Well, no culture is totally impenetrable with enough exposure/effort. I just wondered how much exposure he had. His English is obviously (beyond) native level but I do feel the subtlety of British English expressions are frequently lost. [*] Europeans, despite their relative geographic and cultural proximity, rarely seem to get British humour and expressions. American culture dominates these days anyway, no matter what you learnt in school.

For example, I wonder if he would have thought it was too far to call it ‘prick’?

Knowing Linus, perhaps not!

[*] (Not because there’s more subtlety than in any other culture/language; all locales have their own unique usages that are hard to truly understand unless you’ve lived there. I’m not claiming there’s anything mythical or unique about BE.)

I haven’t met many Finns, but the Swedes I’ve met seem to have learnt most of their English from watching American television and YouTubers. Knowing a word isn’t the same as having a lifetime of hearing it in varying contexts.

>British English

Academia it's just a few years long. After that... the 90% of the media it's American English.

It seems he knew, but I can say I never learned "git" in school.

In the 00s there was a popular wine called "old git". It generally means someone grumpy and cantankerous, but in a playful way (otherwise you'd just call them a c***). So it makes sense for a self-effacing joke about Linus Torvalds.

They're exaggerating. It's a very casual insult, often used playfully

More like AssholeHub. But not so rude.