The chef's blog

When a ding dong isn't the sound a bell makes

So there I was sitting at my desk when the innocent question of what a 'ding dong' was, garnered massive reaction within the office. Unfortunately, it happened to be the guys that knew and the girls that didn't. Whilst standing my ground (risky at the best of times) that it wasn't a real word, I was secretly tapping away at my computer to see if I could back up my argument using the the Oxford English Dictionnary. My hopes were dashed when I found that the guys were right, a ding dong isn't simply the noise that a bell makes but a fight. Is this a boy/girl thing or a cultural thing? It got me thinking. Even if one does speak a language fluently and understand all the words that the other person is using, there is always room for misunderstanding. Some Germanic languages for example, can seem very aggressive and harsh to an Englishman. Even when that person is speaking in English we judge their tone without always really understanding that it is not necessarily their intention to sound aggressive or impatient but the words that they are using and even their tone can be a direct translation of how they would speak their mother tongue. I think that's probably worth remembering if you are going to avoid a ding dong.