Nigel

Oh yeh.... I can't remember where I was the first time I heard somone say they had lost their fanny pack. That one took me a while to figure out because I didn't want to be indiscreet!

Pulaski

Ah, the unanticipated benefits I found from having watched "Home Time" and "This Old House" on the Discovery Channel/TLC for years before moving to the US!

Pulaski

Whereas in the UK everyone pronounces everything exactly the same, right?

I'd bet there are as many regional variations in word pronunciation, and use of alternate words, as in the US. - bath v baarth, ga-ridge v ga-rah-ge are two examples that spring immediately to mind.

Also, where I lived as a child (in the UK), a "bun" was a sweet cake, typically iced, sometimes with fruit in, but when my parents moved across the country, a bun was suddenly a "(bread) bun", suitable for making sandwiches. Similarly "plimsols" became "daps" - the language changes moving 150 miles across the UK about drove my mother nuts!

Nigel

You make a valid point .... I was born a Geordie and at one time I could actually understand it ... to be honest it's mostly a foreign language to me now. If I remember rightly we had baps for buns ... or was that Yorkshire? I moved around so much I can't remember which dialect words belong where any more. Sadly, after 14 years in the US I'm sometimes not even sure if I'm hearing an English accent or an Australian one any more ... and that used to drive me nuts when I arrived; people were always asking if I was Australian, particularly on the west coast. I used to think "how could they not be able to tell the difference?" ... maybe I'm just getting old!

Still, I don't remember ever having embarrassing moments in the UK going into shops and not being understood. (I'm sure it happens though).

kevntrace

One phrase that sticks in my mind is "boy toy", when we Brits use "toy boy" for the same thing.

I've said it before, but I'll repeat it again - "burglarized" just drives me round the bend. Don't know why!

And on recent trips back to the UK, I now encounter cultural differences. This whole chip and pin thing had me bamboozled when I was trying to pay for petrol at Sainsburys with an American credit card. The swipe machine wouldn't read my card (despite trying it multiple ways). The cashier explained I needed to hand the card to her - and treated me like a 5 year old for not understanding!

Also this premium coffee explosion in the UK has led to problems too. I get asked to repeat myself when I ask for a "lar-teh" (I suppose they were expecting "lat-teh"). And when I asked for a "mo-cah" the girl said "oh you mean mock-ah".

Quite humiliating and depressing that my fellow Brits no longer understand me - but to be expected after 11 years away I suppose.

Elvira

Now this has happened to me too, and I simply cannot understand how a 'pure' English accent (~ Helen Mirren) could be mistaken for Aussie.

Perhaps YOU could explain?

TIA!

Elvira

Dant3

Despite the Allen company being American, I've yet to find a Home Depot employee who knows what an allen key is. I still have no idea what Americans call a wall plug. I usually give up trying to describe it just go wandering the aisles.

TouristTrap

One of my closest S.A. girlfriends married a chap from the U.K. and moved there years ago. We call each other weekly and it drives me nuts when she pronounces yoghurt as eeeo-gert.. . We pronounce it y-oh-gurt.

cindyabs

Allen key -allen wrench perhaps, at least I've heard that used here and it looks like it's bent?!
Wall plug-socket/outlet?

Pulaski

Nope, .... "anchor", or "wall anchor".

cindyabs

Like a molly?

gruffbrown

wall anchors, sounds like cockney rhyming slang

Pulaski

Uh? .... a "rawl plug", used for holding a wood screw into masonry or sheetrock ("plasterboard" for Paul! ) I have never heard of such a thing called a "molly" - is that British or American English?

Elvira

Are you seriously suggesting they call these bits of cardboard that they use here instead of proper walls "sheetROCK"?

And who ever said Yanks don't do irony...

Elvira

Pulaski

Sheetrock is actually a brand, generically it is known as "dry-wall".