Okay, so I'm going to watch the Bledisloe Cup, for the uninitiated, that means Australia is playing New Zealand. Aka, The Wallabies vs The All Blacks. Probably the biggest match of the year. And since it's happening 3km down the road at the ANZ Stadium formerly the Telstra Stadium and before that the Stadium Australia, I'd be mad to miss it!
View Larger Map
Now as to the argument...
If today is Thursday, how many days until next weekend.
Today, I said 2 days until the weekend but I got this one wrong. Now that I think about it, 9 days also makes sense.
A work colleague told me that the cup was being played next weekend, so I booked tickets expecting it to be on Saturday the 15th. Now I know that it's actually on Saturday the 22nd.
So did I get confused because the Australians use next weekend to mean the next weekend after this week, whereas I consider next weekend to be the next upcoming weekend. Did I get confused because the Germans have infected my English language with their incredibly useful and precise word "overnextweekend" (Uebernaechstewochenende) meaning the weekend after this next weekend, the logical conclusion being that if you remove the Ueber, then it becomes next weekend (Naechstewochenende) and that would be the upcoming weekend.
Or.. am I just being daft, And next weekend always meant the weekend after this weekend?
Personally, I'm of the opinion that I sometimes just take this stuff to literally, and I'm a bit daft.
As long as I turn up for the Rugby on Saturday the 22nd of August, then all's well with the world!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Hmm, I've been researching the possibility that the germans messed with my head. However, it appears that germans don't use next weekend, instead they say Overnextweekend, or Comingweekend, because next weekend is to vague... so it would appear that I am daft. Either that or everyone else is daft.
ReplyDeleteAha!
ReplyDeleteIf you can read German, then you will see that I'm not the only one who's confused.
http://www.wer-weiss-was.de/theme143/article950318.html
And even english speakers have this problem
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_next_weekend_this_coming_weekend_or_weekend_after_next
It's quite simple my darling...this weekend is this weekend, next weekend is next weekend and last weekend was last weekend. Anything else means there are too many work days in between so it's too depressing to work it out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anon. This weekend is this weekend, next weekend is next weekend. It's actually very literal, a person using "next weekend" in reference to this coming weekend possibly lives "from one weekend to the next" hence next weekend in reference to the coming weekend. This is not therefore a lapse in correct grammar but simply impatience and a dislike of the working week?? Discuss
ReplyDeleteNext weekend = next week end = end of next week
ReplyDeleteThis weekend = this week end = end of this week
Simple!
I dislike the working week as much as the next man... yet the weekend, as a unit, is not explicitly a subunit of the week, but rather an independent unit. So that time can be seen as a time falling within a weekend, and time falling outside of the weekend. By this rational, the upcoming weekend, is the next weekend to be experienced. Therefore next weekend, is also the coming weekend, or this weekend.
ReplyDeleteAlternative view is of a weekend as a subunit of a week, whereby there is a week, consisting of work week and weekend. This would lead to the conclusion that if in a working week, the coming weekend is as part of the actual week, already upon us, and therefore the next weekend, is part of the next week.
This would actually indicate that the first view of time is optimistic, the weekend is not over before it has begun. But for proponents the second view of time, the weekend is a foregone conclusion.
In conjunction with the proven fact that pessimism quite often leads to lack of motivation, I conclude that people with the second view of time, are actually spoil sports.
So there, See you next weekend!