Another contest: 'Good bad' AND 'bad bad'

[spencer]

Hey Jamie,
Those two Americans are retarded and even they have no clue what they're talking about.
Or one of them is stuttering, and the other's torturing him by repeating the words.
Or they are only 3 years old.
Or immigrants,who don't speak english.
Anyway,if I ever see them,I'll beat them up for being such a nonsense, troublemaker idiots.
Spencer

[Conchita]

[Jamie (K)]

Okay, here's the answer, now that Spencer is starting to get insulting. It was actually a conversation between younger intellectuals.

A good bad film is a film that's very poorly and stupidly made but is unintentionally funny and highly entertaining precisely because it is so terrible. Maybe the clich?s in the movie are funny, or it is so kitsch that it makes you laugh, or the special effects are so cheap and poorly done that they are amusing. Maybe the acting is so bad that it's laughable, or the story is hilariously preposterous. Many people (including me) enjoy films like this. (Similarly, one of my sisters and I like to collect recordings of bad music -- good bad music, of course.)

A bad bad film is also a film that's very poorly and stupidly made, but there is nothing entertaining about its poor quality.

[Alan]

Hi,

If these two characters were intellectuals, Heaven help us all!

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story A day in the life of a student teacher

[Yankee]

I have to admit, I was expecting Jamie to tell us that the solution to his puzzle involved the slang usage of the word 'bad' to mean 'excellent' --- a usage usually attributed to "Black English". For example, "She's bad" would mean she's really something special.

In this case, Spencer could have possibly won a consolation prize with his first guess.

Amy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Torsten]

[spencer]

Hi Chonchita,
I have no problems with Americans, I just misspelled "two Americans" and wrote "to americans".
As usual.
Sorry
Spencer

Just for the record, I was a bit drunk, 'cause it was saturday night after some drinking with friends.
Not like otherwise I would've spelled it right,though...

[Jamie (K)]

[Yankee]

Hi Torsten

I agree with Jamie. Some of the "German words" in English are more widely known than others.

Of course every American knows the word 'kindergarten' (although it's entirely possible that some might misspell it as 'kindergarden').

And temperatures in "Fahrenheit" are still much more meaningful to me than in centigrade --- even though I've been in Germany for a long time now.

I grew up saying "Gesundheit" after someone sneezed. (That's the only way you can use it in English.)

In business, you might hear someone talk about an advertizing "blitz".

I also think most Americans know the word "Autobahn". You can find it in Webster's Dictionary, but the meaning is very restricted. It means 'a German highway'. What's interesting here is what people actually understand. Usually you hear "the Autobahn", and so people who have never been to Germany tend to believe that there is only one "Autobahn" (i.e. only one single road.) I guess the plural is Autobahns, but nobody ever talks about more than one.

The word kaput is also well-known and the meaning is similar. (But spelled with only one 't')

Sauerkraut is Sauerkraut.

Foosball is a game of soccer that is played on a table.

A wiener is a hotdog.

A frankfurter is also a hotdog. You might find 'beans and franks' on the menu in restaurants.

And a hamburger is something found at Mc Donald's.

Then there's the phrasal verb to be on the fritz, which means to become broken or not be functioning properly.

Also well-known are Octoberfest and schnapps. But schnapps in America is very different from German Schnaps. American schnapps tends to be very sweet.

Wunderkind is also pretty widely known.

By the way, have you heard about VW's advertizing campaign in the States? In the early 1990s Volkswagen began an advertizing campaign in the US using the word "Fahrvergnugen". This was NOT a word known in English and most Americans also found the word to be completely unpronounceable. What VW didn't do was to bother explaining what the word meant. So, people all over America were puzzled. What do you think? Was that good advertizing (because it stirred up a buzz and got people asking questions)? Or bad advertizing (because nobody knew what VW was trying to say)? I'm not sure whether the word has entered into American English since then. (Maybe Jamie can address that.)

Is that enough for now? (There are lots more....)

Amy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Conchita]

This thread is highly interesting and amusing!

Jamie, you sure know how to choose your contests. This one was tough, tough, tough (but a good tough)!

[Alan]

Hi Conchita,

Here's hoping you like my version: What's it all about?

Alan
_________________
English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Make or Do?

[Yankee]

Hi Conchita

Maybe Alan should start a thread for wisecracks. His "slubberdegullion druggel" thread certainly aroused interest.

Coming back to the word 'bad', I've got a question for everybody (but especially Jamie):

How familiar are you with the expression "My bad"? I'd never heard this expression before I moved to Germany. And the first time I heard it during a trip back home, I was not terribly impressed... Somehow it just sounded "bad bad".

Jamie, is the expression "My bad" being widely used in your neck of the woods? The input I've received from the northeast is that "everybody says it".

Amy
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Conchita]

[Alan]

Hi,

I have clearly failed! It's meant to be a spoof on the good/bad/bad theme.
There's nothing worse than having to explain your joke and I'll just go away and cringe
Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Conditionals

[Jamie (K)]