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[–] 18 points 1 month ago (9 children)

Why is this usage of tea so confusing for everybody? We re-use words all the time in English. It's a very simple concept. Imagine if a musician asked about the key of a song and everybody was like "KEY? LIKE A CAR KEY? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? SONGS DONT HAVE KEYS! IVE NEVER BEEN SO CONFUSED IN MY LIFE"

Up north we say "tea" for evening meal. That's it. Explanation sorted.

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  • [–] 44 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Terrible example and it's just demonstrating that you can't put yourself in someone else's shoes for even a moment.

    You understand that usage of tea because you used it your entire life, someone who hasn't would rightfully be confused.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Ok it was a deliberately silly example for emphasis. Here's a real example. I went to Australia once and in the airport somebody referred to my Mentos as "lolly". To me, lollies are on a stick. Apparently not to aussies. It threw me off for half a second, but that's it. Confused is an overstatement.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 month ago

    Yeah but the context clues are a hell of a lot easier there. You're holding an object, and if someone called it a chupa-chupa or a sucker most people would be able to put that together pretty easily

    Now imagine you're going through stretches and someone walks in and is like "oh, playing football are you". You could be preparing to go outside and play football... But you're just stretching

    I think most people would be confused by that unexpected second meaning of a familiar word

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    It still confuses me that I can have a cup of coffee with somebody without actually drinking coffee. (In English and my mother tongue as well.)

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  • [–] 7 points 1 month ago* (2 children)

    As a coffee drinker, if I was invited for some coffee and did not in fact get any coffee I'd be both a little confused and a little annoyed.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    In Brazil, "café da manhã" (morning coffee) is the term for breakfast, but it's often shortened to just "café."

    There was a mobile blood donation set up during Covid and I asked the group chat if it was okay to have coffee before donating, and the response was, "Yes, you should definitely be well-fed before donating blood."

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    That's pretty good!

    Is the context where if you had said can i drink coffee before, it would have been less ambiguous?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Might work in Portuguese. In my original example it wouldn’t work in German. "Zusammen einen Kaffee trinking gehen" (to go drink a coffee together) still doesn’t imply that you actually drink coffee, it more implies that you just get a small thing together.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Yeah once a date invited me up for coffee and I was enjoying my time with her and thought another 15 minutes or so of conversation would be nice, but then it was suddenly like she forgot she invited me in or something because she just started getting ready for bed instead of making any coffee! I just politely said I needed to get going so she didn't feel embarrassed about forgetting she had invited me for coffee, though I think I failed because she did seem a bit upset.

    So I tried to be considerate and go through a coffee shop drivethru after the next couple of dates. Even then, she offered coffee the first time and I pointed at my cup and said I'm fine, though that seemed to make her feel even more embarrassed as she looked like she was about to cry after that.

    Then the next time she said, "I think we've been having a miscommunication when I've been inviting you up for coffee, I didn't really mean coffee, but I was being a bit immature and dancing around what I really wanted and then getting my feelings hurt when you didn't get the message. So I'll just say what I mean this time. Would you like to come up and have sex with me?"

    I informed her that's where babies come from and she already knew and still wanted it. Then she was trying to say something about being on a pill and I noped out of there. I am not interested in a relationship where my partner likes to get high on pills and have babies. That just seems irresponsible to me.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    You put in a lot of effort on this joke so I'll give an upvote and this comment

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    I'm a fan of Norm MacDonald's style. Not sure why a long joke with a mediocre payoff is so funny to me, though thanks because getting ratio'd by this comment is even funnier. It's like a committee deciding I deserve a participation trophy, though they did not appreciate the joke itself.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Yeah, but as someone who grew up down south and has lived in the north for the majority of my life:

    Breakfast, lunch, dinner

    Very clear, no fucker doesn't know what you're talking about

    Breakfast, dinner, tea

    What the fuck are you playing at, skipping lunch and having a drink to compensate?

    Get in the sea

    Tea is important enough in this country to not use the word again, especially not for the second most important thing: dinner

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    Breakfast, lunch, dinner

    Dinner is at midday, what are you playing at having 2 meals at midday and no evening meal? Get back to France

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  • [–] 3 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    I am also someone who grew up down south and we always had breakfast, lunch and tea \o/

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago* (1 child)

    Because we already have a word that exists for evening meal. It's dinner. Or supper. Why call it a beverage?

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