PartⅠ UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN ENGLISH 3
1 Exporting American English 3
International Travel 4
Social Conversations 8
Confusing Cognates 13
Pronunciation 15
Misunderstood American Slang 19
2 Why American English Is So Difficult 25
1066 and All That 26
English Spoken Here...and Everywhere 30
What Should We Call American English? 32
Playing the Word Game 33
Oxymorons 40
Regional American English 42
Pronunciation 44
Fillers 47
Black English 48
Youth Slang 49
Political Jargon 51
Doublespeak 52
Bureaucratese 54
Summary 55
3 Mangled Misstatements 57
Part Ⅱ UNDERSTANDING WORLD ENGLISH 79
4 English English 79
Bloody Awful Words 83
Riding the Highway of Words 88
Food Is Not Necessarily Foode 92
Grammar:Garbled or Grand? 96
Spelling 98
Is It Briton or Brit? 99
A Dog's Breakfast 100
Reference Books 107
Summary 108
5 English:The Global Language 110
The First Faux Pas 112
Canada 114
Australia 121
New Zealand 126
South Africa 130
Where Is English Spoken? 136
What You Need to Know about Other English-speaking Nations 140
Part Ⅲ BECOMING A GLOBAL COMMUNICATOR 145
6 Using Interpreters 145
Avoiding Translation Sickness 147
Translating the Written Word 149
Computerized Translations 152
Presidential Pratfalls 155
Telephone Translations 156
Tips for Travelers Using Interpreters 158
More Translation Anecdotes 161
7 Social Conversations around the World 165
United Kingdom 167
Germany 174
Italy 177
France 179
Russia 181
Japan 184
Thailand 188
Korea 191
8 The Tower of Business Babel 195
From Boardrooms to Bathrooms 197
Workaday Words or Business Bombshells? 201
Business Abbreviations and Acronyms 206
Shocking Similes 212
Bumbled Brand Names 215
Eurospeak 221
Summary 224
9 Confusing Cognates and Telephone TaIk 225
Spanish Cognates 227
German Cognates 229
Telephone Talk 231
10 How to Be Understood 233
Ten Tips for Using American English 233
Other Ways to Communicate 240
Colors Communicate Too 241
The Meaning of Numbers 243
Other Ways to Cormprender 245
Epilogue 250
Words about Words 250
Appendix What to Know about Other Languages and Cultures 255
Japanese 259
German 269
French 276
Italian 283
Spanish 290
Chinese 297
Glossaries 304
Australian English to American English 304
American English to English English 318
New Zealand English to American English 324
Cockney Slang 329
Oxymorons 331
Index 333