One of the things that has taken awhile is geting used ot hearing things pronounced differently. The other is different words with different names. If I say to my husband... can you pass me my purse? He will hand me my wallet. If I say pointing at a pile of folded clothes, hand me those pants... he will hand me a pair of underwear. Are you getting the picture? Jersey for Sweater, Vest for onsie or undershirt, waistcoat for vest... and so on!
Now a word or two that can get you into trouble here... bum for bottom, not bum as in vagrant. Oh... and NEVER EVER say that your fanny aches. Fanny is not a word word in the UK for your butt--nope it is slang for vagina. Yup... you will get some strange looks. Another one to be careful of saying is the phrase; 'Toss the Salad'... it is sexual inuendo here. Whereas fag is another word for cigarette. fag ends = cigarette butts.
There are words I hear that I have to stop and mentally translate into american in my head before I can continue... the person can be five sentences ahead and I am still working on the word that sounded wrong and replaying the first sentance in my head so I can comprehend it. I dont watch the news here because I get lost! Deciphering accents and then name pronunciations... it is just too distracting. Say for example there is a news story about something to do with Maryland, it would be pronounced in the UK as 'MARY-Land', not 'Meryland'. Oh, and forget about any Spanish words being pronounced properly. Tortilla, Jalepeno, guacamole to name a few. Just sounds odd. I think Dora the Explorer needs to do a food episode for the masses here!
Life is amusing at times with what pops up! As Always, if anyone would like to add some words and/or share a story, please do!
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