 |
|
Talking
English
Your Passport to Better Language Communication |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Strange Weather
One of my girlfriends’ many great qualities is that she loves cooking. I love eating her excellent food even more. Last weekend, staring at my empty plate, she asked if I would like any more reindeer; I glanced outside and replied; “not more rain-dear.”
Whether we like it or not, the world’s climate is changing and it is no laughing matter, or is it? Over the years, students have said the strangest things to me, here are a small selection of the funnies gaffs.
“This morning, I was walking outside, when suddenly a big shower fell on me!”
“Yesterday, I had strong wind here.” My girlfriend says I have strong wind, but that is another story!
“Rain and salt makes old cars lust. So be careful about that. Once a car starts lusting, there's no way to stop it.” I think Pekka meant, rust?
There was a lighting strike and then the sky became dark. I have heard many variations of this as Finnish people often muddle lighting and lightning.
“The entire country has been devastated by a long trout.” Surely, Finland was not being terrorised by a ‘monster fish’. I think Jari meant a long drought in Africa.
“If you are ever in an earthquake, you should go to the bathroom very quickly because that is the safest thing to do.”
“Today the waiter is cold and wet and a little windy.”
“I am so uncomfortable today. I cannot relax when I am in heat.” Perhaps a little too much information from a female student.
Joking aside, in English we say it is raining or it is snowing. It CANNOT rain snow. The wet ‘stuff’ between rain and snow is called sleet. In what should be a winter wonderland; British holidaymakers travelling to Lapland for a pre-Christmas holiday got a shock when they arrived in Santa's traditional home: no snow, instead, just lots of slush.
Across the border in Russia, temperatures for December were the warmest since records began in 1879. In December 2005, Muscovites shivered in -40°C. A year later in December 2006, the capital experienced a record winter high of 9.3°C. Even the frisky brown bears in Moscow’s zoo failed to hibernate.
Farther afield, Iceland is struggling to live up to its name. The capital Reykjavik enjoyed a record high of 10°C over Christmas. The ski slopes of Austria are green. Chairlifts hang idle as the lack of snow keeps skiers away from resorts such as Kitzbuhel and Lofer.
The meltdown also caused problems at a winter sports biathlon in Hochfilzen at the beginning of December. It took five days to truck in 80,000 cubic metres of snow for one event. The powder shortage is also caused headaches in Germany where organisers of the Nordic combined and biathlon events in Oberhof had to use snow cannons to make artificial snow. In Sweden, one ski resort operator had to make 250 workers redundant because of the lack of snow.
The English broadsheet newspaper, The Independent, states, 2006 was a "remarkable" year, with new temperature records, including:
* the warmest month on record in Britain, set in July, with a mean temperature of 19.7°C * the warmest-ever September on record (16.8°C). * the warmest-ever April to October, with a mean temperature of 14.6°C. * the warmest-ever British autumn, with a mean temperature of 12.6°C. Worldwide, 2006 was the sixth warmest year, in a record that stretches back to 1850, with the top 10 warmest years occurring since 1994. It would have been warmer still but for a cool start due to "La Niña", the sea-surface temperature anomaly in the Pacific ocean.
Finally, one of the many reasons I live in Lahti is for the snow and skiing, perhaps I should consider a new career, water skiing, maybe?
Mike Bangle’s is the owner of Talking English language consultancy and can be contacted at mike.bangle(at)phnet.fi
Word List
|
|
|
|