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Post by silverdragon on Mar 4, 2013 8:32:16 GMT
Absolutely Not....  {This is my point of view, so accept it as a regional variant at best... I dont pretend to speak for "Everyone"...........}Bull in a China shop will still be used, we all know what it means, and Elephant in a China shop just doesnt roll off the tongue as easily?.... I suggest that the Idiom has grown up past the actual meaning, its now a case of the sum is greater than the parts, we use that phrase for a description that often has no relevance to walking an actual bull into a china shop, so even if it is actually busted, it wont stop anyone using it for exactly the same meaning it always has had. Would we adopt a foreign phrase?... Erm... well, this is England, we are fighting to retain our own cultural identity, so no, we wont go Metric, we WANT pounds and Ounces, so adopting other foreign measurements is beyond us... Cant speak for the rest of the world...... |
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Post by the light works on Mar 4, 2013 14:38:50 GMT
Absolutely Not.... {This is my point of view, so accept it as a regional variant at best... I dont pretend to speak for "Everyone"...........}Bull in a China shop will still be used, we all know what it means, and Elephant in a China shop just doesnt roll off the tongue as easily?.... I suggest that the Idiom has grown up past the actual meaning, its now a case of the sum is greater than the parts, we use that phrase for a description that often has no relevance to walking an actual bull into a china shop, so even if it is actually busted, it wont stop anyone using it for exactly the same meaning it always has had. Would we adopt a foreign phrase?... Erm... well, this is England, we are fighting to retain our own cultural identity, so no, we wont go Metric, we WANT pounds and Ounces, so adopting other foreign measurements is beyond us... Cant speak for the rest of the world...... I know I am looking forward to the day when I estimate wire runs by pacing off the distance and multiplying by .9144 to get meters. |
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Post by OziRiS on Mar 10, 2013 18:29:23 GMT
Oh yes... Keep to the imperial system, by all means. Because we all know that fractions of inches are SO much easier to work with than millimeters!  |
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Post by silverdragon on Mar 10, 2013 23:16:39 GMT
Eh?... but what would I do with my five-eights spanner?.......
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Post by the light works on Mar 11, 2013 0:17:55 GMT
Oh yes... Keep to the imperial system, by all means. Because we all know that fractions of inches are SO much easier to work with than millimeters! which reminds me I need to unload the 32.5mm conduit at the shop tomorrow. |
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bioLarzen
Demi-Minion
"I reject your avatars and substitute my own."
Posts: 86
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Post by bioLarzen on Apr 1, 2013 12:01:49 GMT
I think it was discussed back in the original forums, that there are languages (like my native Hungarian and most of the Slavic languages as I recall) that have this idiom with elephant instead of bull. Would be interesting to see some elephants romping around shelves - but untames elephants are hard to come by in San Francisco - that's why they had to suffice with a rather lazy job with the elephants afraid of mice myth when they had the chance to test it on wild elephants in Africa. bio Not quite. They never intended to test the 'are elephants afraid of mice?' myth. However while they were in South Africa to film the shark week special they had a day where the weather was so bad they couldn't go out to film. Rather than waste a days filming they decided to test out the mouse myth on some wild elephants that were known to be in the area. So it was FAR from lazy, in fact it was just the opposite since they could have just stayed in their hotel all day. But instead they went out and did some work. Well... what you're saying here doesn't contradict what I said The job they did was lazy, because they left a lot of doors open - exactly because they obviously didn't plan it through as thoroughly as they normally do. So, while I still say it was a lazy job, I'm not holding it against them. That was probably the best they could come up with in those circumstances. bio |
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