 Welcome to rational English. This is going to be a very different kind of show today, and I'm joined at the table by Sarah Rosinski Sarah welcome to the table. Thank you so much We're going to talk about your book Talk about the English language, but first let's start off in Boston Okay, okay, because I know you know Boston well, and I used to live just up the road from Boston So you were doing stand-up comedy. I did I did what an earth god Honestly no one's ever asked me that the answer is this I Came up with an idea when I was in college That I thought would enable me to travel. I thought I if I did stand-up comedy I could be a stand-up comedian on cruise ships, and I could That would be a way I could travel so that's where the idea came from and actually it's not a bad idea To be honest with you although from what I understand doing stand-up comedy on cruise ships is a terrible thing to do well Yeah, you've got to have seven eight fourteen different shows There's that and then you're also trapped with your audience. That's correct. You cannot escape them Anyway, so then I began doing open mic nights I was in Boston and there were a lot of opportunities to get stage time So I did it as much as I could to a compulsive degree. Do you think you were fairly successful very successful? Here did you make people laugh? Oh, I did. They did yes And I no one ever threw anything at me. I was never booed off stage So I think actually I was pretty successful most excellent. Yes, but I it was never my primary source of income And you enjoyed it. Yes, and I recommend it. It's it was a terrific Opportunity you there's I just loved it, but I've got one funny little story I used to live in Huntsville, Alabama Which is why our producer always says I come from Alabama And they have a comedy store there and I was on a trip over here And they all took me up to the comedy store to watch a comedian and the comedian made the biggest mistake He ever could make He picked on me. Oh dear. Oops. I got more laughs than he did So what made you leave Boston because Boston is such a beautiful city. It's a wonderful city It has wonderful food. It has wonderful culture It has incredible winters as you know as I know I Won't go on and on about this there were a few considerations, but but there was a very bad winter that Propelled my husband and me and our young daughter to head south to Florida. Oh, okay, so Okay, so you went from the sublime to the ridiculous. We did. Absolutely. We did How did you find Florida? I don't say you just stayed on the same hybrid. Oh, it's about Gosh my response to that is a complex one. There's no place like Florida would be my answer Especially today It is it is sui generis one of a kind so you you went down to Florida Mm-hmm, and then all of a sudden here you are in Colorado. Yes What made that move? Well, it's related to what you were just asking. How did I find Florida? My husband found Florida to be worth leaving A bit like a bit like myself in Alabama I don't you know no offense to any Floridian viewers, but anyway essentially one summer when we were living in Florida and Florida was Sweltering miserable for more reasons than I can list here. He went he came to Colorado for a visit and absolutely fell in love and Essentially said I'm moving to Colorado. I hope you'll come So And so we packed up and yes, and here you are yes, and you live here in town, don't you in Longmont? Yes? Yes? Well, welcome Now you've done the comedy thing and all of a sudden I'm looking at a book with a title Using a word. I does that word actually say that word again Unflubber fi. Okay, and if I put that into Google, what does it tell me it means? It says buy this book. No Yes, I this is what you call it neologism. I guess I made made it up Because every other title of a book similar to this has been taken. Okay, and what does the book go into? What is it about? Yes, English is filled as you know with Confusables words that have completely different meanings same spellings Similar they sound the same. They're spelled differently. It's impossibly difficult. There's so many pitfalls, right? Yeah, so This is filled with little mnemonic lessons that are fun to read and memorable That will help people Avoid those easy to make mistakes. Okay, and of course that's more aimed at people that are learning English Or do you think it's even for English speakers? Oh, no, it's for all of us. Okay, even for me I still use this book. Okay. Yeah, what I say English speakers. I do mean outside of the UK Because as far as I am concerned you guys speak American. You do not Anyway, well, we'll talk about that at another time So this is to help people understand the way the language is built it's Not so much. This is a group of Problematic situations that we have all probably encountered the word Compliment with a pair of ease in the middle versus compliment with an eye, you know, yes, if you're talking about a complimentary Yes gift or something or making a compliment making a compliment It's going to be spelled differently than a salt and pepper shaker that compliment one another at least a spell differently They're spelled differently, right. So anyway There are many things there there are words in here that people say I didn't even know there was a different spelling You know for go can be spelled two different ways Yes, and a lot of people don't even know that so all of that that's kind of interesting and of course sometimes You never know whether it's one word or you should break it into two words Things keep changing all the time Yes, oh And that's that's an important point this book will not probably be any good in you know Ten years because things will have changed they change all the time that is the nature of our language Well, that's the thing. That's the good thing about English. It's a living language. Yep Have you ever looked into why spelling got changed when the language came across the pond? Well, I mean to your point To what we were just saying It keeps changing so when when groups of people Diverge and then they're talking to one another and using the language in their circles It's going to change to reflect their use, right? So I Guess that's my answer to the question I know that Webster tried to simplify English And so I think that's why we have color with only the oh our instead of the oh, you are Center Right he was trying to make it make sense and that's Generally proven to be impossible. Yes Yeah, good intentions. Yeah, the reason I asked was I always smiled up in New Hampshire or New England in fact because you see a Place name Except the spelling had changed from the original in the UK and I always found that funny Okay, you're on a boat for five weeks and you forgot to spell the town that you came from great and pronounce it In New England, there's so many kind of British, you know Worcester, Massachusetts. Yeah, how do you say that over Worcester? Oh, same thing. Okay. What's the where I get upset is is say Hampshire? Notice notice I said sure at the end. Mm-hmm in the UK. We pronounce it sure. So it's ham sure, okay Dorset sure not Shire. Mm-hmm. It's a Shire horse Okay, but that's not how we say our count is. Oh boy. Yeah gets confusing. No, it does Yeah, the funny thing is when you when you grow up, you don't really think about this You just learn it right, but I've heard that English is probably one of the hardest languages to learn I would think it would be very hard to learn or at least very hard to write Correctly, it may be just communicating getting your point across you can probably do pretty well But if you're trying to not make mistakes, right, you're really difficult How many times are you picked up something that says made in China? You turned it over to read the directions and end up on the floor laughing Wonderful some of them are absolutely incredible. There are Twitter accounts that will keep you in stitches. Yes, and You look at it and you go Have they never heard of a proofreader? Maybe they have a proofreader who's not very good Obviously Could be I mean it's amazing. It really is What are some of the biggest quirks that you think you found in the English language? Oh golly every day It's a new one. I yesterday. I think it was I was Sharing the lesson about the word segue. Okay spelled SEGUE isn't that painful that is painful. Yes, so speaking of comedy, right? You talk about having a segue from one joke Yes, another S E GUE I think yeah, I'm spelling that right league One so, you know tongue and then what is this segue thing? So I just I think that one's really dastardly Yeah, that makes no sense at all sense. There is there is no you can't say I know why Because no, no, and then there's the thing that you ride called a segue and that's spelled. Yes the way you think it should be spelled and So anyway, there's a lot of confusion around that. There is any other interesting words. Oh any other interesting? Oh, there's so many Go on and cheat I've tried to think what I Think discreet and discreet are kind of devilish And you know in the book I talk about the T that comes between the two E's that keeps them discreet from one another But yeah, anyway Did you ask me about like favorite words or colorful words or difficult words? What kind of word go for one of those three? Um, oh Difficult difficult word difficult word. Well, maybe look at those bookmarks. There's some really oh these bookmarks are absolutely Wonderful, I love the way and and they're readable. Oh, super. They are so clever Oh super well anyway, they really are look and learn, but it's all done with writing words It's just really incredibly clever, but they're all pretty difficult and I like some of the word groupings And we talked about that before we started. I'm still trying to work out what a syphilis pavilion is And the reason those words are there and why you just said that was because syphilis is difficult to spell and pavilion I think is a little counterintuitive to spell. Yeah, but speaking of pavilion I like the way parallel has those two L's in the middle that are parallel to yes, so that one I appreciate Yeah, some of the words on here. You don't think like a Changeable I wonder how many people forget to put the E in sometimes you do drop the E So still check might be of service and it might choose to Let you spell check is actually my savior. It can be is definitely my say I never trust it I don't trust computers completely right because it's humans that wrote the software So I'm gonna trust very little but it is helpful as long as I get close. Yeah Because if I'm warm if I'm in the right room as the word then people forgive me Yep, yep, but spelling has always been my downfall always. I've never been able to spell properly now since moving to America I've got closer But yeah, some of the English spelling is terrible and of course a lot of it is is because of the genesis of where the words come from Mm-hmm. There are so many French words in the English language German words in the English language. I Mean, it's quite amazing when you see actually how the English language is built up of all of these other languages And when you go back in time and see where all the languages came from and they all sort of end up Right at one common point. Yep, which is which is incredible to me, right? And we call it borrowing we say we borrowed. Yes, we kept it It's not really a borrow. Yeah, no when it comes to the French we just take it How did you get on over in London? I had a great time. I had a wonderful time I Lived with a bunch of other people. I hadn't met before and nice. Yeah I was around Queensway and Baywater. Oh Baywater. Yeah, Bay's water base water. That's right I thought I might have that wrong for a few years, but yeah, I had a really good time Did you ever end up in the East End of London and and then talk about rhyming slang? I did not but we Yeah, I'm a fan of that too. I haven't ever heard people use it. Yeah for real. Yeah, you should explain it You should explain rhyming right rhyming slang East End of London It all came around because they wanted to form an English language that no one else could understand So basically for instance a dicky dirt. I got a nice dicky dirt on shirt whistle and flute Suit apples and pears Stairs That's rhyming slang And when you talk to someone from the East End of London that really understands this. Oh my goodness You're gonna end up on the floor laughing your head off Because it's almost impossible to follow but somehow The brain if you understand how it's constructed will actually put it together It is really remarkable. It's very clever. It really is was it originally to deceive the police. Yes That's what it was originally there for Well, yeah, I took a monkey Well, a monkey happens to be a hundred quid hundred pounds. Oh, sorry quid. That's so English. That's English slang for a pound, okay? Slang let's talk about slang England is full the United Kingdom is full of slang yet. I hear Not so much slang over here. Oh, I think am I right or am I wrong? I think there's a whole lot of it that we don't even think about right. I Think there's quite a bit. Oh, really? I do. Yeah, I and I I'm not sure Where I would delineate I don't pay really it. I don't pay attention to this is slang This is not slang, but yeah, I think it's are you on are you on Twitter or anything like that? I'm on Twitter, but I very seldom use it. Okay. Well, but anyway, there's There's some slang out there. Oh, okay, you know about the website Urban Dictionary. Oh, yes. Okay. Oh, yes Okay, so there's some slang I mean some of the words that the kids use nowadays I have to go to the Urban Dictionary to find out what do they actually live on this planet and then I have to warn Everyone about Urban Dictionary that it's created by users and it can It can Sometimes people come up with much filthier definitions that are I don't know really needed and you you have to You have to approach Urban Dictionary with a little bit a little bit But yeah, you know as long as you as long as you know that mm-hmm. It can then be very useful Oh, it can save you it can save you. I for sure. I can think of some terrible Situations I mean back in the 60s in the UK. It was easy. There's that swinging or that dodgy. Oh So you could you can cover any situation swinging dodgy And that was all started by a comedian Really? I'm trying to desperately remember. I think it was Bruce Forsythe Oh, and if someone's watching this and I'm wrong Right to me. Let me know But I think it was him back in the 60s and uh, will you define dodgy because I heard that used a lot in London. I did can you I'm sorry Sum it up not good. Okay failure Again, it depends on context Because you know like the English language one word could mean many things right dodgy is one of those words I always thought I think of dodgy is almost like you can't trust a situation like watch it Like things are kind of dodgy there not really on the up and up and that really is using the word in its correct Context, okay, but you can literally use it anywhere and of course it all came from the Roman Empires Oh Oh off with it. Oh, wow Yes And I think two thumbs be careful with those thumbs when you travel right like I bet thumbs Well, I bet these things mean different things in different countries That means V for victory. Okay. That means something entirely different. Okay, so I'm just gonna keep my hands down I mean no harm and and the funny thing is with that Churchill wanted to use the V for victory except he thought it was that way around It really is I hate to use the word commoner But we're going back to the 40s now. Well 39 in fact So all the troops and all the rest of it were in the desert In uh, I can't I think it was uh, Morocco, but I'm not sure And he basically did that to 20 000 British troops Yes, the second word is off. Okay. I'll let you work out what the first word is kind of figured Oh, no, and do you that do you know where that came from? Well, I can sort of imagine but tell me The English beating up the French Longbowsmen back in the 1415 centuries they had to practice literally from birth Because they had to build up their shoulder muscles So they could draw the string back draw the bow back because it was that damn hard because you're talking of arrows That went up to a great height and then came down on the troops over there So it was no good firing it that way They had to do the arc method So if an English long bowsman got captured those are the two fingers the French cut off Oh, no. Oh, yes, because they could no longer draw a bow That's where that's where it all started from I can't decide if that's a little compassionate that they left the other fingers. Well, who knows Huh, yeah, I didn't know that And what and what happened was was that when the Brits met the French again in another battle Probably Agincourt all the British soldiers are doing that to the French It's like it's true and not apocryphal. I don't know. Okay. I'd have I'd like to believe it's true because it's just Wonderful, yeah, if you look up for instance, so well, we we talked about the word before off If you look up, where did that word come from? Did it really come from papers given to sex offenders for unlawful carnal knowledge? I don't believe so You know, there's a bit of a debate about that. There's a whole at least a whole book about about just about that word Yeah So, you know, it is kind of interesting that, you know, sometimes the origins you want the origin to be true Yeah, but it may not be it may be something very mundane. Yes. There's a good word Monday and see they're French Mund world, you know, yeah, so yeah Before we close down, is there anything you want to say about your book? Where can people buy it? Do you have a website? Lot of yeses This book is available at unflobify.com That website is connected with my website, which is shiny red copy.com. Um, what does it cost? $12 and 99 cents. Good deal. I think so because you you obviously have put a lot of research into this I've I've done some work. I will say that. Oh, it's also actually available at Mico coffee company in town and Possibly at bricks still, but I'm not sure. Okay. Yeah. Good. What about the bookmarks because those are incredible If people are interested in these they can contact me and I will hook you up any final words before we uh Oh, I would just say that English is fascinating. It's difficult, but it's it's uh, Wonderful and rich and I would just encourage people if you if you wonder about a word Look it up. Look up its history Look, find out how long it's been around and how it's used and there's just it's so Interesting. I love it. Excellent. Thank you so much for coming into the captain's lounge to talk about unflobify I think I just love that word. I'm going to use that word over and over again I need to get going because I have to go and put on a new dicky dirt find my whistle and flute And uh, I'm going to go up the old apples and pears to see, you know, who knows I'm Nigel abes your host. This is the captain's lounge studios. Thank you so much for watching. Goodbye