What does dinner mean? Is it the same as lunch? the same as tea? whichever is bigger?
OK, so let’s see if people are bothered to have a discussion on here 🙂
I had a discussion with my sister over what dinner really is. It appears that some people believe that dinner = lunch.
I, personally, believe that dinner is whichever meal is main – lunch or tea.
What do YOU think?
Ok, lets get this straight.. for us southerners (or me anyways!), lunch is the meal at midday or wotever.. tea is an afternoon snack (not an evening meal!!!!), and dinner is the meal in the evening. This is clearly how it is.. northerners just dont have a clue.
🙂
i sort of agree with jon and i’m a northener. Lunch is defo the midday meal. tea however is the drink, and so when its ‘tea time’ it means time for a nice warm cuppa and cake or whatevers your poison. Dinner is the evening meal. I like x3ja, used to say tea time meaning my evening meal but have tried to stop doing that and change to the new system. It gets confusing when u go into someones room and say ‘is it tea time?’ and they assume your making a pot of tea when u were gonna make steak + chips mmmmmmm.
dear halo;
dinner = evening meal
overwhelming numbers my dear 🙂
hope ur enjoying tonite with little davey
ciao 🙂
Oh… Oh… O’Ryan!
(I’m sure that’s the first time you’ve heard a girl say your name like that…)
Dinner… served at 1:00. If you’d bothered to venture outside your rotty little London townhouse and into the school yard not only would you get your arse kicked but you might pick up some real English culture. Overwhelming numbers? Quality not quantity. We all know who’s right in this game.
oh halo, halo, halo lol – dont worry i hear my name said like that all the time, usually during 😉 hehe. i would have thought you slum dwellers would have numbers (u do breed like rabbits after all) but u cant even manage that. I have a dream, that one day the upper class (me) will once again rule as the rightful lords of the manor and the servile sewer rats (you) will polish my boots…. till next we meet …
It makes me laugh, to think that all you can do is refer to the primitive hierachal system of 19th century england, whilst averting from the real issue at hand. Given that the lower class were the chefs and maids, isn’t it fair to suggest that they know when dinner is rightfully served? Alas… whores will have their trinkets…. you must have been among the wealthy folk no doubt.
do you hear the people sing…
i grow weary of always being right…
http://www.xiangtan.co.uk/postgradbritishculture.htm
(yawn) i think youll find the section on class (or lack of in your case) and food a good read. a couple of excerpts for good measure:
Dinner – The meal in the evening is normally called Dinner, but may also be referred to as “Tea”.
Class can also be decided upon which newspaper a person reads or what type of television programmes that they watch. It can also be based on the variable frequency of their voice. (sorry dave!!!) ciao
Hrm, this article has suddenly become rather popular… it’s 18 months old and all of a sudden it’s getting the attention it deserves – I’m not sure everyone realises what a divide this issue could cause unless we face up to it here and now! We are in great peril, so let’s have it out on here!
I still think that dinner is always the main meal of the day, be it at lunchtime or teatime… because I’d never have sandwiches for dinner… But then I’d also say sunday lunch… but would assume if other people saif sunday dinnertime, they meant lunchtime… hmm… maybe we should scrap the word dinner and be happier? That’s the root of the confusion I feel…
HA! You just dug your own grave!
In reference to that site you found “http://www.xiangtan.co.uk/postgradbritishculture.htm“ the author has a Degree in Oral English LESSONS at Xiangtan University. Oh what credibility… Learning about English culture from a foreigner. Nice move.
Your arguements are wearing thin. It seems the only way you can overcome this losing battle is to revert to personal attacks on character. Who said you were upper class anyway?
a bit more research might have helped dear halo heres his history:
I work as an English teacher in China, I have been here since August 2001. My first job was in Xiangtan Normal University, Hunan Province teaching “English Conversation” and “Culture of English Speaking Countries”. My second year was at Xiangtan University, Hunan Province teaching “Oral English” to postgraduate students. This is my third year in China , working at Sino-Canadian International College, Guangxi University in Nanning, Guangxi Province. I am age 27, my hometown is Durham in the North East of England. I have had many other jobs before coming to China, more details below:
Id say his credibility is pretty good since he lived in england – u could say hes not a foreigner – hes a local.lol. so i spose i didnt dig my own grave.and anyway i wouldnt stoop to dig my own one. id pay one of your lot to do that 🙂 once again i have outdone u halo
signing off… ryan lord of the manor
By pure accident I came across this web page with references to myself and my website. The debate about “lunch”, “dinner” and “tea” continues here in China also, my felow foreign teachers all use different expressions for mealtimes which does get confussing here. We have people here from Yorkshire who say dinner to mean midday and tea to mean evening, my grandparents (from the north east of England) always said the same when I was a child, but I now tend to say dinner to mean the meal in the evening. The yanks and Canadians here get very confussed when they hear Brits talk about going out for tea!
Regards
Paul Sparks