An Irishman once commented that America and Britain are two countries divided by a common language.
Brits understand
soccer and Americans know what
trousers are. But other vocabulary differences cause problems.
One British charity worker offended her Texan hosts by saying “
I could murder a fag!”. In British slang, she really wanted a
cigarette; to the Texan it sounded as if she wanted to kill a
gay person. If an American exclaims,
“Nice pants!” Brits will think he is admiring their underpants, rather than their trousers. A Brit asking to borrow a rubber will cause astonishment in the United States, where
rubbers are condoms, not erasers.
When an American asks for the bathroom in England, they will show him, a room with a bath. He should instead ask for the
loo or
lavatory, or look for sign for Gents, Ladies, Cloakroom or Public Convenience. The Brits will also be confused if he asks for the restroom.
There are also innumerable differences of idiom. At American junctions you must YELD, on British roads you GIVE WAY. In the New York
subway, they warn you to
watch your step; on the London
underground, to
mind the gap. The British study the
American War of Independence; in the US it’s celebrated as the
Revolutionary War.
A British lexicographer Ernest Gowers considered British usage definitive, as English originated there. American journalist, HL Mencken, disagreed: “When two thirds of the people who use a language call it a
freight train instead a
goods train, they are right; the first is correct usage and the second a dialect!”.
So they remain divide by a common language…. Taken from th magazine “Speak up”,the newsmagazine for your English –July 2006
Website: www.speakuponline.it
