Dear Selma, When I was a rookie teacher, I was teaching about combustion. So I asked the class to name some combustible substances. All went well till a hefty boy in the class stands up and 'sotto voce' says, "bull shit!" so shocked and incredulous, I said, "What?" and he repeated, "bull shit!" with even more conviction. An ugly confrontation was saved by the proverbial bell.
I was quite upset and I related the story to one of my colleagues who laughingly told me that the boy was right and was probably refering to the cowdung cakes that are used in villages as fuel! There are many konkani phrases which make quaint expressions when literally rendered into English. For example "stitching the house" = *Ghor xiutam* "house is coming to eat" = ^Ghor khaunk ieta* Perhaps we could strt a thread on this one? -- тσηу Tony de Sa Ph: +91 832 2470 148 M: +91 9975162897 E: tonydesa at gmail dot com ------------------------------------------------ I AM NOT STUPID. I JUST NEED LEARNING
