I mentioned the other day that I have a very rambunctious group of freshmen that meet on Thursday afternoons. I guess that late in the day they have gotten their second wind--either that or they're so tired that they're just crazy. They really keep me on my toes, but they are a good bunch.
Yesterday in class we were discussing grammar, and the discussion morphed into a conversation about differences in the way people from different regions pronounce the same word. One of my students, a young man from Chicago said, "Last week you said the word supper. That was the first time I had ever heard that word, and I had to go ask somebody what it meant." Everyone else in class gasped (except for the girl from Northern Virginia--I think she was familiar with the word but could understand why he didn't know it) in amazement that this guy had never heard the word "supper." He explained that it was "dinner" where he comes from, so I asked him if he knew what dinner is here. He guessed that dinner was lunch, and I told him that he was partially right. I told him that if you have a sandwich at noontime, it's lunch, but if you have a hot meal at noontime, that's dinner. Everyone in class seemed to agree with this idea.
Getting to meet people from different places is one of the most fun things about being a college professor.
Mugsy: 2001-2014
10 years ago
8 comments:
You're right. The proliferation of television and the ability to travel rapidly have contributed to the bluring of regional differences within our country. As people are exposed to new and different ideas, sayings, foods, etc., each region has begun to lose what once made it unique. In a way, it's great that one region will adopt another region's ideas, foods, etc., but then again, it's sort of sad that each region is losing a part of its unique identity.
You didn't get into the coke vs soda thing? Or is that one way too old?
I say send the damn yankees home!
"You know God talks like we do." --Lewis Grizzard
:-)
Once, at a two-week convention of sorts in Columbia, Mo., I was assailed by a pair of dorm workers for asking if there was a "pop machine" nearby. "What did you say?" they demanded. "You mean the soda machine?"
I come from a split family as far as the dinner/supper thing. On one side, it's breakfast, then lunch, then dinner. On the other, it's breakfast, then dinner, then supper. I go with the flow and try to get four meals out of it, but that doesn't usually seem to work.
We did briefly discuss the soda/pop/coke thing. Everyone not from the South seems to pick up on the "it's all coke" idea pretty quickly.
Mugsy, that's a really good idea, trying to get an extra meal just by using a different label. I'd try that, but I'd be the one having to cook them all!
I agree, Tony; God must talk like a Southerner! Of course, I don't have any evidence for that.
In rural NC where my husband is from, it used to be that dinner was the main meal of the day and that was served midday. Supper was much lighter and in the evening.
I say both.
I have recently moved to an area of Northern Tennessee that is very country. If you talk to a store owner and he tells you that he is closed for dinner he means at noon he will close. It took me a while to get in the swing of this. My 4 year old never say lunch anymore so environment outside the the home has a huge affect on children. I am still trying to find out how far "Yonder" is and just how hurt you are when someone beats the "far" out of you.
Welcome to the country, Greg!
I think when someone beats the "far" out of you, it's actually "fire." So when you no longer have any fire left in you, your energy is pretty much spent.
Have you also noticed that everything that comes in a can is Coke?
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