Americans! Please help me with tank tops!!!

[Churchladychurchlady]

This thread is great. My husband is from Northern England and laughs because the big fad around here (MN) now are "growlers" of beer. I can't hear someone ordering one now without giggling to myself.

Yes!! "Growlers" are rather popular in the mid atlantic too...

 

[Stubbette]

@Stubbette in the pic you posted, is that the actress who plays Eva on Coronation Street?

Yes! Although I don't watch it - it was the first suitable 'vest top and skirt' picture that google gave me! I suppose I should watch it though.... it's filmed only a few miles up the road!

 

[postalchick71]

I had cousins visiting from Ireland. They were talking about the craic (pronounced crack) was great. My friend asked were all Irish people so open about their drug use! I told her craic was conversation/entertainment. Not a form of cocaine!

 

[bcwife76]

Yes! Although I don't watch it - it was the first suitable 'vest top and skirt' picture that google gave me! I suppose I should watch it though.... it's filmed only a few miles up the road!

Her outfit is quite nice ;-)

Definitely planning on doing a Corrie set tour when we go to the UK in a few years! I grew up watching it (my parents are British) and still watch it to this day lol

 

[tlprice]

Another clothing term from the UK that I had to look up when I first started reading Harry Potter books was jumper. Growing up in the U.S. a jumper was a dress with shoulder straps that you wore over a shirt. I wondered why the boys in Harry Potter would be wearing one of those!

Like a previous poster, when I was young flip-flops were called thongs. Several historical documents we read in my history class that I teach mention thongs and my students always laugh hysterically. I always have to explain to them that thong means thin strip of material (no matter the use).

 

[CalDisneyMomof2]

I giggled reading this thread

 

[SirDuff]

Her outfit is quite nice ;-)

Definitely planning on doing a Corrie set tour when we go to the UK in a few years! I grew up watching it (my parents are British) and still watch it to this day lol

FYI - there are no more Corrie set tours.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...ws/fans-say-fond-farewell-coronation-10677783

 

[bcwife76]

@SirDuff Dang it, I waited too long!

 

[Donna M]

Yes!! "Growlers" are rather popular in the mid atlantic too...

Up here in New England too.

When I was in England during college in the late 70's, the first day in the cafe, we Americans were trying to guess what the beverage, squash, was. Ew, who would drink liquid squash. When we found out it was fruit punch, we said, "Oh, bug juice!" What weird terms we all use.

 

[kid-at-heart]

Sorry for being off-topic. I do not have much to add to the tank top discussion other than we were told that the main thing they were concerned with in the dining rooms were clothing that displayed too much skin (I assume they meant cleavage) and bra straps/sides. Now for my off topic comment, there is a movie about the dance, Shag. Fun to watch, especially if you are a teen girl. My daughter loved it when she was younger. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098300/

 

[tink1970]

I am so glad someone mentioned "pants" and their meaning(s).

Earlier this month, Mom and I were dining in Ireland and she was wearing a skirt, but a little chilly. She said (loudly) in her mild hard of hearing way "I have to go put on pants. I'm not wearing pants and I need some pants it's cold." I was dying of embarrassment, especially when we were getting frosty glares from fellow diners.
"Moooom, please be quiet. You are not saying what you think you are."
Once I explained the different meaning of the same work (an ocean apart does weird things to the language apparently) she replied testily as only a senior citizen parent can "What do I care, I'll never see these people again."
Sigh...

 

[redsonja76]

Another thing I had no idea until quite recently actually ( been coming to to US on vacation for 18 years ) that you guys don't wear white after Labor Day! My wife and I have been sporting white in the winter most years until we learnt we were commiting a social faux pas. A friend from Florida kindly told us. What a strange custom! We don't have anything strange of course in the UK lol ( like setting lite to a dummy on Guy Fawkes night to celebrate the catching of a man who almost blew up Parliament)

Remember Remember the 5th of November!!!!!

 

[phinz]

she replied testily as only a senior citizen parent can "What do I care, I'll never see these people again."
Sigh...

I'm a couple of decades from being "senior" and I say this all the time.

 

[Ware Bears]

Loving this thread!

 

[kamik86]

This thread is great. My husband is from Northern England and laughs because the big fad around here (MN) now are "growlers" of beer. I can't hear someone ordering one now without giggling to myself.

Ok what else is a growler? This is the only one in this thread I didn't get... I live in New England and here I have only heard it used for the jars that breweries sell to take home beer that is on tap.

These are good things to remember for my trip in September. Most of them I translate in my head easy enough as they are terms we never use here. Pants is the hard one since it is one of the few that we actually use the word for here. (What do you guys call things like dress pants or jeans again? I forgot)

 

[MaleficentUK]

Trousers. I moved to the UK in 2000 and found pants are trousers, a term common for my grandparents' generation, not mine.

 

[Raya]

Trousers....found pants are trousers.

Suddenly the phrase "all pants and no trousers" makes a bit more sense.

 

[Ware Bears]

Yep, pants are trousers, dress pants are smart trousers and jeans are jeans.

 

[phinz]

Ok what else is a growler?

It's another one of those "lady bits" words, but a bit more on the "yikes" side.

 

[Stubbette]

Oooh! I forgot about suspenders! They hold up stockings (hosiery ones) here. Braces are worn by men to keep trousers up. Hose is something you water a lawn with and don't put on your legs. It took me about half an hour to work out what a group of American visiting students at my university were asking me about, trying to find a hose shop (why?!?!?) and then getting into the whole suspenders confusion!!!