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Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 5:31 pm
by Petrarch
Morrisons is clearly "where it's at".

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 5:37 pm
by Hunter
Hm, for value and price, yes. I think Marks and Spencer is "Where it's elite at", but you need to be a rich mofo to shop there.

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 6:28 pm
by Petrarch
And they have Sean Bean doing the advert voiceovers. Sean motherfucking Bean!

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:33 pm
by aldo
Petrarch of the VBB wrote:Morrisons is clearly "where it's at".
f### that. Morrisons is cheap shabby yellow shite on a stick.

And M&S is the place where little kids are taken to be punished. God, the tantrums me and my brother would have to get out of M&S.

He was better, though; he'd lie down at the doorway in front of the security cameras, and grab hold of the carpet screaming.

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 12:09 am
by Hunter
Have you noticed how sucky staff are though in the UK these days? "Shall I wrap that for you mate?" - Mate ? I'm his mate? What? What happened to "Sir"?

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 12:11 am
by Hippo
They went to Australia for training?

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 1:31 am
by aldo
Hunter wrote:Have you noticed how sucky staff are though in the UK these days? "Shall I wrap that for you mate?" - Mate ? I'm his mate? What? What happened to "Sir"?
No.

Perhaps you mean England?

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 5:22 am
by Grug
What's wrong with mate?

Some guy got the shits with some door person calling him mate here. Suggested banning it or something. I think everyone in Australia through a piece of s### at him.

Mate is an awsome word. Goes for all situations. :)

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 9:25 am
by Black Wolf
Grug wrote:What's wrong with mate?

Some guy got the shits with some door person calling him mate here. Suggested banning it or something. I think everyone in Australia through a piece of s### at him.

Mate is an awsome word. Goes for all situations. :)
Actually, it was a polly and one of the parliamnet house employees called him mate, so a memo was sent around to all the staff there officially banning the use of the word mate. Two day after the media got hold of it, it was officially retracted. Otherwise, you're entirely right. When I used to have to do customer service I'd call people mate all the time, or cob. Never, ever "sir".

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 11:43 am
by Petrarch
"Squire" is much better. Or "My good man".

"Three second class stamps, please, and have one for yourself, my good man"

"And a very good day to you, squire! Permit me to shake you by the hand!"

And so on.

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 1:44 pm
by aldo
I always found 'oi! cunto!' a pleasing alternative in the field of customer services.

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 6:33 pm
by kasperl
Over here, there's a distinction in the "you" one would use for a 'higher ranking' person and the "you" for an equal or someone 'below' you. (Je would be used for mates, u for higher ups, U for good.)

I always get ticked off when official letters start off with 'je', and go on to try to use 'youth language'. Same with helpdesks, if people start off calling me 'u' and sir, I'll treat them with more respect then if they start of saying 'je'. Politeness seems a lost art on quite a few people.

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 8:29 pm
by vyper
Hunter wrote:Hm, for value and price, yes. I think Marks and Spencer is "Where it's elite at", but you need to be a rich mofo to shop there.
/me must be rich then

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 11:09 pm
by Goober5000
kasperl wrote:Over here, there's a distinction in the "you" one would use for a 'higher ranking' person and the "you" for an equal or someone 'below' you. (Je would be used for mates, u for higher ups, U for good.)
That used to be the case with English. "Thou" was used for the familiar and "you" was used for the formal. But "you" also meant the plural, whether you were talking to multiple "thou"s or multiple "you"s. (It's pretty much the same as "tu" and "vous" in French, as far as I can tell.)

For whatever reason, "you" started to be used so often that it replaced "thou" entirely, for both formal and familiar. That often leads to the annoying situation where someone might say "you" and the listener doesn't know whether the speaker is talking to just him or including other people. :p

Ironically, nowadays a lot of people think "thou" is more respectful. :p

On a side note, is there a pronunciation difference between u and U?
kasperl wrote:I always get ticked off when official letters start off with 'je', and go on to try to use 'youth language'. Same with helpdesks, if people start off calling me 'u' and sir, I'll treat them with more respect then if they start of saying 'je'. Politeness seems a lost art on quite a few people.
That seems to be a universal problem. :(

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 11:48 pm
by Petrarch
Good manners cost nothing!

I suggest you all have a read of The Chap Manifesto - Revolutionary Etiquette for the Modern Gentleman.
http://www.thechap.net/