“All set?”
Here’s an interesting language-related story that my boyfriend recently encountered in Indiana. Maybe someone can help figure it out, but it is a bit odd.
So my boyfriend visited one of his relatives in Indiana. They were at a restaurant and he ordered burrito. When he finished telling the waitress his order the waitress asked: “Would you like any remaining toppings with your burrito?” My boyfriend replied: “I’m all set.” However, the girl looked confused and asked again and my boyfriend responded the same way. The girl looked at my boyfriend’s brother-in-law and he was confused about the situation as well. Then he told her: “Yea, I think he doesn’t want any remaining toppings with his burrito.” And apparently that satisfied her.
Then when my boyfriend went to pay for his meal, the cashier (another girl) asked if he wanted soda with his meal. My boyfriend again responded: “No thanks, I’m all set.” And she was silent and confused. Then my boyfriend rephrased: “No thank you, that’ll be it.” And she got it.
Both him and his brother-in-law wondered why the girls couldn’t understand my boyfriend when he said “I’m all set.”
Usually when someone says that it just means “I’m done.” Or “I’m good with what I have.” My boyfriend thought maybe it was an East coast thing but I remember when I was in Illinois the waitress will say “Are we all set?” after we’re done with something.
Any idea? It was a bit odd and funny at the same time. Both girls were also American.
Cynthia Yang
Born in Taiwan and grew up in Indonesia, Thailand and China. Went to the US for college and have been working between Shanghai and Connecticut ever since. Fluent in Mandarin and English and can understand basic conversation of Thai.Related Posts
15 Comments to ““All set?””
August 8th, 2008 at 3:27 am
Don’t know about the ‘all set’ thing, but different phrases and slang are used in different section of America (and Canada), and certain lingo may not crossover. For example here in Canada we call a bathroom/restroom/WC a washroom. In Washington when I asked at a fast food place where the washroom was, I got completely blank looks. I had to repeat it very slowly many times before the cashier finally said, ‘Oh, do you mean BATHROOM?”
I thought, good grief, a bathroom obviously has a BATH in it, an is usually a one-room affair in someone’s home, so a public restroom is definitely not a bathroom. See, a washroom means something with a sink and usually a toilet in it. It can refer to one-room or several-cubicle restrooms. (And I never call a private house bathroom a restroom, restrooms are in public places.) Then of course a water closet can be something with only a toilet, depending on how spartan you want it.
But people never seem to make the distinction between all these…
Of course, I’m known for occasionally calling bathrooms outhouses, so I guess I shouldn’t complain. You know, outhouses should be a post of their own, especially north Canadian ones…
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August 8th, 2008 at 5:29 am
I’m going to guess your bf is from the New England area, maybe specifically Boston?? I have several friends from there and that is what they always say. I’m from all different areas in the US as my passport country, and I’d never heard that before I met my NE friends in university. It’s like if you said “I’m fixin’” to do something- that is a “southernism” and “yankees” would have no idea that people actually say that. The mid-west is often less used to regional differences than many other sections of the US.
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August 9th, 2008 at 12:25 am
AmyElizabeth: That is what we are wondering. He was originally from Washington state but moved to Connecticut during high school. But his brother-in-law is from Washington state as well and he understood, but then again he used to live in Boston.
So maybe that might be it
A New England thing. But I never really pay attention to these differences though. Might be interesting next time I return to the US and pay more attention to the phrases used in different regions.
However, my boyfriend went to college in Illinois and I am sure he used that term a lot there but never had that problem.
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August 10th, 2008 at 3:14 am
Haha, I had a similar experience to that in the Philippines!xD I went to KFC and asked for my food “to go” and the cashier didn’t understand what I meant.
Strangely she didn’t know what I meant by “take out” either so instead I had to say I was bringing the food home. Funny, I’ve used and heard that phrase before and I’ve never been to the East Coast.O.o
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August 10th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
Oooh, Jackrabbit! When I first came to Canada, I asked where the toilet was, and got odd looks. Then I remember my aunt saying washroom and so I immediately said washroom. And I remember thinking at that time, huh, washroom does make sense..
And Cadpig, I had the same experience, only the other way around. I said ‘take out’ instead of ‘to go’…
And Cyn, like jack said, dunno if that crosses over to Canada.. But that’s just odd. I mean if someone told me “I’m all set”, I’d still get it.. I thought that was like, a general english phrase..
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August 10th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Interesting stuff! Here in NZ we’ve had to switch and/or learn the following:
“toilet” instead of “bathroom” or “restroom” (much more direct, and as previously mentioned, few of these actually have baths)
“good as!” (see: “sweet as”, both short for “good as gold”), meaning roughly “ok”
“good on ya” is “way to go” (and with their accent, the first couple times ya think “I’ve got WHAT on me???”)
“steady on!” meaning “hold on just a second, wait up, whoa”
get something “sussed”…aka get it “figured out”
When a tragic event occurs (and by tragic, not sorta tragic like a hurricane, but REALLY tragic like the All Blacks losing), everyone is “just gutted”.
Cookies are now biscuits, and tomato sauce (for cooking) is NOT tomato sauce (which they DO sell and is more like ketchup), it is tomato puree.
here “take-out” is “take aways”.
you don’t “rent” anything, you “hire” it (apartments, power tools, rental cars, hotel rooms).
And when you’re thoroughly wore out, you are, of course, “knackered”.
So we like to think of it here as the primary language being New Zealandese and the secondary is English. (this unfortunately pushes Maori down to 3rd)
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August 10th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Jerry Jerry Jerry… you faux-Kiwi you…
That’s really interesting re: the “hiring” instead or “renting”. I actually had that problem with a NZ friend of mine once. So it’s not a S.Hemisphere thing - it’s just a NZ thing.
I have a que: can you get away with saying “bathroom” in NZ or not? We can here tho you may “cop” a few odd looks (i do!). But then i say “store” liquor store, wine store, book store… We have a lot of Americanisms in our house! lol.
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August 11th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Faux-Kiwi?!?!?! I resemble that remark! Naw, I blend in by crikey! (wait a sec…maybe that’s more Aussie)
“bathroom” gets mixed results. Some understand, some are confused, so we’ve just switched to the native tongue on that one!
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August 11th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Oh, a couple more from kiwi-land.
“tuck in” is eat…it has nothing to do with bed
“stop by for a cuppa”…come by for tea, or coffee, literally a cup of something and I guess they leave it open-ended so as not to offend your sensibilities if you prefer one drink over another. Crazy kiwis.
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August 11th, 2008 at 5:23 am
PS. Also, the ‘cuppa’ may not only contain tea…it may be spiked… (lol).
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August 11th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Ooooo…a spiked cuppa! I simply MUST befriend some more interesting kiwis!
I wonder if “pinta” (pronounced pint-a) is a word?!?! If not, it should be down here! “Oye! I’m heading out for a pinta Steinlager! Who’ll join me!”
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August 11th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
what i have come to notice is that some folks are just oblivious of slang that may be used very close to them. the smaller the town the more oblivious usually.
“take out” and “to go” are very american.if the country is an ex english colony then they’ll probably say “take away”. i was especailly perplexed by the obligatory “for here? or to go?” question asked at the end of any fast food order. and living in the south the accent didn’t help at all. sounded more like
“furheerurt’go?” and the fast food workers were just as perplexed by my request for a “hamburger with chips and a soft drink.” as opposed to a “burger with fries and a soda” or better yet “a number 2 combo”.
in the south they say “all set” all the time.
as for the washroom, bathroom, toilet debaucle, if everyone just said “bog” life would be a lot easier.
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August 11th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
@Warona: HAHAHAHAHA! “Bog”! I love it!
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August 12th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
“Bog”…I love it!xD
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August 12th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Here’s an amusing small-town story for you. A friend of mine went to a drinking establishment in one of the smaller Montana metropolitan areas. Upon ordering, he asked the waitress what kind of beer they had. Her reply (I can’t make this stuff up folks), “We have canned and bottled.”
That’s right folks! You CAN INDEED get bottled beer in Montana! It’s our top-selling imported microbrew!
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