Health officials in Doncaster, South Yorkshire have compiled a guide of local dialect and slang to help a group of seven Austrian doctors -- all fluent English speakers -- better understand their sometimes thickly accented patients.
"We recruited these doctors because of a shortage in Britain and though they all speak very good English they've struggled with the local dialect," health authority spokesman Ian Carpenter said Friday.
"The guide includes some terms that are quite vulgar, but the doctors have found it very useful and it's also helped them integrate into life in the area," he added.
The Austrians, among the thousands of recent overseas recruits into Britain's National Health Service, will now know that "lugholes" are ears, feeling "jiggered" means exhausted and "gipping" is vomiting.
Other terms include "doofer" for penis, "tackle" for testicles and "popped his clogs" for dead.
"We're looking to hire more doctors from Spain so the guide will be all ready to help them too," Carpenter said.
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I wonder if they could make something like that in the U.S. for older citizens in an effort to help us understand the younger set. Might do wonders for parents and their children as well.
Well, that's it for this week as I head off to the Big Apple. Will be back on these pages sometime after the 18th.
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