N Cook wrote:

Meat Plow wrote
Eeyore wrote:
Franc Zabkar wrote:

Why do Chinese English speakers (for example in Singapore) say
"spoiled" when they mean "damaged" or "faulty"?

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/spoiled

13. an imperfectly made object, damaged during the manufacturing
process.


Funny I suppose that you Brits refer to a CRT as a tube yet insist on
calling a tube a valve.


Only yesterday I had to correct my earlier misunderstood email reply to
someone in the USA.
I had earlier slipped into Brit-speak saying I'd posted something to him,
wheras for USA I have to say I had mailed it to him.
Americans pay checks with bills - we pay bills with cheques.

I like the French for bills (US checks) it's l'addition ! Delighfully
explanatory. :-)

In German it's somewhat more terse, die Rechnung (the 'reckoning').

Graham