woodsey

I was also told to go try a mcdonalds as coming form england I'd probably never had a burger, I was also asked where abouts in england europe was!!!!
My daughter was also asked by a new school friend what a donkey was called in england!! (he was 13 not 4)

psb182

you must have had this one...."is England in LONDON"

woodsey

oh yes, on a very regular basis

tony_2003

If it's a UK match I turn the sound down and try and get the commentry from the beeb or 5 live. Best one I heard was during Liverpool v Celtic UEFA cup game which was described as "the battle of Britain" in the UK press. The yank comentator said "well I don't know why this has been called the battle of britain because Celtic have a welsh player (hartson) and an Irish player (Neil Lennon, who is Northern Irish) and some Scots in the team."

Lion in Winter

I'm going to save this one to use myself - excellent.

Lion in Winter

Well you can come to Chicago and depending on the area you can have your Burger Death in English, Spanish, Polish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean or Russian. In one area of Chicago alone, Rogers Park, there are 80 different languages spoken by the children in the schools. This is a country of many languages, and that's just the way it is. Europe is a community of many languages, where huge numbers of people can and do learn other languages. In India huge numbers of people speak English, Urdu and another, more local, language. In a lot African countries many people speak their own language plus English or French. Multi-lingualism is the way it's going, and it's a good thing - cut down on cultural misunderstanding and insularism.

But just a thought - if you were in France, living in a huge English community, working with English co-workers, would you speak to your English friends and colleagues in French?

NC Penguin

I'll always remember what an American coworker said to me about the Californians. He said that's where you find the "fruits and nuts". He was so right.

I expect that the per capita figure nationally for cosmetic dentists, plastic surgeons and pet therapists is the highest in the state of California...





NC Penguin

cupranod

In Britain the most annoying phrase is"know what I mean?"repeated several times in each sentence.
In the States it's "know what I'm saying" repeated several times per sentence.
So which country started this bloody annoying crap which means basically the same....................

cindyabs

Sorry, getting the giggles thinking of Eric Idle saying, "know what I mean, know what I mean? Nudge, nudge..........

Also in the US we use-"that's what I'm saying". To quote Basil Fawlty-"master of the bleedn' obvious"

antjen

the way to reply to that is with 'your bad what??'

Ant

ironporer

My wife's favorite by far...along with the notion that now she can live in a 'real house' (I think most Americans believe Spain is down near Honduras or Colombia, and Franco is still ruling from the grave).

And for all the Brits who hate all the "Americanisims" here...the Mexicans and South Americans drive Cathy absolutely crazy too with their modifications to her beloved Castilian Spanish.

englishrosebud

hhhmmmm ... so many to chose from...where does one start?

A total lack of understanding of tenses... how much time do you got?

pure lazyness regarding the end of sentences ..... Do you want to come with? !!!! with what? you? me? him? her? cat's mother? a collander on my head....be specific.

It may be a regional thing but the 'have a nice day' thing has changed into 'have a great day', which now goes one further to 'have a great morning', 'have a great afternoon', 'have a great evening' and yes...you guessed it 'have a great night'. Even when you're shopping for light bulbs at wal-mart at midnight in you're sweats, and so obviously just going home to change a lightbulb. What's GREAT about that?

I find the refrigerator is not the refrigerator, or even the fridge, but the fridgerator. Sounded wierd at first, but not too annoying.

I will never learn to appreciate the total over use of the word 'like' squeezed into every sentence as many times as possible. " so like it was like raining like really hard, and like I had just like walked out of the like salon, so like my hair was like perfect, and I like had no umbrella like....... (actual conversation witnessed in a store (d'oh.....shop...sorry)

However...my personal favourite. Tell a remotely humerous or unbelieveable joke/story, and wait to see how long it is before an American screams at you "SHUT UP" with a big grin from ear to ear. Usually repeated several times, the more you get into it.

I dare say if an American went over to my neck 'o the woods, they would get pretty sick of hearing :

A : ' ey up duck'
B : 'yorright duck?'
A : 'yes duck. You duck?'
B : 'Aye duck. Not back duck'
A : 'see ya duck'
B : 'ta'ra duck'

Manc

that's funny, most americans in my part of the world would get sick of hearing

"Give us yer fukkin' wallet or I'll cut ya."

elfman

Somebody in my office just asked me if I want to "touch base" in the morning. Grrrrr. Actually I think this one is used in most English speaking countries but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Lion in Winter

Did you circle back on that with him?