Can you usually tell what background a poster is?

penguin

Wed, Dec 02 2020, 8:35 pm

Oh I love to hate this one.

There's an ad for a health insurance company in all the Lakewood magazines and on at least one billboard I've seen.

They show a man with a beard and yarmulka being examined by a doctor.

The caption reads "Your health comes first". And then in Hebrew. הבריאות שלך באה קודם

1. I'm not a native Hebrew speaker, but I know this is VERY POORLY PHRASED. Probably via Google Translate, if I had to guess. You might say הבריאות שלך חשובה לנו But I suspect that "comes first" is probably idiomatic English. (Most of us don't even know what's idiomatic as we're so used to hearing and saying things in certain ways.) Certainly it does not translate well.

2. People in Lakewood mostly don't speak Hebrew (except for the Israelis, who are a small percentage). They speak English, Yiddish, and Yeshivish. So writing this in (poor) Hebrew is not winning the company any points.

I wonder who created this ad campaign? I hope nobody on here? But certainly someone who did not do good market research.

amother

White

Thu, Dec 03 2020, 1:00 am

penguin wrote:

I am college-educated, although admittedly my degree is in science. I suppose that might make my opinions on proper writing somewhat suspect. However, I am considered a fairly good writer.

I am wondering what's incorrect or less than common American usage about "as a girl".

How else would I express, "As a girl I wore my hair in a ponytail, but when I got married I wore a bobbed wig."? True, it could be phrased "When I was single". Or perhaps the objection is to classifying all single women as "girls" when they may be young or mature women.

I await enlightenment from the Phraseology Committee.

“As a girl” will always sound off. Because technically you never stopped being a girl. So it sounds weird. It isn’t necessarily incorrect but sounds socially incorrect on the broader spectrum. But when you speak to people in the fold it makes sense I guess.

Zehava

Thu, Dec 03 2020, 1:03 am

penguin wrote:

So it translated comes into cums. Sorry couldn’t resist this is hilarious.

Amelia Bedelia

Thu, Dec 03 2020, 7:54 am

Live+Love wrote:

Or before transitioning to a... women LOL

Woman- singular
Women (pronounced wih-min)- multiple ladies

I've noticed this mispronunciation/misusage a lot amongst chassidish women. I'm chassidish myself