. I (as do many) often deal in fractions of sheep, for example, as if sheep came in standardized sizes.

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posted by [identity profile] naxos.livejournal.com at 07:05am on 21/09/2010
That would be a great menu item: "Fraction of sheep served with seasonal British vegetables".
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posted by [identity profile] sartorias.livejournal.com at 09:31pm on 20/09/2010
Packs, actually. (At least, I've never heard anyone say packets.)
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owlfish: (Darkness was there first)

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posted by [personal profile] owlfish at 09:38pm on 20/09/2010
I am, if anything, even more charmed by my hairdresser in teaching me slightly incorrect American English.

That also explains why it didn't sound familiar to me. Packs. Of course they come in packs!
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posted by [identity profile] sartorias.livejournal.com at 09:40pm on 20/09/2010
There are parts of the south where the word 'pack' has two syllables, which might have confused her. "Pie-yack."
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posted by [identity profile] a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com at 11:00pm on 20/09/2010
I always thought cigarettes came in packs or cartons. Except in places that will break a pack and sell singles, but that's semi-legal. AFAIK, packs aren't supposed to be split for tax reasons. Yes, I have bought them -- my mom used to be a pack-a-day smoker. My best friend a 1 1/2 pack-a-day smoker.

At least, over here. Dunno what they do in the UK.
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posted by [identity profile] moon-custafer.livejournal.com at 11:45am on 21/09/2010
Perhaps he meant she should have asked for "a twenty-pack" or some such? Surely "twenty packs" would still mean "twenty packs x however-many-cigs-there-are-to-a-pack?"
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