“Oh my God – are you really British? I love your accent!” My English friends and I hear this almost everywhere we go – paying for our shopping in Walmart, scrounging cigarettes in bars, even from the occasional Professor. It still hasn’t got old (ask me again in seven months). Usually people request the standard, “Can I have a cup of tea?” or “I fancy a packet of crisps.” But no matter who I’m talking to, people always seem intrigued by ‘Britishisms’ (or, as we like to call it, proper English). So here are a few of the most obvious places where English and American shed their similarities and slip apart:
Jumper = Sweater
Chips = Fries
Crisps = Chips
Duvet = Comforter
Knackered = Tired
Biscuits = Cookies
Boot = Trunk
Trash = Rubbish
Tea = A hot milky drink that can cure any problem or make any day better
Then there are all the slightly more confusing differences – these are a lot harder to explain because in England people have a deep belief in the idea of casual swearing. We find it quite difficult to express any sentiment without at least a grade-three swear word embedded somewhere in our sentence (I’ve had quite a lot of trouble with words that aren’t rude in England but are here). So I’ll try and fill you in on any of the polite ones: I fancy someone means you have a crush on them, but I fancy doing something means you’d be quite up for it. If you were to say a guy or girl is ‘fit’ (or you could even go as far as ‘proper fit’) that would mean they were hot. Also, we sometimes like to put ‘well’ or ‘proper’ in front of things to mean very, this is quite a Northern English thing, but it gets your point across pretty well (e.g. “that burger was well tasty”).
One of the other areas where I have met blank stares of confusion is when mentioning the “Lad.” Lad culture is absolutely huge in the UK (sadly). I think that the closest American equivalent would be a Bro, but I don’t think that they’re that similiar. Lads down copious pints, watch semi-obscene amounts of soccer, tell gross (and almost certainly untrue) stories about girls and enjoy getting naked at almost every opportunity. Oh, and they mark their territory by frequent bouts of vomiting or “chundering.” They also have a heavy reliance on the use of the word “banter” or “bants,” which used to mean funny, witty chat but now is more just a way to talk about something gross or ridiculous that happened. Say, if at rugby initiation a boy was forced to do horrible things that he never wanted to talk about again, then when discussing it with his rugby mates (aka friends), he’d have to laugh about it and say something like, “Oh yeh, just a cheeky bit of bants.” Or if a guy humiliated one of his friends (or fellow lads) he could justify it by saying it was just a bit of bants. Lads have also set up a network of disgusting websites (which I could give you names for, but I don’t think you need to read anything that sickening), in which they chronicle their sexual exploits, including any stories involving their partners’ humiliation. It’s all okay though; it’s just for bants, right?
So, that was a basic over-view. I feel like I’ve missed out quite a lot (I didn’t even get to cover the much-asked about chav) but I can always fill you in more later, if I don’t forget how to talk like a proper English person before then.