When I drove past the nearby home store mall today and saw the words,
SUPA CENTA
plastered on the side of the building I did a double take. Supa what?
Is that a joke? Or maybe “supa centa” happens to be another language? Because it surely couldn’t mean SupER CentER could it? Oh yes. Oh yes it could do.
Wait … could do what? That doesn’t make sense. It could do? Oh right. Yep yep. It could do. Supa Centa could mean SupER CentER. And it was plastered all over the building and parking lots. It could do.
AGH!!!! I’m going crazy!!!
Please, please put a little more Purel Hand Sanitizer on the humongous scrape on my collarbone. It didn’t kill me last time … And maybe if we’re lucky my eyes will well up with tears again from the 11 point sting on the pain scale of 1 to 10. I just LUV putting straight rubbing alcohol on open wounds. It doesn’t hurt AT ALL. Nope. Not at all.
But it may do.
Right. The Please kill me NOW searing pain from the This will only hurt a LITTLE alcohol dab on an open wound may at least distract me from the miserable grammar headache that is POUNDING in my uptight brain. Who in the world names their mall the “Supa Centa?” Who does that? An “Oz”zie apparently.
And may do? Could do?
NO NO NO NO NO NO!
Did you know the Australian Cockroach (or Periplaneta australasiae) has wings? Oh yes it do. Not may do. Not could do. No. It DO!!!
[deep sigh, shake my head, and self talk, "It's ok Daisy. It's only grammar. And yes Supa Centa is spelled with "a"s insted of "er"s so you have to pronounce it like an Australian ... And ok maybe you hear a lot of Australians answer your questions with "may do" and "could do" ... " deep breath, "But hey - not ALL Australians have bad grammar (in fact most are great) and at least their cockroaches have wings..."]
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Yeah that’s bad, but not quite as bad as someone who spells grammar “grammer.” And roaches with wings? I can see why you want to move – islands do really have the most terrifying evolved creatures.
I thought I was the only one that cared about grammar!
Have you seen this blog?http://spandg.blogspot.com/
They put up pics of all sorts of horrifying grammatical errors from signs. You should send them a pic of the Supa Centa!
I was in a shop the other day and one sales assistant said to the other
“Ok, I done it.” No, you DID it!
It made my skin crawl!
I also hate
“Can I lend a pen off you?”
Which I hear sometimes at work. Then I want to reply:
“No, you MAY BORROW a pen FROM me!”
Then there’s
“I wish I was famous!”
When it should be “I wish I WERE famous!”. But not many people know about the subjunctive. I only learnt about it from studying French.
If anyone doesn’t know the subjunctive is explained here: http://blog.hotpepper.ca/archives/2008/04/when-to-use-i-were/
Hahahahhahaaaaaaaaaa…. Ahhhh dear! Got to love your take on Australian culture! Makes me smile…. I suppose Aussies are rather more lax then Americans in many ways.. but it’s interesting to hear from your culture shock point of view ~ cos for me The OZ that’s peculiar to you is my comfort zone & what I compare my own regular culture shock experiences to!!!
Supacenta is a brand name.
Cockaroachs are so very lulzy when they fly.
The first time I drove past that ridiculous Supa Centa sign, I really thought I was loosing my mind. 1 too many days spent in Australia, deprived of decent bagels, brownies, the ability to buy things in bulk without spending a small fortune… etc.
Oh, and by the way, “how you going?”
… “how am I doing…?”
… “how is IT going…?”
No, no. How you going? My favorite pet-peeve Aussie saying.
True story: There’s this restaurant in Canberra called Bagel Cafe (or something like that). I almost cried when I got my “bagel” which is, in truth, a kaiser roll with a hole in the center.
I feel your pain, girl! Good luck, hang in there! It’ll get better as the weather warms up.
Best regards from Washington, DC,
DC Maggie – thanks for sharing! It always makes me feel better to know I’m not the only one who struggled in Australia!!