English-isms
Just because we both speak English deosn’t mean we mean the same thing, sometimes, not in the slightest. So to help you all understand the culture gap here I a list of English-isms that I have observed in the past three weeks.
Soccer is called football
Supposedly the play so much football here but there are not many fields for the public. I haven’t found one yet.
A bus is called a coach.
You drive and bike on the left side of the road. It’s a bigger adjustment than one would think. They also drive on the other side of the car. This also means you enter a coach from the other side as well.
Riding you bike is called cycling. It is your cycle, not your bike. You helmet is also called a ‘crash helmet’
Sidewalk is called the pavement.
The highway is called the motor way.
Speed limits are in mph! So they do understand miles here.
Your pants are called your trousers, and your underwear is called pants. So you never want to say that you just changed your pants.
The bathroom is called the toilet, or the loo. The bathroom in a public place doesn’t make sense to them since you don’t bathe there. Also they are not called restrooms because again your not resting.
Another note on the toilet. The toilet paper is never on the toilet paper roll holder. Its always just sitting on the back. Some toilets are designed to allow the role to just sit there. Some places they have individual sheets of TP that come out of a paper towel dispenser kind of thing.
Also the sinks are SUPER tiny. And the hot and cold water do not come out of the same faucet. There is one for hot and one for cold. The Hot one is very HOT–Always and instantly.
Exit signs read “way out” instead
Flashlights are called torches.
A pound is their currency, not a weight, a quid also means pound the currency–is like slang like we say bucks they say quid.
A pint always means beer.
Basements are called cellars.
You can sign the letter T with your hands and you mean Tea.
Tea is always served with milk.
All the outlets are huge! and they all have individual switches on them to turn the outlet on or off. The outlets are not aesthetically pleasing at all. They don’t even bother to put fancy covers on them.
The same is true for light switches.
Everyone’s cellphone here is from 2000, they are not that big in their technology. There are more VHSs in the house than there are DVDs and you can forget blueray.
When at the stop light and when it is red the yellow light will come on below it just before it turns green. I always feel like Im at a drag-strip every time I am stopped at a light.
Cheers! is universal saying depending on inflection meaning hey! sorry! cya! yea right!
Instead of saying “right away” like ill be with you ‘right away’ they say ‘straight away’ and this one is my favorite!
Never give the peace sign, it means something else quite the opposite.
Trash cans are called rubbish bins.
This is all I can think of so far I hope you enjoyed them I know I do or at least try to each day. It kinda stinks when you say bathroom or trash can and they shoot back snobbish “you mean the rubbish can?!” Its like yes the rubbish can…you knew what I meant clearly. Oh well its all apart of not being in your home country. Its been a lot of fun thus far, lets see how many of these will stick when I come home!
Cheers!
