We were talking about this yesterday in the Premier League thread. I still think there's got to be a whole lot of backstory behind it, because at first glance it seems like the coach just flipped for no apparent reason.

Better-quality video

Langston: at first glance it seems like the coach just flipped for no apparent reason

The kid thinks he's hot shiat since Arsenal wants him and the local, racist fans jeer him and call him a gypsy, so the dude has probably been a bit surly to the coach before.

Well that wasn't an overreaction at all.

Just sarcasm? What about dramatic, irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes or satire?

To be fair, it seems that nobody except English-speakers truly understands sarcasm as a means of expression.

I am totally being serious right now. Seriously.

cefm: To be fair, it seems that nobody except English-speakers truly understands sarcasm as a means of expression.

This!

I had to write a letter to the Italian Police Department to dispute a parking ticket... I had it translated by an italian colleague...

In one line of the letter, I wrote "...I parked in an open space, but apparently it was not legal to park there on days when there's a football game in the stadium..."

So he translated it... and his translation of "apparently it was not legal to park there" was, essentially, "it was clear and obvious to me that it was illegal to park there" and of course this made the italian police DOUBLE my fine (thier policy is to double the fines of disputed tickets that lose the dispute)

When I yelled at my colleague for translating it that way, he looked at me quizzically, and asked "what does 'apparently' mean then? The dictionary says 1. Readily seen; visible. 2. Readily understood; clear or obvious"

I tried to tell him that it was a commonly used term, but commonly used in a subtle sarcastic way to mean the opposite of what it is actually defined as- that I was saying that I didn't know it was illegal to park there - but he could not grasp that. "Why would you say it was apparent to mean not apparent? I do not understand english"

I had to admit, I wasn't even aware I was using sarcasm... it seemed like a totally natural speech construction to me. But it doesnt translate.

ISO15693: "Why would you say it was apparent to mean not apparent? I do not understand english"



Inflammable means flammable? What a country!