From Alex Massie's blog at the Spectator:

[randomness]

What We Say vs What We Mean vs What They Understand:
(achinhibitor's comment reminded me of this.)

Comments

[spinrabbit.livejournal.com]

I noticed the "quite" one, but people kept denying it.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I really want to add an American column to that.

[cerridwynn.livejournal.com]

So this makes me wonder, who are the "others" in "what others understand?" The table does does say Anglo-EU translation. I wonder how an Anglo-US translation guide would work -- because in many (but not ALL) of these cases the "What the British mean" is exactly how i would read it. Makes me wonder how much is a culture thing and how much is an English language thing...

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

Gah. If I'm speaking those words I quite likely mean the purple not the gold.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I always tease justom that when he says something is "fine" it means "really rather disappointing", whereas "not bad" or "decent" means "good" and "nice" means "really good" :-)

I do think this translation is specifically (though not exclusively) British-inflected; it doesn't work directly for most US subcultures.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*makes a note for my Universal Translator*