Those funny Americans.....

[IrishEyes80]

Here in Australia:


Ordering coffee here can be an adventure for American with in addition to the common Cappuccino and Latte we have Long Black, Short Black and Flat White. While these are of course not unique to here, the terminology can be confusing to visitors.

I have to say that as an American, Australia is my favorite english speaking country. Just because some of your slang words crack me up! One of my favorite on-line authors I have found is an Aussie. He cracks my up all the time!

As far as ordering coffee goes, I don't drink coffee and have never set foot in a Starbucks but I think I would have a good time watching my family go through this!!

 

[desertslave]

I have a Swedish friend who was thoroughly confused when she heard someone order an "egg cream" in NYC--and then learned that it contains neither eggs nor cream.

That gets lost in translation even from one part of the US to another. It's a uniquely NYC-type drink. My ex grew up on Long Island and loved them, a passion our daughter shares. Imagine her horror, when visiting Arizona and ordering one in a 50s-style restaurant, as it was presented to her and had chocolate milk and ice cream in it. The look on her face was priceless! (For the record, it's properly soda water and milk, frothed up, with chocolate syrup gently stirred in.)

 

[infinity706]

I really like it when UK women say someone got on thier tits. That would be got her pissed for Americans. (of course, pissed in the UK means you had too much alcohol) Of course, slag isn't just molten metal in the UK. It's also a slut. Willy is a guy's dick. The fanny difference particularly led to one very disappointed woman that assumed American guys were really kinky and regularly spanked a woman's cunt.

Barbie isn't just a doll in Austraila. It's also a barbecue grill. You probably wouldn't want to be named Sheila and go there, though, becuase it's a word for woman. (men are blokes) The word cunt is used a whole lot, too. Of course, it isn't always negative. You can even call your friend a cunt. It also gets used as a general use term like fuck that can be lots of parts of speech. You could have a cunt of a day. You could trip on the cunting stairs.

 

[IrishEyes80]

You probably wouldn't want to be named Sheila and go there, though, becuase it's a word for woman. (men are blokes)

I was in high school and went on a double date with my best friend and her bf to our local Outback Steak House, her bf went to the bathroom and came back and looked at my bf and said "hey did you know we're blocks" and my bf just looked at him like he was nuts. My bf asked what he meant and he said, "it says blokes on the bathroom door."

I have never laughed so hard in my life! When I explained how to actually say the word he got angry that we laughed at him, of course that didn't stop me from laughing.

 

[Lynn_MXX]

I find the term 'visit the bathroom' a bit strange. If we Brits were to 'visit the bathroom', we'd take a bath

 

[xBuxombabex]

I find the term 'visit the bathroom' a bit strange. If we Brits were to 'visit the bathroom', we'd take a bath

I agree - and the idea of a half bathroom is just bizarre!!

And to go back a long way - I dont know why we do it but saying 'he's in hospital' isn't an abstract concept - I suppose it's a bit like asing where someone is & being told 'he's at school' we wouldn't say 'he's at THE school'??

 

[NippleMuncher]

And to go back a long way - I dont know why we do it but saying 'he's in hospital' isn't an abstract concept - I suppose it's a bit like asing where someone is & being told 'he's at school' we wouldn't say 'he's at THE school'??

I suspect it's like one of those "I before E, except after C" kind of things, or like whether to use "A" or "an" before a word or acronym. "the hospital" sounds more correct than simple hospital, and "at school" sounds better than "the school"

 

[xBuxombabex]

I suspect it's like one of those "I before E, except after C" kind of things, or like whether to use "A" or "an" before a word or acronym. "the hospital" sounds more correct than simple hospital, and "at school" sounds better than "the school"

Ahh two peoples divided by a common language!

 

[NippleMuncher]

Ahh two peoples divided by a common language!

The concept of I before E except after C seems so weird!

 

[sun_sea_sky]

Entrée is the first course of a meal, not the main course as in the US.

When I went to the USA on business I was surprised to find how big the entrée was. "Wow," I thought, "if that is the entrée, the main course must be huge!"

And as for "route". We pronounce that the same as "root". When (network) routers came out years ago we used to call them "rooters" which cracked me up at the time. The things that root (fuck). I kept thinking about sex. In order to keep a straight face I had to pronounce them in the American way.

Even today when I see the error message "No route to host" internally I hear "No root to host".

 

[sun_sea_sky]

E-Z setup

Another one ...

Years ago I got some software that had a button "E-Z setup". Now where I come from Z is pronounced "Zed" so it looked like Eee-Zed setup. "What the fuck is eee-zed setup?" I thought. "Better not press that."

Years later I worked out that since Americans pronounce Z as "Zee" it was really Eee-Zee Setup, in other words Easy Setup.

Now they could have saved a lot of trouble outside the USA by just labeling the button Easy Setup instead of E-Z Setup.

 

[Lion_Roar]

Here in the UK, what our American cousins call an eraser, we call a rubber; a word which I believe has a different meaning across the Atlantic; although both are good for preventing mistakes,

I had a math teacher in my junior year of high school that was fresh over from the UK. Right before we took our first test he reminded us to remember to put our names on the exam. He then proceeded to tell us that there was a box of rubbers on his desk in case anyone needed one. The entire class just stared at him blankly for a few minutes.

 

[candeecain]

My US bf and i have had some interesting conversations where clearly we are speaking at totally cross purposes ........."you wna ride?" he said...naturally im thrilled and start to remove my clothes to a "wtf are you doing?" from him turns out hes going to give me a lift to the store .........or the time he insisted i sounded pissed and i indignantly informed him i hadnt been drinking ....nasty in the uk means mean and spiteful mean in the uk is unwilling to spend money and when i asked for a biscuit to have with my coffee i never expected gravy on it..

 

[njlauren]

When I was in my gearhead phase I had a workshop manual written in the UK, and they use different terms all over the place. I knew what they were, from years of watching BBC programming, but it still was fun. Boot=trunk was easy (though I thought it was funny that they referred to the rubber covering over the master and slave cylinders as "rubbers" instead of boot), wrench=spanner, shock absorber=damper (actually the UK term is the correct one, that is what it does, it dampens the action of the springs), and they called the rod bearings on the pistons "sleeve bearings". Funniest thing was a long,involved procedure that they recommended you start and finish it without stopping, and they said "you may want to visit the WC before doing this". I realized what the author meant, it was the bathroom (WC=watercoloset) but I had never seen that in a UK context, that was usually Europe.

With an Egg Cream, you can't use any chocolate syrup, it has to be Fox's U bet chocolate syrup, or in the original Brooklyn dialect *get oudda here with dat crap*.....(alas, a dying breed, today brooklyn is full of these washed out "hipster" types from burbs everywhere, whose dialect is everything starts with 'like' or 'dude'.....*shudder*