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[Der Uhu]

In this Thread you may ask whatever you like about "the other side". :wink:

[Der Uhu]

Here is my first question:

In the film "Pulp Fiction" the wife of that Mafia Boss has a date with Vincent and they drive to this very odd diner. As they arrive there they have a discussion in the car and she says "Don't be a..." and than she paints with her fingers a square into the air. What does that mean? Don't be a.....what?

Der Uhu

[schneeball]

LOL! I have got to be the one who answers this doozy of a question! Where do I start?

Ok, here goes.......

See.....in America, way back in the old days.....circa 1920's to 1940's, the term, "Don't be no square", was a big catch phrase used to discribe members of the older generation that were not in touch with the country's rebelious youth who, at that time, were into dancing the jitterbug and listening to swing, jazz, jump blues.....whatever. The term survived well into the early 60's when kids used it to describe other kids who they viewed as being nerds that didn't listen to blues or rock'n roll. Basically, it was a term teeny boppers, bobby soxers, and hip kids threw around, along with other gems such as:

"Hey daddy-o!"

"Wow man! You're the most!"

"Say baby.....you're the hostess with the mostest!"

"Say bub! This beaver skin coat is sure the cat's meow"

"This place is reeeeaaally swing'n. I mean, It's really jump'n around here."

"Like crazy man.......real craaaaaazzzzy!"

"I'm gone daddy gone........I'm way gone baby."

"Who's that cool cat stand'n over their with that hot chick?"

"I'm burn'n up for ya baby, you're so hot."

"Scram Sam! Don't make me have ta muss ya all up."

"Just dig those crazy beats baby!"

"Listen.....I ain't afraid of noth'n....see."

"Like....wow man, she sure is swell."

"He's just a square from square'sville."

I could go on forever...........

Anyway, the reason she finished the sentence by outlining a square shape with her fingers in the air was because she was trying to be slick and sarcastic.

I suppose that, in gothworld, we could use "square" to describe the norms and tourists that hang out at the clubs.

[Mentallo]

Boo, Uhu!
A REAL fan should have known that!  :mrgreen:
But please don`t ask what`s in the case.  :wink:

[SuperTorus]

Don't know why, but I associate all this "square" talk with hiphop and ghetto slang. And that's a thing which I try to avoid..

  ST

[Der Uhu]

@ Mentallo: I AM a real fan! I even understood in that film Mrs. Wallace's Tomato Joke: Ketchup ---> Catch Up!

See?  


Der Uhu

[Mentallo]

:wink:

[schneeball]

Don't feel so bad Uhu. I once had a friend I went to college with who was from Frankfurt, Germany. His name was Karl. He was able to speak several languages very fluently, including English, but he had been living in the U.S. for a couple of years at the most. He was very well traveled and had lived, at certain times in his life, in England and South America. Well, anyway , me, Karl and another friend were driving around town with nothing to do, so  I said:

Me: Hey, why don't we go hang out at the Arcade.

Floyd: Sure, why not.

Karl: (With a bit of an accent but very intelligable), I don't want to hanging out at the arcade, that's stupid.

Me: Well? Then what do you want to do then?

Karl: Let's go to the arcade and play some video games.

Floyd: Isn't that what he just said?

Me: Ok karl. We'll go hang out at the arcade.

Karl: This is fucking stupid. I don't want to go hang out, or what ever, at the arcade. If I go to the arcade, I want to play video games.

Me: Karl, "hanging out" means that we are going to play video games at the arcade.

Karl: I don't understand this "hanging out". What? Do they have hooks at the arcade where people hang from. I just want to play video games. This hanging out sounds fucking stupid. This "hanging out" is shit.....I never heard such a thing.

Side Note: Karl was starting to use the words "fuck" and "shit" in his vocabulary a lot more often. After almost 2 years living in the U.S. and listening to other Americans talk, including me and Floyd, he was starting to pick up on the most frequently used words in the American vocabulary.

Me: No Karl......There aren't any hooks. We aren't going to literally hang by a hook. Hanging out means that we are going to spend some time at the video arcade.

Karl: So let's go to the video arcade. Why do we have to do this, "hanging out"?

Me: No Karl....."hanging out" is just an expression. It's slang for, "let's go stand around or spend some time at this place". It doesn't actually mean "hanging around" or "hanging out".

Floyd: Karl? Did you really think we were going to hang on hooks at a video arcade? You were just kidding us, right?

Karl: No! I really thought that you guys wanted to go hang out on hooks or something at the video arcade. You said hang out, so I thought the arcade had a bunch of kids all hanging from the ceiling or something.

Me: No way Karl. Kids hanging from the ceiling by hooks at an arcade? You can't be serious. You really thought this?

Karl: Yes! You said let's go hang out. I don't know what this, "hanging out" means. We have nothing like this in Germany. You Americans have this fucked up language. In Germany, we do not have this, "hanging out". This, "hanging around" or "hanging out" makes no fucking sense.

Honest to God! This was a true story! And Karl was a smart guy...I think he later became an engineer or something. It cracks me up just to remember it.

[phaylon]

If you're still in contact with Karl, drop him two notes: "abhängen" and "rumhängen". ;)


p

[Der Uhu]

LOOOOL!    --------> Karl (http://www.mainzelahr.de/smile/waffen/8314.gif)

Tell Karl that we do have expressions like "herumhängen = hang around" and I have never seen people hanging around on hooks! Not yet. But I really think that he was making fun of you and you just didn't notice. He is either veeeeeery naiv or he has a great humor!


But I have also such a story: I drove through Australia and we came to a construction site and the road was actually closed. One of the workers there told us that they are repairing the street and we should hang on. But I thought that "hang on" means "go on" so I just drove. Everybody was yelling and swearing at us and one of the workers even threw his glove after us, because we just drove over the freshly tared street. That was very embarrasing!

[schneeball]

Mr. Karl never had much of a sense of humor. He was a pretty serious guy. As far as expressions go, every language has figures of speach they use. Why Karl got so confused about the term, "hanging out", I have no idea. Maybe he was fucking with us. If he was, then he never let on. As serious as he was most of the time, I must admit, every once in a while he did things that cracked us all up. Anyway, I did learn a bit about Gemany pre and post Berlin Wall from him, and for that I'm greatful. By the way, I lost touch with Karl a long time ago. I'm not even sure if he is still living in the states.