tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post3686045624289070605..comments2024-03-16T00:21:43.240+00:00Comments on Separated by a Common Language: washing up and doing the dishes (and digressions on showers, baths, kettles, and coffee)lynneguisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-60239070077849432942021-06-16T20:45:00.374+01:002021-06-16T20:45:00.374+01:00Voltage = Potential to do work.
Current = Amount o...Voltage = Potential to do work.<br />Current = Amount of electricity.<br /><br />Being in the states, I can vouch for the kettle taking longer to boil with 110v than with 220v. The same goes for point of use flash water heaters. We use cisterns, or water tanks for hot water and call them, ironically enough, HOT water heaters. They're water heaters, folks. Why heat hot water?<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-48654325907640516322019-05-18T17:22:02.389+01:002019-05-18T17:22:02.389+01:00BrE, Scot, mid 60s. Growing up, I always spoke abo...BrE, Scot, mid 60s. Growing up, I always spoke about doing the dishes. We used “Fairy liquid”, or just “Fairy”, for washing-up liquid ( in the same sense as Hoover for vacuum cleaner). However, this might just be a family thing.<br /><br />These days, we use antibacterial washing-up liquid, although it’s my understanding that any detergent concentrated enough to remove grease will kill bugs.<br /><br />I rather envy the commenter who has a big enough sink to take a dishpan and leave enough room for rinsing. Our washing-up bowl only just fits the sink. And our single draining board is not quite large enough to let me drain all of the dishes at one time. To wash and rinse would involve several changes of water to do everything. Lynne has mentioned the relative small size of British houses (and everything in them) several times.Shy-replyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01891566073375322808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-26175543664905287242015-04-23T11:39:09.354+01:002015-04-23T11:39:09.354+01:00Thinking about the cheapness of hot water in Sovie...Thinking about the cheapness of hot water in Soviet Russia has reminded me how we used to think in Britain — and still do in some measure.<br /><br />Cold water was free. Well, it wasn't really, but the only charge to the public was hidden within the <b>rates</b> (property tax) bill, which was only paid by people who owned their own homes. (In theory, tenants paid a rates element within the rent they paid their landlords, but that was even more deeply hidden.) In any case the charge was totally unrelated to actual consumption of water. We could and did use as much as we liked.<br /><br />[A propos, it was the urge to get rid of this scheme for paying property and water tax which was the undoing of Margaret Thatcher.]<br /><br />Hot water wan't free. You had to pay for the electricity or gas that you consumed to heat it. The more you consumed, the more you paid. Not like cold water at all.<br /><br />So it actually cost you to rinse dishes in hot water. And most of the year it wasn't much fun rinsing them in cold water.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-31914796849099481282015-04-22T23:39:52.649+01:002015-04-22T23:39:52.649+01:00A long way east of Britain but still in Europe I u...A long way east of Britain but still in Europe I used to work among the Russians, and then I married one. Yes they used to rinse their dishes after washing them, but then so did we in Britain when I was a small boy.<br /><br />What 1970's Russia and early 1950's Britain had in common was the absence of washing-up liquid. We used household soap in both countries. In Britain we also used powdered detergent. But when washing-up liquid appeared on the market, housewives bought it <b><i>because</i></b> it removed the need for rinsing. Everybody knew that — on what grounds I really can't say.<br /><br />Russia is the land of the language with one word for both <i>kettle</i> and <i>teapot</i>. The word is <i>chainik</i> composed of the word for 'tea' and the suffix we all know from <i>sputnik</i>. The association between tea and what a kettle does is so strong that the word <i>chai</i> 'tea' can also refer to hot water (when diluting strong tea, that is).<br /><br />This may seem a big digression, but my wife tells me that the family of one of our friends put the kettle on before rinsing the dishes. Yes there was cheap and plentiful hot water in the taps but this family (and no doubt other Russian families) were convinced that hot-tap-water was poisonous.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-19178470745095400952015-04-22T09:38:19.519+01:002015-04-22T09:38:19.519+01:00People east -perhaps well east - of Britain ... in...People east -perhaps well east - of Britain ... in multitudinous numbers ... rinse their dishes under running water. Anything less than that is, in their eyes, not clean. J.M. Australia<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-85339836064397048652011-01-11T14:39:24.437+00:002011-01-11T14:39:24.437+00:00Erm - earlier, I think (2007 as opposed to 2010!)....Erm - earlier, I think (2007 as opposed to 2010!). But still interesting.Mrs Redboots (Annabel Smyth)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11270027663691257254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-55362550913831073612011-01-11T12:46:23.153+00:002011-01-11T12:46:23.153+00:00Hi Mrs Redboots--
There's another (later) pos...Hi Mrs Redboots--<br /><br />There's <a href="http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2007/05/dishpan-hands.html" rel="nofollow">another (later) post about dishpan/washing-up bowl</a>, if you're interested...lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-40196775626269906772011-01-11T11:29:30.470+00:002011-01-11T11:29:30.470+00:00Glad someone resurrected this post, as I was going...Glad someone resurrected this post, as I was going to have to trawl back through the archives to look for it! I (re-)discovered another difference in vocabulary as far as washing one's dishes by hand is concerned - in the UK, this will often be done in a washing-up bowl; the equivalent in the US is, I understand, a dishpan.Mrs Redboots (Annabel Smyth)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11270027663691257254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-43356167186473164422011-01-10T22:47:40.999+00:002011-01-10T22:47:40.999+00:00Very interesting to learn the differences between ...Very interesting to learn the differences between cultures/locations. <br />I am Canadian (CaE) and I am aged 23. I am from Eastern Canada (Prince Edward Island) but live in Ontario now. <br />Growing up we mainly used "washing up". I still do. We call it dish liquid, dishwashing liquid, or dish soap. I have a single sink so I do the washing up without filling the sink. I turn on the tap when I pre-rinse and then I wash and then I rinse it clean. I place the dish on the drying rack to air dry. My mother didn't normally rinse after washing and usually used a dish towel to dry them. <br />At my father's, we had a dishwasher but occassionally had to do the washing up. <br />We say washing machine for the laundry. My father and mother use laundry powder. I use laundry liquid. <br />I never used the shower until my mid-teens. I always used the bath. On occasion I use the bath but normally shower. I purchased a detachable shower head instead of having it fixes to the wall. <br />As for tea and coffee, I don't drink coffee. I find it revolting. My parents do. My father bought a coffee maker a long time ago and hated it. Both parents boil the water in the electric kettle and use the coffee from the jar and add coffee whitener. We use to have a kettle with the whistle that we would put on the electric stove. I have an electric kettle with the separate base. I prepare my tea in a variety of ways. I don't like tea bags but sometimes that's all there is if at a friend's place. I sometimes boil the water and put the loose tea directly into my cup. Or I use a teapot with the loose tea. Today, oddly enough, is the first time I've put the tea into a diffuser. It didn't make a difference. My step-mother is from Uzbekistan and she does an odd thing where she boils the water and pours it into the teapot with the loose tea. Then she pours some tea straight away into a teacup and then pours that poured tea back into the teapot. She repeats this about three times. She says it makes the tea taste better. I haven't decided if that's true.<br /> I haven't a clue what my neighbours do for any of the above. Electric kettles are a life staple in Canada. My best friend uses the bath all the time. She rinses I believe. <br />That's what it's like in Canada. :)Daniel Pnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-26189374387514636362010-12-31T18:48:22.172+00:002010-12-31T18:48:22.172+00:00Only because no one else mentioned it: in US, back...Only because no one else mentioned it: in US, back in the 60s when we had home ec in high school, we were taught to scrape food off dishes, wash in hot soapy water, rinse with hottest water possible, then allow handwashed dishes to air dry. Drying with (even a clean) towel was discouraged as it's likely to reintroduce germs and debris you've just removed by rinsing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-21306506595911376462010-04-10T14:25:25.886+01:002010-04-10T14:25:25.886+01:00@Anonymous from North Texas: Don't worry, the ...@Anonymous from North Texas: Don't worry, the gunk inside the kettle will only have been limescale precipitated out - south London's water is fairly hard, although not nearly as hard as I'm sure Lynneguist suffers with on the South Coast, where you can practically cut it with a knife. It is non-toxic; the only trouble is that it can, over time, interfere with the kettle's function, so most people get rid of it with white vinegar or a proprietary limescale remover.Mrs Redboots (Annabel Smyth)https://www.blogger.com/profile/11270027663691257254noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-88892255925233677452010-04-10T03:37:37.370+01:002010-04-10T03:37:37.370+01:00I just found this marvelous blog. I'm a nativ...I just found this marvelous blog. I'm a native north Texan, no GWB comments - I vote Democratic...anyways, we always "washed up" for dinner and supper. I do my dishes by hand washing, rinsing, then putting them in the dishwasher. Wasteful yes, clean, definitely. Whilst (nod to the Brits) staying with a SE1 Londoner, I "did" his dishes...took me forever to properly wash them, rinse them, and put them to dry on the rack. Of course there was no coffee maker, and all he had was some sort of very sugary instant coffee, so I drank tea, who knew it tasted good hot? I thought it was supposed to be cold over ice! I ventured a look into the kettle while filling it, there was some "funk" in there...I don't think he cleaned it often. I still drank the tea, heck, the water had been heated to 212, or 100 depending...<br /><br />There was no shower, but there was some sort of contraption that fit over the two bath spigots - hot and cold, you adjusted it and kind of had a shower, except there was no shower curtain and the hose was short - it was an experience.<br /><br />Okay, I've rambled like a country road - looking forward to reading more of this blog. Y'all take care!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-71586983987966062272010-04-08T07:31:58.442+01:002010-04-08T07:31:58.442+01:00Ah, a thread in which not-entirely-linguistic cult...Ah, a thread in which not-entirely-linguistic cultural comparisons are totally kosher--what a treat!<br /><br />Anyway, my own insignificant data-points as a US resident:<br /><br />We do own an electric kettle, which was purchased maybe 2 years ago, and although we drink a lot of tea in my house, the kettle hasn't seen the outside of the cupboard in almost as much time. When I make my morning cup, I just fill a mug with water, toss it in the (ordinary cooking) pot which lives on the stove for making hot water alone, heat the water sufficiently, and pour it into an amazing contraption with a mesh and pressure plate at the bottom for steeping and straining loose-leaf tea. On the other hand, if I want coffee I microwave a mug of water and add instant coffee crystals (I think that's probably sacrilege, but we're not big fans of the bean). We stopped using the electric kettle because we couldn't see what was going on inside--<i>I know</i>, it's just heating water!--and someone may have accidentally left it on a few times when leaving the house... good thing I was home to catch it.<br /><br />Dishes: "Doing the dishes" has more precisely meant loading the dishwasher for at least 90% of my life. When I lived in a dishwasher-less apartment (which I did not realize was lacking in this department until after I moved in), I maintained strict rinse-after-washing and allow-everything-to-air-dry policies, resulting in rather artistic mineral deposits on the countertop from hardcore hard water.<br />I was a bit surprised to learn, upon helping out some friends with the dishes at their house, that at least one of them didn't rinse after washing and most considered towel-drying standard practice. But I will admit to being a little germ-phobic and refuse to use handtowels at anyone else's house (and barely in my own).<br /><br />Foreign supermarkets: I would probably get lost for days in one, given the chance, as I tend to marvel at even the jarred pickles and jams and tinned fish and so on with any text I cannot read in an American store.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-78172033959679518452010-04-07T20:58:49.363+01:002010-04-07T20:58:49.363+01:00@Mrs Redboots, freshly laundered towels are not ha...@Mrs Redboots, freshly laundered towels are not harsh and scratchy if they have been dried in an electric clothes dryer. It's the ones that are line-dried that are scratchy the first time you use them.<br /><br />When I was growing up in North Carolina (1950s), we had a bathtub, but no shower. And we threw the towels into the clothes hamper to be washed after using them just one time. However, we didn't get a bath every day, the way we get a daily shower now.Ken Broadhursthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04430899802705818716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-40676378425557655252010-04-07T16:49:00.913+01:002010-04-07T16:49:00.913+01:00Wow, how is it I never knew this after 19 years in...Wow, how is it I never knew this after 19 years in the US? According to Wikipedia, a kettle can also be called a pot, but a teapot is something else. Haven't used one of those since back in Russia (tea bags were considered a second class item there). Further muddying things, a teapot is a type of kettle in Russian. Maybe that's where the confusion is coming from.Boris Zakharinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560756640621720539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-10229807133527481912010-04-03T09:18:12.011+01:002010-04-03T09:18:12.011+01:00Coming from Serbia, I must say that I find the ide...Coming from Serbia, I must say that I find the idea of not rinsing the dishes unusual and somewhat unsettling. Though when I visited some English cousins of mine in London, they seemed to use the same dish-washing procedure I was used to.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-15587939022053166842010-04-03T01:34:18.451+01:002010-04-03T01:34:18.451+01:00Boris: A teapot is not a kettle at all. A kettle (...Boris: A teapot is not a kettle at all. A kettle (or teakettle) is something you boil water in, whether electric or not. As discussed above, many American households do not have them, since we have electric coffeemakers or sometimes stove-top "coffee pots".<br /><br />The word "pot" has two distinct meanings. One is a relatively deep cooking utensil that can take heat. Think of something you might make soup in. In this sense, a kettle is a type of pot.<br /><br />But the word "pot" can also refer to a container made of ceramic (pottery) that may not be safe to put directly on the heat. <br /><br />A teapot (on both sides of the Atlantic, so far as I know) is a ceramic (sometimes glass) container for steeping your tea. Not the thing you heat the water in. Many teapots will break if you put them on a hot stove.<br /><br />Someone who puts a pot of water on to heat may be referring to a kettle, but is more likely to be using whatever cooking pot he has that will serve. This is what happens when a coffee-drinker has tea-drinking guests. Either way, it's not a teapot.Juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14376545097377854998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-38187054352151188242010-04-02T17:35:07.145+01:002010-04-02T17:35:07.145+01:00Is it true that the word kettle is dis-preferred i...Is it true that the word kettle is dis-preferred in the US in favor of teapot (or just pot if it's clear from context) whereas in the UK kettle is used exclusively? <br /><br />I live in the US, but am originally from Russia. I don't talk about pots/kettles enough to determine the truth of the statement. I do know that in Russia I learned the saying "a watched kettle never boils" whereas I've only heard/seen it with "pot" here. When I talk with my family we use the Russian word even while speaking English (we do that a lot)<br /><br />As an aside, I own an electric kettle and so do my parents. Not sure what it was called on the packaging. I didn't personally buy it, but searching through Google Shopping "Electric Kettle" is much more common than "Electric Teapot" and the latter seem to be antique-style things. We also sometimes use the tall metal coffeemaker thing for hot water (never for coffee) if we need a lot over a longer period of time. We call it a samovar. We only drink instant coffee (except my mother who grinds her own beans bought from Starbucks) and a lot of tea.Boris Zakharinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560756640621720539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-32917404283906332102010-04-02T14:06:47.035+01:002010-04-02T14:06:47.035+01:00Re: soaking, yes, you'd normally wash them wit...Re: soaking, yes, you'd normally wash them with the rest of the washing up, or otherwise wash them off afterwards.<br /><br />I'm not sure it's a logical thing, though, more a psychological one - just the basic idea at the back of the mind that soaking things gets them cleaner. Since custom and practice are often more on how we feel about something than the logical facts of the situation, I suspect that may be part of what is behind the preference.Sally Kennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14519909167056397337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-64732865293092176402010-04-02T02:09:47.491+01:002010-04-02T02:09:47.491+01:00But you rinse the things after you soak them, don&...But you rinse the things after you soak them, don't you? <br /><br />I soak things if (a) they are impregnated with dirt, (b) they are encrusted. (a) doesn't apply to people, since we're fairly waterproof, and I don't let myself get as bad as (b) before needing a bath or shower!lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-78654220842857007762010-04-02T00:21:24.967+01:002010-04-02T00:21:24.967+01:00I've been reading and enjoying your blog for a...I've been reading and enjoying your blog for a while but previous commenters seem to have missed what I think is the main reason I think of baths as a more thorough form of washing.<br /><br />When you have washing-up that needs heavy-duty cleaning, you leave it to soak. I think the same principle seems to be in play when it comes to baths - soaking in a bath is going to get you cleaner than just standing under a spray of water.Sally Kennetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14519909167056397337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-31931888691802182692010-04-01T16:06:42.285+01:002010-04-01T16:06:42.285+01:00The only person I've ever heard refer to a &qu...The only person I've ever heard refer to a "washing up machine" was my grandmother 40 years ago, when they were a great rarity in England.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12771341077980067436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-87642869592213329012010-04-01T13:57:21.548+01:002010-04-01T13:57:21.548+01:00In my AmE experience, "doing the dishes"...In my AmE experience, "doing the dishes" is the most commonly used idiom (more common than "washing the dishes") and refers to everything that needs washing, whether it was used on the table - plates, glasses, cutlery - or in meal preparation. But dishes only has that broad meaning in that context; it's synecdoche, specific to that idiom. We're about to move, and if I said to my husband "please pack up the dishes," he would wrap up the plates and bowls and nothing else. <br /><br />I, too, have never heard anyone in the US add an 'r' to the first syllable of laundry.MelissaJanenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-39503795962721385212010-04-01T09:41:58.107+01:002010-04-01T09:41:58.107+01:00For those who don't understand "electric ...For those who don't understand "electric shower", then, it's one that heats the water with its own internal element rather than using the domestic hot water system.<br /><br />Kate (UK)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-44004070984592380532010-03-31T22:22:34.568+01:002010-03-31T22:22:34.568+01:00@Paul Dannon:
Yes, Gandhi is generally pronounced ...@Paul Dannon:<br />Yes, Gandhi is generally pronounced with the SPA vowel in the US. Incidentally, that is pretty close to the native Gujurati/Hindi pronunciation -- much closer than the typical southern English TRAP vowel.<br /><br />@Amy:<br />I think that Paul Dannon likes to amuse himself by using a kind of pronunciation respelling based on a non-rhotic dialect.vphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16647609487352038948noreply@blogger.com