chriswinter

And where would I spend a $20 certificate to "London Market"....in Chicago?
I just wanted to answer, not for the certificate. Anyway all I did was a Google search....Wah-lah!! Google knows everything!!

between two worlds

Yes, mistakes are easily made, it was just a gentle tease...I can't help but notice these things.

I do believe Canadians use British rather than US spelling, but a Canadian should confirm that I'm correct about that!

Tina

bandrui

Yes, we do use English spelling here; colour vs color, centre vs center, etc.
I often think that Brits leaving for the US might be happier in Canada. Having lived in both countries I can say that it is far more British here - parliamentary system, British products in grocery stores etc., no doubt because it is a Commonwealth Country. Not British enough for me though... I shall be heading for the real thing .

windsong

I totally agree with that, Linda. When I get homesick here I drive over the border into Canada and go into the stores there - always British products in the stores, quality knitting yarns you get in Europe. Even the people are different and I am only talking about driving less than 50 miles from where I live.

chriswinter

I have a question for those Brits who have lived in America for many years. Do you still have an English accent? Have you now picked up an 'American' accent? I know when I lived in England back in the 60's and having an American accent...I was very much treated as an 'outsider'...from my accent, it was assumed I was straight-up American..."Yank"...and yes, I was called a yank. It was difficult for me..because I couldn't truthfully say I was an American, but I sounded like one, and for that I was quite unacceptable. I tried to tell the young people I worked with that I was very much an English person...but my accent while saying that, would bring laughter. Hell I was even blamed by a girl from Londonderry, Ireland that I worked with...something about my part in WWII! She calling me a 'Damn Yank'.
If you no longer have an English accent or only a bit is left of it...how will you let people know you are truly a UK citizen, Brit-born? How will you handle it if Brit people mistaken you for an American? Would like to know, so I can better arm myself should I decide to take a trip.

confusedenglishrose

No to the vast majority of Americans I have met East, West and the middle bit, apparently think I am Australian. Always fun to run with that one...And then when I answer correctly they always seem to make a big scene apologizing for thinking I was Australian when really I am British (English), it just makes me laugh. As if I would be bothered? But they apparently think I will be. Which just goes to show the narrow stereotypes they live by, I suppose. Seems like we all have them!

Then of course there are the Americans who cannot seem to fathom how my Irish friends and I can even be friends So very defined and linear in their outlook these Americans, or perhaps narrow minded, insular and self involved would be more appropriate, its a national past time from my 20 years of observation. Still nice country when you ignore the settlors, whoops that includes me.

Part 2 when back in the UK I think you have to work at ironing out the American phrases we all pick up over here. I really don't think it takes that long to become 'one' again. Clothes though in my opinion are a dead give away. You can usually spot the American by the way they are dressed. So I intend to dispense the clothes, except for the few really casual ones and buy British in order to integrate, and by British I don't mine the UK arm of Lands End or similar, I mean M $ S BHS J Lewis etc.....

Derrygal

It wasn't me - honest!!! I guess I have a mixed accent - most people here are not quite sure where I come from - I have been asked if I'm Irish (true) or English (lived there for 10 years) or even Australian. One guy even asked me if I was German When I go back home to N Ireland, most people think I sound American - I honestly don't, but I know that I have picked up some American expressions. I was back in Cheshire in 2009 and my friends there said I sounded just the same as I did when I lived there!! Now if only they had said I looked the same (I guess that's too much to ask - I left over 20 years ago).

windsong

When I talk to my half-sister in England on the phone, she tells me I have a "slight" American accent. When I speak to people in the USA, they tell me I have a British accent. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle

Unfortunately, I think I will hit occasions when someone in Britain thinks I am American. I honestly don't know how to get around that one other than, if it comes up, I will simply say I had no say in the matter about going to the USA and that it was my mother's decision. I would say it nicely, of course, because it is the truth. I am not at all proud of having even a slight American accent but there isn't much i can do about it now.

Even when we lived in Scotland, My English parents (English father, Welsh mother) made very sure I held on to my English accent so I grew up more or less being sure I did not cultivate much of a dialect from anywhere I lived.

Derrygal

[QUOTE=windsong;9285684]When I talk to my half-sister in England on the phone, she tells me I have a "slight" American accent. When I speak to people in the USA, they tell me I have a British accent. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle

Unfortunately, I think I will hit occasions when someone in Britain thinks I am American. I honestly don't know how to get around that one other than, if it comes up, I will simply say I had no say in the matter about going to the USA and that it was my mother's decision. I would say it nicely, of course, because it is the truth. I am not at all proud of having even a slight American accent but there isn't much i can do about it now.

Even when we lived in Scotland, My English parents (English father, Welsh mother) made very sure I held on to my English accent so I grew up more or less being sure I did not cultivate much of a dialect from anywhere I lived.[/QUOTE]

So what's so dreadful about having a Scottish accent?

windsong

[QUOTE=Derrygal;9285700] I doubt there is anything dreadful about it. It's just that my parents, I suppose, wanted me to sound at least a little bit like them. As it is, I do have a slight Scottish dialect, along with a slight Welsh dialect (slight sing-song voice) with an English accent lol!

chriswinter

The Londonderry gal, had a mop of curly red hair...sure you don't have red hair? She actually tried to hit this 'yank' in the restroom.
Once when I was at the tobacco shop by the train station in Thornton Heath, the shop-keeper there asked me if I was from Australia!! The girls I worked with...would often ask me to teach them how to speak "American". For some reason one of them was intrigued with the word 'garbage'...when she would try to sound like me...she sounded like she just arrived from deep within the hills of Kentucky..
Being raised by a very Brit mother, who never lost her accent...I was well versed in what was called what in England, versus here in America. I had one 'language' within our home...and another outside our house in the states.
I'm a far cry from the 'mod' I once was while living in England.
I lived over 20 years in Texas...and never adopted that southern accent...I have a very strong Chicago accent now and doubt it will depart me anytime soon. Though many people down south, assumed I was from NYC.
So I'm certain when I go to visit my American brother who lives in England and he sounds totally Brit...I'll be assumed once again, to be a 'yank' and that's OK by me...I'm a big girl now and have also adopted some of the English profanities..

windsong

One thing my half-sister picks up on is the American spellings. She chastised me about it on the phone the other day

RChappo

My wife is a born and bred upstate New Yorker but people think she's British now because she has picked up my accent after 9 years of marriage. According to my friends and family I haven't lost my Brit accent at all

windsong

Good for you!!

Mummy in the foothills

I'm told in the US I sound like Brit, and in the UK I am told I have an American accent, so I have no idea where I am.
As for clothes, I must admit I am so much more comfortable in US clothes, I'm a Lands End, Ann Taylor, Patagonia, Liz Claiborne, Jockey, mixed up kind of person.
The only UK clothes I know I like are the tee shirts from Marks and Spencer and I got some linen pants (or should I say trousers) from Tesco that I love in summer.
Other than that I've never been fashion forward, girly in my life, trousers all the way except for my school uniform way back when.