ukbitz

WHAT DID YOU SAY ?????

"Gimme a torch so I can find the spanner in the boot of me Mini"

If you are from the UK Im sure you understand this request, but here in the USA somehow the 'English' they claim to speak is different. How did this happen ?? I wish I knew, maybe its due to the mix of different nationalities. If someone knows a good explanation I would love to hear it. Bangers and mash, bubble and squeak, Yorkshire pud, theres a special sound to those. Boots, bonnets, wings, tellies, blokes, birds, bovver boots and winkle pickers, the list goes on.
What the heck am I talking about you may ask. I do not have the time to list all the differences in UK English and US English but there is a gent who spent a lot of time and effort cataloging all that stuff. His name is Mike Etherington and you can find his website entitled "The Best of British, The Americans guide to speaking British" at www.effingpot.com. Trust me, it's a very educational and entertaining site and well worth a visit or two, maybe you will be able to figure out what many of the above mentioned 'foreign' words and terms mean. Or as us Brits might say "av a butchers me duck".

I was around Americans for 5 years before before actually moving here and thought I had a pretty good command on US English, I did, but with my Brummy accent and the fact that we talk quite fast over there I was still having trouble getting my point across. Here I am 30+ years down the road and still having problems at times, I think the accent takes people by surprise and the first pass goes in one ear and out tother. Usually second time of asking they get it but not always. I think one instance I particularly remember was many years ago in a local Burgerking. Got my food order in OK but the problem came when I asked for not too much 'ice' in my drink. The young lady just looked at me with a very puzzled look on her face, "can you run that by me again" she says. Luckily I knew what that meant so I asked again, "not too much ice"…….same look. Then I made the mistake of trying to spell 'ice', "I" "C" "E" I say, shes dumbfounded. As I was about tell her to forget it the guy behind me tells her "easy on the ice in the drink" and the light bulb went on, she got it. I thanked him, paid for my stuff and moved on. I did learn a lesson though, just tell 'em "easy ice" and pronounce the word ice something like the way we might pronounce 'eyes' and you got it made.

Mind you, there are ways that the difference in the language can be fun, just have a look at some of my number plates (license plates to US readers) that I have on my cars and bikes and see what you think. Shoot me an Email if you would like to know what they mean.