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Re:Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal ... by gbuk2013 on Saturday April 08, 2017 @06:10PM (#14069337)
Yup, I've been living in England for over 20 years and my English language proficiency is well above that of most of the locals, but I still had to look up SCOTUS and POTUS a few years ago (probably when I started reading HN actually). Now that I know them I still would never consider using them in writing (the former is actually reminiscent of something offensive).
Re:Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal ... by Nexxxeh on Saturday April 08, 2017 @06:39PM (#14069453)
British native here. Do you not watch much TV or many movies?
Re:Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal ... by gbuk2013 on Saturday April 08, 2017 @06:48PM (#14069485)
I don't own a TV. :) I do watch some movies now and again though, especially when flying long haul but I never had one that mentioned those. Off the top of my head I can only think of 24 as a candidate but I never watched that.
Re:Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal ... by mistermann on Sunday April 09, 2017 @12:42AM (#14070508)
Anyone who's spent any significant amount of time in political threads in reddit (just for example) would know those acronyms.
Re:Snowden: NSA just lost control of its Top Secret arsenal ... by Sacho on Sunday April 09, 2017 @05:45AM (#14071381)
I think it's not a matter of knowing the acronyms but rather using them in your writing. Even though I'm aware of POTUS, I would simply write "The President" or "The US President" - it comes much more natural, from all the times its been used in local media to refer to our own/foreign presidents. Same reasoning for the US Supreme Court.