honeymommy

Ok.... anyone ever had a problem getting someone to understand them in US.
Here's a couple of mine......

In Mcdonalds..... I ask for a cup of water...... not understood... I ask again approx 6 times getting more frustraited, while the person behind the counter looks at me as if I am an alien.....

Then it strikes me.... I ask

A glas of woder please........ He smiles in absolute relief that the alien has learn't to speak english and I quickly get my wader.....


This was the funniest...... We had just moved here and had a problem in the appartment so I called management....

Me..... "The cupboard in the lounge is broken"
Manager...." Huh?"
Me...... " The cupboard in the lounge is broken"
Manager..... "Huh?"
OK... Won't bore you with repetativeness.... but this went on for a while... I tried cupboard, wardrobe, cubby, lounge, sitting room, etc....
I finally said....... Look somethings broken in here and you need to come look....

They came immediately and looked at the problem...

Manager...."Oh you mean the closet in the livingroom is broken....Why didn't you just say that?" I could have screamed...

Anyway it was fixed........

There have been many more..... 6yr old son took a month to learn not to ask teacher for a rubber.....

4yr old was constantly crying saying the kids liked his pants and they were rude to look at his pants....

OH.... We watched Mr Bean in LA.... when he arrives at LAX he waves at a biker couple who give him the finger, and he spends the rest f the movie giving people the finger......
WELL............... I was called into the teachers office at the kids school the next day to be promptly told it was unnaceptable to give people the finger..... The kids thought it was hillarious, and had been saying "hello" to people all day.... :scared:

ANYONE GOT ANY JUICY ONES TO SHARE........??????

dunroving

The water/worda definitely resonates - I've met that one too many times.

I got a little card in my mailbox once telling me I had a parcel to pick up. So I walked into the Post Office, waving the little card in my hand and saying "I have to pick up a parcel".

Stunned silence, followed by "..... a pawsool?"

[waves pick-up slip in hand while repeating "yes, a parcel"]

[repeat the last 2 lines several times until the light goes on and he says "Oh, you mean a PACKAGE!"]

My point: parcel IS in the US dictionary, and even if I was speaking gibberish. why couldn't the PO worker just take the hint of the notification slip I was waving around in my hand?

I sometimes think it's selective ignorance.

suzieque

I am a nurse in the ER and asked the Doc did this patient need to go to Xray on a trolley? After the usual repeat a few times, he was falling about laughing, the only trolley he knew was the trolley car in San Fransico type!!!

We have had the rubber one too

My friend who was from US living in UK working as nurse had a problem there when she told an old lady she'd be back in a minute and then she could wash up!!! Well this 80 yr old thought that was how she earned her keep in hosp. doing the washing up...

Finally there is the American lady that told me her husband fell on his fanny!!! I was completely taken a back didn't understand how her husband could have one. Another nurse had to explain the confusion to me. Well it gave us all a good laugh.

Suzieque

honeymommy

HAHAHAH..

I was a nurse in UK till we move to USA and I just finished nursing school here....

BM in UK is a blood measurement.... here it is a bowel movement.... I will let you picture the rest........

We had a mexican aid that said my patient "needed a sheet", so I went off to make her bed..... Needless to say the aid was learning english and though that was the appropriate wording to use...... She looked at me as if I was stupid when I returned with a sheet..... She said "No, sweetie she need a sheet"....... The lightbulb came on and I went to get the commode for the patient to have a bowel movement, then calmly explained to the aid that 'sheet' was not the correct phrase for that type of need.....
hahahahaha............

Gross50

Cant remember the name of the book but is has american to english (shouldnt be different) lingo's. i must say sometimes i mentioned words that leave my ecolleagues in dispair, though i have no problem understanding what they are saying.

lift instead of elevator
trunk instead of boot
car rental instead of car hire
yard instead of garden
gas instead of petrol

i got my spell check on UK english. my colleagues have got no problem with that. the fact that america has got so many immigrants from different countries and yet most americans are ignorant about non-US stuff is worrying.

doctor scrumpy

It is a shame that so many people get to the us with no intention or need to speak English. When I collected my work permit last week I was the only person in the room who spoke English, and it seems that to get a job in the BCIS u need to speak Spanish nowadays too. I preferred the line of Dennis Leary ...If you can't speak the language, get out of the country.

lairdside

Wierd. Considering the USPS provides a service called "Parcel Post".

Ray

I have a friend out her from Louisiana who always frighten me when she says "I axed him" She is very keen to learn all about the UK...and has become quite the expert from the site below ...Hope she never actually get there :
http://www.brookview.karoo.net/BFA/

helenmaine

"Put in my Pigeon hole" always causes much hilarity among my workmates....

I suppose Mailbox does actually make more sense....

And the first time I saw the 'fanny-lifter' infomercial it did bring about some pretty scary mental images!

Pimpbot

That sounds more like Andrew Dice Clay, Scrumpy.

Pulaski

With me too, that, and "ledduce", after getting blank looks in the place where I buy salads for lunch. It seems to me that Americans use a much narrower vocabulary than people in the UK. Whether it be packages and parcels, carts, barrows and trollies, or cupboards and closets, it seems to me that in the UK people would understand what you wanted if you used any of those words because of the context. Americans just don't seem to get it!

Ash UK/US

One of the things my husband often points out is when I say me instead of my... 'oh me mum called' or 'wheres me keys' I have noticed others look at me strange when I have said that and it is one bad habit I am really trying to break.

Ash

suzieque

One of the things I have always said and has caused a lot of blank faces and laughter at work is "having a mental" I am not sure how common this is but I've always said it and noone has ever questioned it in UK so must be normal.
Suzie

ScousePete

I was in the grocery store not long after I arrived here and the clerk asked, "Paper or Plastic?"

I thought she was asking how I was going to pay, paper (money) or plastic (credit card). She was totally confused when I replied, "cash"

As far as the water/wadder problem, I find that if you use a D when you would normally use a T you will be understood. Or simply leave the T out completely, as in ATLAAANA, Georgia.

bromleygirl

That's so true - I know that I have had to say "budder" when I'm trying to ask for butter