Thursday, October 30, 2008

She's Not Bothered

A told me that her gym teacher asked her the other day, “Aren’t you American?” When A confirmed the teacher said that she thought A would be more into sports than she is. She said to A, “You just not bothered with basketball are you?” A confirmed.

The phrase “I’m not bothered” is quite interesting. I have had people say that to me and in my mind I have this visual of someone with a fly buzzing around them and it not annoying them. But the more I hear that phrase, I am getting that the meaning might be different. Instead at least at work when someone says I’m not bothered, I get the impression that what they mean is F- you, you can’t make me do what you just asked me to do. Which made me wonder… what was A doing in gym class, standing in the middle of the basketball court with her arms folded not participating? Enquiring minds would like to know….

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I read your blog quite a bit and am always interested to hear about your cultural clashes and the funny things that you find about the UK. I am from the UK but once lived in the US and found similar situations to what you describe. I noticed that you don't get too many comments, so I thought that I would post to say that people are reading, just not commenting! Bothered is a funny one isn't it? If you are "not bothered" about something then it generally means that you are not interested, if you are offered a choice and reply you are "not bothered" then it means either is okay. I don't think it is necessarily negative, however if someone says thay can't be bothered - I would say that was negative and maybe a bit rude. In A's case I just think that she meant that she is not interested in basketball. Keep up the blogs, I enjoy reading them.

Gemma

J said...

Thanks Gemma!