Who else Americanises their posts?

[florida-again]

PLEASE DELETE THIS, I SEEM TO HAVE POSTED TWICE

 

[Mandabella]

I do! Whenever I post anywhere except the UK boards, I always seem to be posting in 'American'!

I think its half because I'm worried that the US Dis'ers might not know what I mean if I talk British English!

Oh don't worry about that! How else do we learn about each other if we are converting English from yours to mine? I like learning the differences between the UK, Australia, Canada, NZ, and the US. Heck...it's interesting to see the regional differences in the US for me.

 

[fizz13]

Yep I americanize my posts all the time. Lines, restrooms, grade instead of year (for school), vacation, to name but a few. The trouble is when it crosses over into my everyday life, people think I've gone crazy. Yep, my kids do the funny accent too, but then so did I when I was little.

Claire xx

 

[leise]

Back in 2001 when DD was 8 we were in the Shamu shop in Seaworld. She collects...ehem....rubbers.

...so in the middle of the shop she shouts at the top of her voice, "Dad! Dad! Look at all the rubbers they sell in here. I want some and I want to use them tonight! LOOK AT THIS ONE...it's so big it must be for Shamu the Whale"

You should have seen the looks on the Americans' faces.

That's a great story, it's got DH and me rolling on the floor. Exactly the sort of thing our DS does.

I tend to become more British in the US too; bizarrely when I'm in the US I catch myself saying things in a dodgy Liz Hurley accent...DH kills himself...

 

[diberry]

And when we're in the States I absolutely adore being called ma'am (well, I did until I realised it's only used for women, shall we say, not in the first flush of youth!!!!! )

It's not just for older ladies.

I'm just 20 so getting any kind of politeness is rare!

A good looking-ish waiter in a restaurant in Florida said 'Yes Ma'am' to me....I totally swooned! Even in front of my BF I couldn't pretend not to be totally won over by that!

Oh that's good news!!!

 

[Tigger113]

The funniest thing happened to us on on a Disney bus this year on the way to AK. I was sat with my 12 year old son and the bus was quite packed, just behind us was an American lady sat with her daughter who was also about 12. Her husband was further up the bus with the younger child. The mum shouted out to her husband....

'Don, Can you pass me my Fanny Pack I need a wipe'

My 12 year old did not know what to do his face... was in complete shock and then he started to giggle. It was only when I got of the bus that I could explain what she meant!!

That one made me laugh out loud!!! Me and my daughter took a cruise over the summer to Europe so we studied the guide books real well and discovered that we shouldn't use the words "fanny pack"!! Another thing was the flight attendant on BA asked us we had any rubbish, we say trash or garbage her in the states.

We just loved it there and can't wait until we can come back!!

 

[jonestavern]

Oh Lisa you're not alone, if I listen in on any of my sons make believe games with his friends you'd believe there were a crowd of yanks in the house!

DS16 & 2 of his friends have memorized vast amounts of Monty Python routines & movies & Blackadder episodes. The boys do tolerable British accents & some great comedy!
[when DS was much younger he very much liked performing these bits at really inappropriate times, crooning "I Like Chinese" in pre-school. Thanks DH!]

DS16 will be traveling to Britain spring of '06 so I look forward to him improving the 'accent' & perhaps acquiring new comedy 'routines'.
Oh, yes, warned DS & DH regarding the 'fanny pack' situation.
On the east coast, in New England, you will hear 'on' line for standing 'in' a line or queue is also, used. Car park is heard, too.
You will never hear 'rubbers' used for erasers!

Jean

 

[carolfoy]

Last year whilst giving an order to a waiter in a disney restaurant (I can't remember which one) he made me repeat it three times, I must have looked at him quizzically as he so obviously heard me he then said 'sorry ma'am I just wanted to hear you say it again as I love your accent' I nearly fainted with lust!

 

[susan1]

hi
another one that fooled me at first was calling a hand bag a purse, we were at sea world when i was told by a kind gentleman that my purse was on the floor. i looked everywhere , then he said maam its down by your feet. i told him why we were both bewildered and he said he had actually seen a book with allthe english/american equivelant words!

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

...and when I was at the movies resort I was walking to the food centre. Two men were smoking outside their room. They said hello to me, and I replied, "I see you are both taking the opportunity to have a crafty ***."

I stopped having realised what I had said and said "sorry, I mean a cigarette".

Luckily they did said they knew a "***" was a cigarette in England

"The taps dripping" I said
"Faucet", said the American
"I am forcing it, but it's still dripping!!"

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

. to have a crafty ***."

I stopped having realised what I had said and said "sorry, I mean a cigarette".

Luckily they did said they knew a "***" was a cigarette in England


ahh! Syntax doesn't allow me to use that English word in America.

 

[minkydog]

We visited my cousin Margaret in Bath a few years ago. We grew up in the U.S. but she married a Brit and has made her home in Wiltshire for the past 10 years. Our families met at the Pump Room for tea and the funniest thing to me was how she would switch unconsciously from British English(while ordering with the waiter) to American English (while conversing with us.)

I'm a big tea drinker here in the U.S.--my mom was raised in a very British household and we had cream tea every day until I went off to college. So going to England was like "coming home." My DH, on the other hand, was born and bred in the ways of the Deep South. They drink only iced tea there and he had a hard time with that in the U.K. When we had been there about 5 days this delightful young waitress was taking our order for dinner,when she stopped and said "Would you like some iced tea?" I thought Dh would faint! It turned out she had lived in Texas as a small child and recognised our accents. She was really taken with southerners and remembered the sweet iced tea from her childhood. She didn't know how to make it, so DH went to the kitchen with her to oversee the production. She brought out a whole pitcher of the stuff--nectar of the gods! I thought DH was going to take a swim in it!

 

[diberry]

Last year whilst giving an order to a waiter in a disney restaurant (I can't remember which one) he made me repeat it three times, I must have looked at him quizzically as he so obviously heard me he then said 'sorry ma'am I just wanted to hear you say it again as I love your accent' I nearly fainted with lust!

 

[diberry]

"The taps dripping" I said
"Faucet", said the American
"I am forcing it, but it's still dripping!!"

Truly awful!!!!!

 

[jobo]

I also have has the “fanny pack” conversation. My DH is a Londoner and I’m a California girl. When my parents come for the first time to England, we picked them up at Gatwick. On the way back to the Flat (Apartment), my Mother was telling me about this wonderful new fanny pack she had bought for the trip. I thought DH was going to swerve right off the M25. We still laugh about it to this day.

The other one that confused me was flannel for a washcloth. Flannel to me is a button down “Flannel” shirt.

 

[VSL]

My posts are usually a mix of British and American words and phrases. When I'm actually in the US, though, I tend to use a more 'English' accent than a Welsh one - my accent is Wenglish anyway (probably as a result of singing elocution!), but I subconsciously take the Welsh edge away from it so that American peeps can understand me better.

Then, of course, they think I'm English, and I have to explain, 'No, no - I'm Welsh', to which many of them reply, 'Yeah, English', and then I have to explain and blah blah blah...
It's much easier when the assumption is just made that I'm British and it stays at that

 

[diberry]

Something I keep trying to remember is to say: "you're welcome" instead of just the usual British smile with no comment. I think it's really nice when people say:"you're welcome" and I've noticed it a lot more in UK recently. When we were staying on the Gulf Coast a few years ago we were by the pool and a mum asked her little boy, who was only about 2, to pass her a towel. When she said "thank you" he said "you're welcome" and it was adorable in such a little child - but it's charming when anyone says it.