XPost: alt.usage.english   
   From: nobody@home.com   
      
   In article ,   
   Silvano@noncisonopernessuno.it says...   
   >   
   > Peter Moylan hat am 17.09.2024 um 01:32 geschrieben:   
   > > On 17/09/24 04:03, Silvano wrote:   
   > >   
   > >> I don't know what is Aidan's profession, but medical practitioners   
   > >> are not the only people who may need to know the equivalent to a   
   > >> medical expression in another language. There are also those strange   
   > >> beasts called translators. I am one of them.   
   > >   
   > > My ex-wife's work as a medical interpreter produced a wealth of stories   
   > > showing that lots of people understand very little about language.   
   > > Here's an example that actually happened. I've probably changed the   
   > > actual words, but I've retained the essence of what happened.   
   > >   
   > > A hospital nurse phoned the interpreter service.   
   > >   
   > > "Could you send an interpreter, please? We have a patient who can't   
   > > understand English."   
   > > "OK. What language?"   
   > > "Oh. I thought the interpreters did all languages."   
   > > "No, we have different people for different languages."   
   > > "Well, I think he speaks African."   
   > >   
   > > That reminds me of an incident in an earlier job of hers, when she   
   > > worked in a psychiatric hospital. A small town north of Newcastle had   
   > > had no doctor for a long time, but Australia has a policy of getting   
   > > immigrant doctors out to rural areas, so they finally got someone. That   
   > > doctor sent one of his patients down to the psych hospital for   
   > > assessment. The clinical notes said that he was obsessed with attacking   
   > > birds.   
   > >   
   > > When interviewed, one of the first things he said was   
   > > "Stone the crows, I don't know why they sent me here."   
   >   
   >   
   > I assume that "stone the crows" is a common idiom in that part of Australia.   
   > 1) What does it mean?   
      
     Expresses surprise or disbelief.   
      
   > 2) Do native speakers of other varieties of English know and use that idiom?   
      
     Yes. It's a very common saying.   
      
     Janet   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)