Help! Translate my UK English

Oh Lordy, what a pain in the arse (ass).

It seems to me you can write Atlantic-neutral prose up to a point, but when push comes to shove, you may just have to make a decision.

If you have a UK publisher, **** the Yanks and just go with UK English. If the Americans can't understand you, you've probably screwed up on the context. Do you have a problem with US English? I never have. I just look it up. They can look up holiday village if they don't get it.

Get the rest of the story sorted and this will fall out in the wash.
 
Springs: I love the new avatar!

I agree with Mouse's advice. Give it a go.

Now to a midwesterner,

Camp=a place to pitch a tent.
Resort=a series of small independent living cabins, usually by a lake. But can also mean a swanky up scale version of this.
RV Park=a place to park travel trailers, sometimes with mega amenities.
Lodge= a gather place for the first kind of resort. Or a woodsy hotel.
Holiday village= a place where you can buy Christmas ornaments in July or any other month and see fake or real snow.

Springs said: They are villages set in woodland, with lodges through the forest (self catering) and central facilities like swimming pools, restaurants, activities.
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We have such things but so far as I know they are only known by context. The local one in my area is called "Cutty's Okoboji Resort Club." But this one is by a lake and is much more tightly packed with rooms than I would imagine Spring's to be.
 
Parson said:
Camp=a place to pitch a tent.
Resort=a series of small independent living cabins, usually by a lake. But can also mean a swanky up scale version of this.
RV Park=a place to park travel trailers, sometimes with mega amenities.
Lodge= a gather place for the first kind of resort. Or a woodsy hotel.
Holiday village= a place where you can buy Christmas ornaments in July or any other month and see fake or real snow.
Click to expand...

This is exactly the same as my interpretations of the terms from my U.S. upbringing.
 
here a place like that would be known by its place name.
(the closest corresponding idea in the UK is the way you guys name houses and use the house designation as an address) (ie. crystal lake, pine woods, tews falls, blue mountain, turkey point, "disneyland" :))
we have parks and conservation areas, but they are not as commercialized. there are safari's. where there are zoo like places full of roaming animals surrounded by commercial areas and camp grounds and cottages. they are private.
cottage country resort. where people can buy or rent a small cabin.
as grimward and hope have said, there is usually some sort of central attraction. a lake, an ocean, a forest, a fair or amusement park, an artificial water recreation area, a golf course, a spa, a religious center (not as common, though) or as i have said, a zoo. sometimes they are tied in with a central facility's activity. a racing track or rock climbing/zip-lining, ski resort , boating or fishing, hunting, horse riding, fantasy baseball/football/basketball camp. or there are 'ranches'. these are sometimes called a dude ranch.
pioneer villages, are historical re-enaction places. there are 'forts'. which can be historical or a lodge type deal.
there are whole areas that are like you have said that are known by their place name again, as a destination designation. (muskoka, aspen, lake tahoe, the poconos, marthas vineyard, cape cod, whistler, key west, palm springs, catalina island, daytona beach )
they had a place like the one you are describing in the movie 'dirty dancing'.
 
Reading through this, thinking of Tiswas in the 70's, with Lenny Henry doing his impressions of David Bellamy "Wuwal Wetreats"
 
Swimming, mini-golf, fencing... Along with nature trails and lush cabins... Sun Vally, Sunriver, are the two off the top of my head. Both places where every day people can go, but more often it's rich celebrities looking to enjoy outdoors without relinquishing too many of the comforts they're used to.


My dad has a cousin in Idaho who's ranch does horseback tours, and he has an authentic old timey handlebar mustache. Louie LaMar western experience. Come to think of it, his son who is about my age has probably inherited the third generation business by now. Or they're running it together...
 
I'd go with something like "resort community" or "resort campground."
 
Ray McCarthy said:
Mark Twain wasn't translated for UK.
Every reader may find something new in a book even if they are from the same country.
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I chuckled after reading this post. I once wrote:


Margaret and Nancy washed and put away the dishes from tea and then looked through some new library books that Nana had brought home. As the older ladies started on the evening meal, Nancy read one of the book covers and asked Margaret, “What is this The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn about?”

Margaret explained, “It is the story of an American boy and a trip he takes along the Mississippi River.”

Nancy thumbed through the book and read a bit of the dialogue here and there. She glanced back at the cover and reassured herself that the book was indeed written in English.
 
Random odd question: over the last few months, I've noticed "males" and "females" being used in place of "men" and "women" (with, as far as I can tell, exactly the same meaning). It looks rather strange and stilted to me. Is this an Americanism?
 
Toby Frost said:
Random odd question: over the last few months, I've noticed "males" and "females" being used in place of "men" and "women" (with, as far as I can tell, exactly the same meaning). It looks rather strange and stilted to me. Is this an Americanism?
Click to expand...

Were children involved? Then I suppose technically males and females would be a better description.
 
No, everyone was an adult. It just seems like an odd way of expressing it, as if you were going to call them male and female humans.

EDIT: a quick search shows that this is a Social Justice matter so I am going to back away quietly. It does sound weird, though, and from what I can tell it isn't the done thing, at least to say"females". I still don't know if it's a regional thing, though. I've never heard it in normal speech in the UK.
 
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Toby Frost said:
No, everyone was an adult. It just seems like an odd way of expressing it, as if you were going to call them male and female humans.

EDIT: a quick search shows that this is a Social Justice matter so I am going to back away quietly. It does sound weird, though, and from what I can tell it isn't the done thing, at least to say"females". I still don't know if it's a regional thing, though. I've never heard it in normal speech in the UK.
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Bit late to the table on this one.
Although this is a social justice matter, it is more a case of which defines better.
In a many world or alien fantasy/Scifi's, female and male are helpful terms where man and woman are less so. It can help to define aliens as breeding pairs or allow us to identify with them where the writer wishes. Man is not a medical term, whereas male is.
I think if both are appropriate at different times and sometimes together.

Example:
'I looked in on my mother yesterday and there was a strange man waiting in our entrance hall, He had a female representative from the New World Corporation with him'. I don't think they noticed me.

I think this thread actually raises so many interesting questions and can lead to very interesting idea's.
 
Of course, "male" and "female" are no less words used by (some) humans than are "man" and woman". And thus:
  1. one could argue that the aliens' own words should be used, particularly if
  2. there are substantial differences between what boy/man/male means compared to the "equivalent" alien word(s) and between what girl/woman/female means compared to the "equivalent" alien word(s); this may be more than simply a cultural issue, but one of biology.
 
Ursa major said:
Of course, "male" and "female" are no less words used by (some) humans than are "man" and woman". And thus:
  1. one could argue that the aliens' own words should be used, particularly if
  2. there are substantial differences between what boy/man/male means compared to the "equivalent" alien word(s) and between what girl/woman/female means compared to the "equivalent" alien word(s); this may be more than simply a cultural issue, but one of biology.
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Agreed.
Although it could seem irrelevant and almost weird to integrate this human need to ident into a story, in context it opens up communication between species on a very PC level and in turn, as such, could be used to insult. Because we know that both humans and Aliens can be proper rude.
'Take that to the Klingon washroom boy!!'
ha!
 
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