Who would have thought that there could be so many differences between British English and American English? Guess when we went independent, we decided to change up the vocab too. Here are a few of the terms that have caused me the most trouble when shopping/communicating:
- a pillow, like a decorative pillow = cushion
- a drying rack for clothing = indoor airer (which sounds like "error" when I say it)
- a comforter, like for your bed = duvet (the British word comforter means massage chair because it literally comforts you)
- french fries = chips
- chips, like potato chips = crisps
- trash = rubbish
- trash can = rubbish bin, and we just discovered that the "pedal bin" bags we bought are for tiny trash cans, like the ones in the bathroom...so we have to go find regular bin liners I guess
- an advertisement = advert, which makes sense, it's just abbreviated
...and lastly, we discovered that you cannot get to the UK version of American websites simply by adding .co.uk to the end. For example, the British Amazon.com is Amazon.co.uk. So when we tried to go to nbc.com to watch some episodes of The Sing-Off and Parenthood, we were greeted by a message that said those shows couldn't be streamed outside the US. We thought we were smarter than the system, so we typed in nbc.co.uk....DON'T GO THERE! It is an adult website!!! After the initial second of shock, we exited Firefox as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, we have not figured out a way to catch up on our American shows, but we think we may be able to watch British tv online. Maybe we will find some new favorites.
Today we also met up with Chad, the other OSU grad who is studying here. He is in a different program (*programme) than Matt, but it was fun to have a friend. We ate lunch with him at The Eagle pub.
2 interesting tidbits about this particular place...One, the writing on the ceiling is the names of different Royal Air Force squadrons from WWII, hence the pub is also known as the RAF Bar. And two, this is the place in 1953 where Watson and Crick went to celebrate after they discovered the existence of DNA. In their own words, they had "discovered the secret of life." How cool is that? I'm sure there are scores of other neat little historical places scattered all over this city. I need to take an official guided tour and report back my findings.
We are back home now, starting more laundry and more unpacking. We don't have hangers yet, so we can't hang many clothes up, but we now have the right detergent, and things are slowly feeling more like home. Tomorrow I'll try to post again after we go to church. We are going to attempt to find Holy Trinity, which is the supposedly non-denominational church that our friend Renee attended last year while she was here. Oh, and PS- the pasta last night was a mild success. Cooker conquered!
- a pillow, like a decorative pillow = cushion
- a drying rack for clothing = indoor airer (which sounds like "error" when I say it)
- a comforter, like for your bed = duvet (the British word comforter means massage chair because it literally comforts you)
- french fries = chips
- chips, like potato chips = crisps
- trash = rubbish
- trash can = rubbish bin, and we just discovered that the "pedal bin" bags we bought are for tiny trash cans, like the ones in the bathroom...so we have to go find regular bin liners I guess
- an advertisement = advert, which makes sense, it's just abbreviated
...and lastly, we discovered that you cannot get to the UK version of American websites simply by adding .co.uk to the end. For example, the British Amazon.com is Amazon.co.uk. So when we tried to go to nbc.com to watch some episodes of The Sing-Off and Parenthood, we were greeted by a message that said those shows couldn't be streamed outside the US. We thought we were smarter than the system, so we typed in nbc.co.uk....DON'T GO THERE! It is an adult website!!! After the initial second of shock, we exited Firefox as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, we have not figured out a way to catch up on our American shows, but we think we may be able to watch British tv online. Maybe we will find some new favorites.
Today we also met up with Chad, the other OSU grad who is studying here. He is in a different program (*programme) than Matt, but it was fun to have a friend. We ate lunch with him at The Eagle pub.
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| This is the room we ate in. You order your food at the bar. |
We are back home now, starting more laundry and more unpacking. We don't have hangers yet, so we can't hang many clothes up, but we now have the right detergent, and things are slowly feeling more like home. Tomorrow I'll try to post again after we go to church. We are going to attempt to find Holy Trinity, which is the supposedly non-denominational church that our friend Renee attended last year while she was here. Oh, and PS- the pasta last night was a mild success. Cooker conquered!
I loved reading your recent conquests and glad you got to meet up with Chad. I know it is hard keeping all of us informed while you are learning but we love reading it.
ReplyDeleteAlso have you tried watching TV on BBC? That's probably what you meant by British TV online but Amy that I work with says she watches stuff on there from here.
Talk soon,
Mom