That’s not necessary; it’s fine RP as far as I know, yebellz was just pointing out a difference between that and GAE as regards “eraser/rubber”.
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“Yes.”
We have desks at our library that we can rent for a semester as our personal work place. I had a correspondance match with a fellow student that way, where we exchanged the paper between our places.
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I fully believe that it was @Groin’s intent to use the word “rubber” to simply mean pencil eraser. However, I think one should appreciate that the phrase “a rubber” would be interpreted very differently by most Americans. Such awareness can prevent some future embarrassment and the appearance of inappropriate suggestiveness.
In the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons, there are separate character attributes for “intelligence” and “wisdom”, which has led some to question the distinction, and whether it is redundant.
An example of intelligence is knowledge of this sort of linguistic pedantry:
However, an example of wisdom is knowing that one should still not use the word “rubber” to mean eraser with an American audience.
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As if Groins username wasn’t weird enough for the Amis.
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We discussed their username earlier in this thread. Another case of mistaken unawareness: Important Philosophical Questions + POLLS
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I think this is one of the ones most Americans know, so I think the only way they’d misinterpret it in context would be if they’re deliberately looking for an opportunity for a (mildly) dirty joke. Language does not have to be perfectly unambiguous as humans are quite adept at taking advantage of context to select from the semantic space covered by any given phrase.
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I don’t think it’s fair to put so much pressure on people to not offend natives when speaking a language that is not their native one.
Some words mean one thing in one language, another thing in another language. No language takes precedent.
I say let things be and not be too restrictive.
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I don’t think a lot Americans know that rubber means pencil eraser in British English. Even still, lacking context, I think the vastly common interpretation is not a pencil eraser.
This not about offending people. I’m not at all offended and just find it kind of funny. I’m pointing this out for the benefit of Groin and others. I advise people to not use a sentence like “hey, you got a rubber?” with Americans if you are meaning to ask for a pencil eraser. This is not about avoiding offense toward Americans, but rather to avoid an embarrassing and awkward situation for the speaker. However, in some cases, like a man saying that to a woman, it could come off as very suggestive and inappropriate.
I think a lot of people would want to be aware that what they say with one intention might be interpreted vastly differently by others.
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I have bought HB, 2B … 6B pencils with the intention of sketching every once in a while.
However, they end up doing equations and plots.
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I don’t disagree; nothing turns to something (I mean in a negative way) way too often because of a wrong word or a misunderstanding*. Whatever we know might always come in handy.
But I don’t think, for example, that a username warranties change because two languages have the same word for different things.
*It shouldn’t be, but it is what it is; better safe than sorry.
By the way, a former colleague of mine, who was originally from the UK, told me about how embarrassed he felt for using the word rubber (instead of eraser) here in the USA, and even expressed regret that he did not know earlier of the difference in slang here. Although he took it in good humor and made the joke that there needs to be American English school for those wishing to travel to the USA.
I’m not bringing this up to put pressure on others to conform their usage to US standards or to raise offense. If someone is talking to British people, then go ahead and say rubber to mean eraser. All that I’m trying to do is to let others know that they might be interpreted in a manner very different than what they intended, in front of some audiences.
Personally, I don’t care if someone even wants to intentionally call themselves with a euphemism, and a mere coincidence certainly does not automatically warrant a change. However, I pointed that out to Groin in order to make them aware of how many might misinterpret their name. Groin seemed to be appreciative of being made aware of that and later expressed that they would personally wish to change it (but have to wait given the 30 day limit) now that they know how it might be misinterpreted.
I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad about how they use the language. I’m just trying to provide some helpful information about how that language might be interpreted by others in a very different way than originally intended.
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Fun story: I think I’ve mentioned before here that I used to do subtitles for Asian dramas in a well-known, volunteer-dependent site.
One of the translators had written “X fingered Y” and it became a very, very heated debate because it means “inform on someone to the police” and also means “a certain action” (I don’t remember which one is the American and which the British version). The meaning in the drama was that X indicated Y was guilty of something.
It was a HUGE fight, because people on either side kept editing it back and forth, until I think chief editor kept the original translation and locked the subtitle.
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The British understanding is the latter.
To convey the sentiment in colloquial British English, one would say snitched on or grassed on.
Similarly, an informer is a snitch or grass; a prolific informer, in policing context, can be called a supergrass. cf. the band Supergrass.
In more formal English, informed on or implicated gets the meaning across on both sides of the Atlantic.
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As is the American understanding. This is where Translator’s Notes shine, in my opinion. 
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Although I’m in no way a professional, translating subtitles is a bit unique in difficulty, because you have to keep the original meaning, sentiment and feel of the scene and the characters (and of a completely different culture) but at the same time make sure the meaning comes across in an understandable and relatable way, for as a wide audience as possible.
And also keep things uniform across as many as 50 episodes and a dozen team members, sometimes.
A few were actual professionals (and shaped the rules and stuff for everyone), and I dare say we had higher standards than most subtitles I see, even when I watch TV or go to the movies.
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Time pass and I will more and more regret to have to change my avatar… There is still a dilemma in my head because I really enjoy his french meaning, but on the other side it makes trouble in a population of players which get it with a different meaning.
Alala, c’est la vie.
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I like it. 
Maybe because my brain happened to land on the French meaning fast enough.
I don’t think it’s really that offensive or problematic, anyway, and it could be a nice learning moment as well.
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I’ve never read it with the English meaning either even though I don’t know that word in any other language; not sure why. I’m also mentally mispronouncing it as /gɹo in/, which is different (no vowel blend and two syllables) than the English word, but also different than how I assume French would pronounce it, so I don’t know.
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I’m not necessarily recommending that you change your name, but rather just wanted to make you aware how some people might interpret it. I don’t think anyone will be offended by it, but some will immediately think of the common English euphemistic meaning and not be aware of the French meaning. Whether or not you are okay with that is all that matters.
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Is soup a drink?
- yes
- no
0 voters
400th post in this thread!