Irish to Americans: When Negative is Positive
A couple of days back I read this article in the Houston Chronicle on the language difficulties between Irish people and Americans.
The article is provoked by the writer’s sister learning that to accept a gift of $1,000 from an American you say, Thank you and not, Oh, no, I can’t accept this. No. No, really. It’s far too generous.
It reminded me of comments by an American and an Irish person here in Kansas City about a meal they were eating. I sat opposite both and started the conversation by saying that the food was good. The American added, It’s wonderful. The Irish man said, There’s nothing wrong with it
They both meant exactly the same thing, and if anything the Irish man made his comment with much more gusto. And he was shoveling the meal into his face as he spoke.
See Also:
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• U2, That’s A Tribute 2U Fran
• Dear Ireland, Kansas City is hot
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Even now, after all these years of being here, I still occasionally get caught out by using what I imagine to be a NZ compliment of understatement (even if uttered with correct intonation.) Midwesterners would never use the “Not Bad at all” high praise I’m accustomed to; instead, they prefer verbal sensationalism.
It’s rooted in the positivism and extremism of the culture. Words they choose, however, in this game of external validation and back slapping, become over used, lose their meaning and the language chases itself in a game to constantly seek one-ups-man-ship (not unlike the escalating SUV race for size.)
Huge was replaced with enormous, enormous with gigantic, then both with humongous, and recently again with gi-normous. I’m almost “positive” that there’s yet another one waiting in the wings of some schoolyard to top that.
The other loss, and one which I mourn, is the lack of nuance in intonation. I’m sure it derives historically from the need to speak loudly and slowly to be understood, but its result is that word choice is the primary means of expression. Inflection here, to the degree with which I was raised, is lost and with it too, a large chunk of expressive communication. It wouldn’t matter how I uttered “Not Bad at all” – it would only ever be heard as a half-ass compliment when in fact, it’s perhaps my highest (genuine) compliment.
Now, now - easy on the irony.
In the tradition of highlighting everything on a page effectively highlighting nothing, I once pointed out to an American that if everything is wonderful then nothing is wonderful.
Mind you similarly I had to point out to an Irish man in Kansas City that everybody couldn’t be a [expletive].