Skanaus!

21:10 Jan 21, 2014 

As so often with these KudoZ questions, some context would have been very helpful. It's extraordinary how much debate this little item has generated. I suspect that one of the things going on is that in Lithuanian society people are more likely to say "Skanaus!" than are people in English-societies to say something similar. Thinking about the "sociology" of this, it seems to me that English speakers are likely to say "Enjoy!" or "Enjoy your meal!" if they are the ones providing it, e.g. serving staff or a host at a private function. Correct me if you think I'm wrong, but in my experience in English-speaking society (Candada, USA, UK and New Zealand as well as Australia) it seems to me that "passers by" („pašaliniai asmenys“) are not very inclined to comment on the fact that you are eating. ☺ Actually, on second thoughts, if they did say anything, it seems to me they would be more likely to ask: "Is it good?" with a smile; or colloquially: "Yum yum?"

16:01 Jan 21, 2014 

So you and roughly every married man you know fixes about half of the meals like in my house? And you are saying that equal numbers of men are employed in low paying jobs as waiters? Just check out the recent Guardian article on waitresses and waiters earning 2 something an hour in the US while minimum wage is over 5 (http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jan/19/restaurants-tip... A waiter/waitress's minimum wage in the US only covers the taxes. The person lives off of tips. This is a disgraceful situation that many more women find themselves in than men. Stating fact is not sexism. And I am using a corpus, not making a science out of nothing.

15:25 Jan 21, 2014 

It seems to me that you are making science out of nothing. "Enjoy" is a perfectly normal and common thing to say. The flaring sexism in your last entry is making me cringe, I must admit...

14:34 Jan 21, 2014 

Since I am somewhat at the centre of this, some statistics. I used a simple sentence of 'she said ... and' + meal because mostly women serve the food (so more results likely) and adding an 'and' ends the thought so I do not have 'enjoy the meal' to eliminate. Meal was to ensure the subject was probably appropriate.
"she said enjoy and" meal = 17 hits
"she said dig in and" meal = 11 hits
"she said tuck in and" meal = 0 hits
"she said bon appetit and" meal = 2 hits
"she said enjoy your" meal = 112 hits
So, obviously someone does say just Enjoy!, but it is used transitively more frequently, although it must be said that many hits were not food related. Still, the same possibility exists for just Enjoy! to not mean food.

14:08 Jan 21, 2014 

Disallowed comment removed.

13:58 Jan 21, 2014 

Gintautai, we do believe you (except in those super-rare instances when we don't, because the fact that somebody has lived in an English-speaking country all his or her life does not automatically mean she or he is always - always - right), but again - if she is translating a menu for a top-class restaurant (let's assume she is), then 'Bon appetit' is better than 'Enjoy'. Don't you think so? As for Sergijus' separate answer of 'Enjoy your meal', there's a KudoZ rule (3.7), according to which 'commentary on askers or answerers and their postings or decisions to post is not allowed' :) :) :)

12:24 Jan 21, 2014 

I completely agree with both discussion entries and disagree with both negative comments. All of the answers provided are perfectly fine givrn that we do not have context (as usual). Bon appetit is alive and doing well enough in the UK. Askers should always identify the variant of English in addition to giving context.

12:12 Jan 21, 2014 

I have lived in an English-speaking country all my life and I have been told "Enjoy!" just like that dozens of times, by restaurant staff and other people. And no, Australia isn't any different in this regard from USA or UK. In fact, I think "Enjoy!" is an Americanism (inspired by simple immigrant speech). Decades ago people did indeed attempt to say "Bon appétit!" in French but no one does that much any more.

11:46 Jan 21, 2014 

I don't think 'dig in' or 'tuck in' are wrong. Simply, 'Enjoy your meal' and 'Dig in' belong to different registers, but actually mean the same. And since we do not know how formal (a five-star restaurant, a menu) or informal (a bunch of friends stuffing themselves with pub grub) the context is, both variants are correct.