this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2025
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We had an issue in my college town in the Midwest. Someone almost got expelled because he called out loudly a ground squirrel, which in his local town they called... Squinnies.
This was in college, which hosts many Asian students and he did it in front of them. I believe his phrasing was pointing in a general area and yelling something like "look at all the squinnies".
Now, to many it could definitely be misheard as "squinties" a derogatory term. He got into a lot of hot water and if I remember correctly, a professor who studied local dialects actually knew the term and was able to save him.
Lingua to the rescue!
I've always preferred the Cunning type over the Super type.
A friend of mine had a similar problem when he, a Brit, was studying in the States. He was in the smoking area of a gay bar, when he asked a friend "shall I chuck this cigarette in the bin, or what?" (I.e. "are you going to come over here to take a drag of this cigarette before it's over, or should I throw it away?"). Unfortunately, a common British slang word for cigarette is also a slur for gay people (it is a slur in the UK too, but the cigarette slang word is common enough that if someone hears the F word, they are far less likely to assume it's in a slur context)
On the bright side, apparently my friend hooked up with the guy who punched him, after my friend admonished him for being so rude as to punch a person in a country without free healthcare. Apparently Southern English accent gets you far in the States