Confused from the UK!

[JCFindley]

Why did she have french fries while having an orgasm in the first place?

Oh, and we southerners (US southerners) call shopping carts buggies.

[fstopper89]

I have always thought the Coke vs. Soda thing was strange!

One word I made a conscious effort to start pronouncing right is “milk.” I grew up pronouncing it like “melk.” A few years ago someone brought it to my attention and I forced myself to change.

Around my town, we have several small towns out in the country that started with a church and a feed mill, known collectively (and affectionately), as “The Holyland” for them being named such things as Marytown, Johnsburg, Mount Calvary, St. Peter, St. Anne, among various Biblical names, and almost all of these were German settlements (My great-great grandparents were given a plot of land during the Homestead Act). As you can imagine, people in these small towns generally stuck close and usually married into families within the Holyland. German used to be spoken in the schools there. There are pockets of hard Americanized-German accents and/or grammatical shortcomings. SO MANY people from this area say “I seen him at the store.” among other things. Unfortunately those traits keep getting passed down as the parents don’t know it’s improper. It drives me nuts hearing adult professionals saying that!

[Gnork]

Cass, I’m from Tennessee, and I can attest that nearly everyone calls soft drinks/soda/pop “Coke,” even if it’s not Coke. The follow-up question of what kind is asked almost every time. My accent, though, only really comes out when I’ve been around my extended family (read: rednecks). Otherwise, I have a pretty neutral accent with a “y’all” thrown in here and there for good measure. (Incidentally, spell-check says y’all is a word. Score!)

[nesgran]

WCS, that list was all too true. I’m not even born British and I’ve only lived in Britain for six years yet I do basically all those things. The last one annoys me to no end but then that is what I do after all.

I live in London and for some reason some people, well tourists really, always seem incapable of understanding certain unspoken social quirks or even things which have notices put up about them. For example, if there’s a sign every five metres when going down the escalator to the tube (erm, underground or metro, incidentally named so world wide after one of the London underground lines) saying “Stand on the right”. Why not do that then? Why stand on the left whereby when I’m walking down on the left I have to stop and loudly say “Excuse me”, get a blank stare and nothing. Fortunately this is one place where you can be a little impolite without getting that sinking feeling in your stomach and continue walking. That seems to be understood.

Brits are awkward, another example would be how most supermarkets now have a self service check out. In the bigger supermarkets there’s usually two lots of these but since no one is impolite enough to ask whether they are queueing for the right hand side or both sides everyone usually form up an orderly queue on one side. There is a lot of tsking when someone swoops in from the left and goes to the left hand check outs without standing in the queue, even if there were more than one empty till on that side. And no one wants to tell the person first in the queue if they’ve missed that there is an empty till on the left.

A few gentle tips if you plan on visiting London in Britland. Don’t walk three abreast and most certainly don’t do it slowly. Don’t put your rucksack back to front, it only looks like you have something to steal in there. For the love of God never stand on the left of the escalators. Never wave two fingers at a barman, it is considered very rude. Expect people to snigger if you have an American accent and if you are at a pub you order at the bar but make sure you know your table number if it is a pub with table numbers marked on the table.

 

 

[Worst Case Scenario]

Here we say “pop”  when we are refering to soda.

We say fizzy drink! Soda would be soda water, the stuff that squirts out of soda syphons in slapstick movies.

Suck and blow are opposites, yet when used derogatorily, they are synonyms. “That sucks!” or “That blows!”

I’m guessing that you know what I’m thinking here…..

 

at least we somewhat understand each other in these forums and all love the universal language that is called Photography, right?

Pass the bucket!

Why did she have french fries while having an orgasm in the first place?

Your Southern charm is showing again!

he told us that they do not put syrup on waffles, instead they like ketchup.  To me that just sounds gross.

Waffles as you know them don’t really exist here. Our waffles are potatoe based. ( that’s POE -TATE-TOE )

[JCFindley]

You mean taters?

Like Gnork, my southern really only comes out when I am around my kin folk but I do still have some isms like yall, or y’all and buggy.

 

[cameraclicker]

Waffles as you know them don’t really exist here. Our waffles are potatoe based. ( that’s POE -TATE-TOE )

I’m pretty sure one of our politicians was laughed at for adding the ‘e’ to potato during a spelling class while visiting a school for a photo op!  In my browser, colour is not flagged but color is, so I must have the Canadian dictionary loaded.  Potatoe is flagged!  Here it is POE-TATE-OH.  Waffles made of potato sound like a product the local fast food outlets push with some of their breakfast offerings.  I understand why ketchup would be necessary.

I’m probably 50 miles (80 Km) north of Milwaukee, WI, and have no charm, but like JCFindley, I have no idea what that joke is conveying.  🙁    I can think of a few possibilities which range from gross to sad.  Some research is in order.

 

 

[cameraclicker]

For example, if there’s a sign every five metres when going down the escalator to the tube (erm, underground or metro, incidentally named so world wide after one of the London underground lines) saying “Stand on the right”. Why not do that then? Why stand on the left whereby when I’m walking down on the left I have to stop and loudly say “Excuse me”, get a blank stare and nothing. Fortunately this is one place where you can be a little impolite without getting that sinking feeling in your stomach and continue walking. That seems to be understood.

Our “tube” is the subway.

Escalators are strange.  Here, you are supposed to step on and stand holding the hand rail, which moves with the stairs.  While you are supposed to stand, there are many who feel you should stand on the right so you can be passed on the left, which begs the question, who is going to pass you if no one is supposed to be walking?

[JCFindley]

CC, here in NYC you are supposed to stand to the right and move to the left on the escalators because yes, New Yorkers actually climb the moving stairs on the left because they are in a hurry. Go figure.

I used to date a woman in Sheboygan back before Midwest Airlines outsourced me and my kind. Beautiful county up there.

[cass335]

Michigan has some unique city names, too.

Mackinac Island (pronounced Mackin-aw), and we also have Mackinaw City. Same area, spelling just indicates either island, or city. Charlotte (pronounced Shar-Lot not shar-let).  When my TN cousins came up and we told them they had to drive through Charlotte they had spelled it all wrong on their paper, and got lost. They had it written: Sharlot… Oh and here is a fun one:  Ypsilanti (ip-sil-ant-ee).  Or Sault Ste Marie (soo-saint-marie)

Makes sense that ketchup would go on waffles if they were potato(e) based.

My grandpa was from Alabama (and moved up here before I was born) and he used to use all the redneck words Jeff Foxworthy used to talk about. Yont-to, Get on over hee-ya… etc. I say y’all but I probably picked that up from him.

@BEG: My sister called it “Melk” almost her whole life, only recently started saying “milk”

[nesgran]

Over here escalators are meant to be walked up and down. I rarely stand still on it, it just take forever and you inevitably miss the train by seconds if you stand.

[PhotoDon]

America and Britain are two countries separated by a common language. 😉

What slays me is when they have someone from Scotland on TV, and they put subtitles under him as he speaks. For crying out loud, he’s speaking English!

[Worst Case Scenario]

Okay here’s question number 2… Why do American TV shows blur so much out?  You watch a show like American Hotrod where they spend weeks building a completely unique car that stands out in any car park like a sore thumb. And a soon as it’s finished it gets the registration plate blurred! As if anyone might see it on the street and think ” I recognize that number”.  And then any sort of logo gets covered in gaffa tape. I’ve seen Porsche 911’s with tape over the steering wheel so you can’t tell what make it is. Well bad news guys…. it’s kind of obvious!

[Nightrose]

Then there are we Aussies and Kiwis who nobody in the Northern Hemisphere seems to understand.  Strewth!

P.S: To Americans, the double r’s in “mirror” and “horror” are not silent!

[JCFindley]

Meee-roar? Horr-or? Hmmmm, who’d a thunk it.

Yall probably have no idea what boiled peanuts are either, PROnounced bowled peanuts.

We blur things out like that WCS because we are a very litigious bunch and rather than risk a lawsuit they cover it up.

And before you ask, I do not know why our beer sucks.

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