| Geoff in the USA I moved from the UK to the USA in May 2006, and ever since it's been a continual discovery of obvious and more subtle differences between the two nations that are divided by the same language. When I say "I moved to the USA", it should be pointed out that I went to Charleston, South Carolina where I never appreciated how 'The South' was different to rest of the USA. Just as the UK has its localised customs and a range of dialects - so does the USA. Americans that I meet here though are never failed to be impressed with my ability to conjur up Scottish, Irish (both hard Belfast and soft Dublin), Welsh, Brummy (midlands), Manchunian, Liverpudlian, Geordie and West Country (Cornwall) based accents. Not to mention recieved pronounciation (Queens English) and some good old Cockney rhyming slang thrown in for good measure. For such a small country (compared to the USA) we beat them hands down for mix of dialects. Geography One thing I've certainly got to grips with here is the Geography of the USA. I now know that 'Arkansas' is prounounced ARKANSAAAW and not ARCANZAS, which is a common misktake that everyone makes. It's like trying to get an American to prounounce 'Ediburgh' or 'Bicester' proplely. Something that kicked me off though is the excellent 'place the state' game, which is one of those things that you'll think you'll try once, and then get sucked in and play it for the next 20 minutes trying to get a perfect 100%.
Adapting When I first got here, it seemed inevitable that there would be some "Huh?" moments, when I said words that the local didn't understand and they used words that perhaps I knew but wouldn't necessarily have been my first choice. Now are there are obvious ones that people have know for year. Trousers are pants, a pavement becomes a sidewalk, a nappie is a diaper and at work I get into the elevator and not the lift anymore. But there are some more more subtle ones that you don't discover until you immerse yourself into their culture for a bit. For example, you don't hire a car here - you rent one. You can't get the sack from your job, you can only be fired. And many more. After a while of getting frustrated by it, you find that you start to have some fun out of out and you end up engineering some conversations that cause confusion on purpose. My favourite trick is to be order bar food, and when they say "'Would you like chips or fries with that?", I always reply "Well that's the same thing!". They of course want to know if I want crisps or chips. And never fries. The list
The # key on the keyboard is called the pound. Nothing to do with the Uk pound sign. Calling # it's proper name hash gets them looking at you as if you're making a weird drug reference. Driving any where throws up so many, it's hard to know where to start. The bonnet becomes the hood, the boot becomes the trunk, even wing mirrors become side mirrors. You don't have indicators either, you now have turn signals. Traffic light? Don't be silly - they're the stop lights. Food & Drink Their Bacon is weird. You can't get nicely thick and widely cut Danish. Think and streaky seems to be the order of the day. Their eggs are generally more white than brown. And whilst their bread seems to last longer before going mouldy, the slices are just that much smaller than your typical Mothers Pride loaf. Oh, and they have no idea what a crumpet is either, and I have no idea how to best describe it. (No, it's not the same as an English muffin. Incidentally, in the UK, English Muffins are just called 'Muffins'. That's a joke) Food, dining and eating throws up so many anomalies it's hard to know where to start. Crockery for one is more commonly known as flatware. Want a serviette to wipe your face after you've eaten? Tough - ask for a napkin or you'll get nowhere. You all know that biscuits become cookies, but to an American (especially a southerner) a biscuit is some pasty-scone-like cake thing to which I can think of no UK equivalent.
An aubergine is known as an eggplant, corgette's as zuchinni's and a swede is known as rutabega. This causes endless amount of amusment to Americans to think that 'Swede' could be a food, a not just ... a person from Sweden. Squash is Marrow. It took me three years of living in the USA to realise this. I would say Coriander, an American would say Cilantro. I would also say Rocket, whereas an American would say Arugla. Because American thrives on coffee, coffee and more coffee, I often had to take into work my own tea. Now down in the South of American they do have tea, but it's of the cold sweet tea variety, and some American's act surprised here when they see my drinking tea ... "Oh, you drink HOT tea", they say, like that's unusual. Well ... drinking cold tea to me is unusual, oh and downright disgustingly untasty too. So I used to get up in the morning and make some tea, drink one at home and then put one on my flask to take to work to drink mid-morning. Except don't say flask to an an American, use the word Thermos instead, because a flask is something that you would only put liquor in. And by liquor I mean spirits - see 'alcohol' below. Other random words which confuse things: Going to the fairground? Be sure to get some Cotton Candy and not Candy Floss. Cops here are famous for eating Donuts and not Doughnuts. And treacle for some reason, is know as Molasses. No really it is, and I don't know why they had to change a perfectly good word either.
Driving There are so many word difference with cars, it's unreal. Once you've gotten over the fact that Americans drive on the wrong side of the road, you realise that a Fender is a bumper, the hood is the bonnet and the trunk is the boot. And just to really confused things, the arge yellow metal device that costs you several pounds of dollars to get you car released is what they call a boot and we call a clamp. Tyre is spelt with an 'i' Tire, you fill up with gas, not petrol and even poor old wing-mirrors have turned into side mirrors. Oh, and make a turn? You would use your turn signal and not your indicator. In some places, I've even heard roundabout referred to as "rotarys", aaaah! Finally ... when you go to fill up with gas (petrol) as the gas station, the Brits use the word forecourt to describe the area of the tarmac where your car sits as you pump it full of gas. The Americans have NO SUCH equivalent word - it's just part of the gas station.
Sports When at a football game (by which I mean American football, and not soccer which is real football), I totall confused someone by asking if I could walk across the pitch. I was of course referring to the field. Pitching is something that a punter does. But when I explained that to me a punter was someone who attended a concert or gig, this drew bizarre looks. Christmas They don't do Christmas Crackers. 'nuff said. And there are Americans out there right now reading this thinking 'What the hell are Christmas Crackers"? Brilliant. Oh, and don't expect a batter/yorkshire pudding either with your gravy. You're going to get a weird sweet potato and marshmellow combo mix instead, duh. Father Christmas / Santa Claus There's also no Boxing Day in the USA. We have Fairy Lights, Americans just have Christmas Lights Mince pies in the USA are called sweet pies They don't use the word pantomine The first time I went to a carol service at Christmas I was rather confused ... There are at two different major melodies for the song 'Away in a Manger' one, "Cradle Song"[1], more commonly encountered in the United Kingdom; the other, "Mueller"[2], more commonly found in the United States. The same goes for 'Oh Little Town of Bethlehem' which has a completely differen tune.
Numbers You'd think numbers would be easy, right? Wrong! You can't use 'double'. No siree, that's just to confusing. When giving out your phone number of 7688, you can't say "Double eight", oh no. You have to say "Eight, eight" , or their poor little brains get confused. Swearing Swearing in American itself is of course known as cussing or cursing. Although most will probably know what you mean if you use the word 'Swear'. First of all it's interesting to know that most American's can't say Bollocks properly. They just can't. It comes out as bullocks when they say it, and even when you've explained the concept of it being testicles, they still don't get it. Giving the V sign as well too means nothing here, nor does calling someone a wanker have any baring at all. I think i called someone a tosspot too once, and it went right over their head. Marvellous. Alcohol Spirits are liquor. They don't know what a Shandy is. They sever bitter beer cold - not at room temperature. If you do want to buy that beer though, Americans do not know what an off-license is. It's liquore store (or even package store) all the way.
Games
Therefore what I know as 'Park Lane' becomes 'Park Place' and what I know as 'Mayfair' becomes 'Board Walk'. This wasn't big news to me as I've know for many years that there are of course internationaly localised version of the game, with names to suit the country that it's been produced in. But what really did surprise me was when I found out that the classic "Professor Plum in the Library with the Candlestick" game has been dumbed down for American to understand. The game of Cluedo has become just Clue in America, and they often don't believe me when I tell them. In face, it often leads to the gag of - "So is Monopoly known as Monopolody, and Sorry known as Sorrydo". Err, no - it's not. On TV ... Family Fortunes as I know and love it, becomes Family Feud when you move it stateside. Why the hell is that?
Don't tell someone you won't see them for a fortnight becuase you're on holiday - what you really meant to say is that your taking fourteen days vacation. Envisage - duh! Envision please. Derusion was thrown at me when I tried that one in a meeting. An engaged tone becomes a busy signal (bang goes the "They're engaged", "Really? Who to?" gag, bastards) and the little dot here at the end of this sentence is a period. Not a full stop. And not a womans montly discharge either. (The woman that was probably wearing tights, sorry, I mean pantyhose btw) Challenge your friend to a game of not draughts, but checkers. Or maybe nought and crosses. What's that? Oh, sorry - Tic, Tac Toe of course! A a drawing pin is a thumb tack. You can't refer to your underwear as smalls. They won't know what you mean. Saying someone is a complete tart too doesn't translate as someone being slutty. a sandpit becomes a sandbox They don't use the phrase 'A dirty stop out', but do have the walf of shame. Envisage something becomes to envision something. You can't be a Dirty Stopout, you have the Walk of Shame instead. "I'm just gonna pop round and see Bob". They have no concept that this means to visit someone. You can't give someone a bell or a ring. You have to give them a call, or you get a funny look. Americans don't say "That's Rubbish", they'd say "That's Garage!" instead. Trash can instead of rubbish bin too. One of my favouries's it 'tat' or 'tatty' mean worthless or worn - they don't use the either. At home in the house in the lounge, I would put my feet up on the pouffe instead of the ottoman. And I would be Burgled not, Burglarised if someone raided my home
Sex Actually sex isn't much different in the USA to that in the UK. Women hold all the power because they know that men think with their groin rather than their heads. Ok, that's not entirely true. Just .. mostly. But I can't have a list of stuff to talk about if it can't include one of my favourite subjects. That's right: sex! But when it comes down to it, there's actually not a lot of differences going on here. According to this 2005 Global Sex Survey your average American 'steady' couple do it 113 times a year (That's 2.17 times per week), whereas Brits manage it twice more at 118 times a year (That.s 2.26 times a week, and I swear that 0.00 make all the difference, ok?) The one thing that might surprise an American lady when the guy drops his pants [trousers] is that extra bit of flesh sitting excitedly on the end - that's right, your foreskin. For whereas most American guys have had the snip, us Brits lag behind on this one and are more fully intact. The most distrurbing thing about this that I found is when it comes down to all mens favourite pasttime: masturbation. Trust me, if you're in a steady relationship and your man denies masturbating : He's lying. If he says that he doesn't like porn either, then he's really lieing. The point is, for a Brit like me that wants to play with himself - it's easy. Get your tackle out, think dirty thoughts, check out some porn, and off you go. But not the American way! I had no idea how big a part the foreskin had to play in enabling a guy to self pleasure himself. And when I found out that my male American buddies have to lube-up a little to help the process, I was genuinely a little surprised.
Words and phrases which totally confuse Americans, because they've never heard of them before There are then words and phrases which I've used where the locals here look at my with a strange look because they have no idea what I'm talking about. I'll often give something a dekko or sus out the SP on something - both of them meaning to check something out. If I want to pop round to your gaff later, it just means I want to come and visit you at your house. Unknown here! Don't try to cack your pants, buy a pair of kecks, or go and do a dump in the khazi, because they just don't know what you mean. (Shit in your underware, buy some pants, go to the toilet) Don't tell someone you won't see them for a fortnight becuase you're on holiday - what you really meant to
The Dollar vs. The Pound Mike Todd's excellent pages, showing a graphical history of the dollar vs. the pound since 1914 - see the periods of time when the dollar was stronger (strongest?) against the pound! Other websites http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/
Same word, but pronounced differently "Two nations divided, by a common language". And so it would seem. Whilst there is a fantasticly comprehensive English2American word list that tells us of all the words that are different between British English and American English, what amuses me more is the fact that words that are the same, and spelt the same, can of course sound completely different. On the left, a regular word to me. On the right, the bizarre phonetic pronounciation that the Americans seem to use. To this day 'Oregano', 'Khaki' and especially 'Mauve' are my three favourites.
address add
dress
|
|
You might think that's a weird catagory, but most Americans I talk to have no idea that there are different versions of Monopoly around the world.
Other
