UK and America are two countries separated by a common language, UK and US Q&A

[Pipbin]

Continuation of the previous thread where posters from the UK ask questions like 'what the hell is going on with the gaps in US toilet doors'; and posters fro the US ask things like 'what is with wearing stripes'

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/a2149133-to-think-there-is-something-wrong-with-Americans?msgid=48969042#48969042

I type things the British way - I have done since I got here as I was often typing up reports and had to make sure I had the correct UK spellings. So I often default to UK spelling now. I've noticed a few times in the last year or so that I cannot think of the American word for a few things. Odd.

I say mum and type mum because I have a 5yo and 8yo that call me mum. Less confusing. And I don't always like to explain that I'm American. Sometimes it's less isolating to blend in.

I still won't wear a hat to a wedding though. Then I WOULD feel like a fraud. (oh, and I don't do the ridiculous Madonna thing where she adopted a British accent either)

On here, I use American spelling, but I will often use a British word for things like trousers where the US word means something else in the UK. I tend to write mother rather than mum or mom.

When I was a student in the UK, I used British spelling in my essays.

I still won't wear a hat to a wedding though.
Is that a British thing then?

As for American spellings I don't care much on here, generally the meaning is clear and it is the way you spell. I do get annoyed by UK magazines, newspapers and shops using American spellings though. I read a magazine article the other day that used the term 'counter-clockwise', and we have just had a Buddhist Center open in my town. They both made me chunter into my beard.

I grew up reading American books and watching American TV, neither of which were adapted to UK audiences. Therefore American spellings and phrases are common to me. However it did jar when I was watching an episode of Frazier the other day when the career lady, who was meant to be from Manchester said 'it might have gotten trampled into the hall carpet when people ran for the elevator'. We get told that they have to do stuff like that otherwise the Americans won't understand, like with The Madness of King George.

We are constantly being fed these line about how Americans are a bit dumb and need everything explaining to them. It's common to hear things like 'well this had to be adapted for the American audience because they wouldn't understand'.
This has lead me to be amazed at the amount of UK programmes on US Netflix (we have some crazy business that means we get US Netflix). I can't believe that the Americans like All Creatures Great and Small.

To Americans: I recommend this book: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notes_from_a_Small_Island

I heard on the radio recently that there was a bit of a fad in the US for using Britishisms at the moment - don't know if that's true or how widespread. I work for a US company so I have to try to avoid idioms which might not be understood (early on, the expression 'one off' turned out to be incomprehensible, which surprised me) - and use US spellings. As they're usually shorter I don't mind.

Cheerful hope you are back on the road and DD is ok?

Like Tabula with her normal speech I cut out many Irish phrases and terms when posting, but my normal spelling is British spelling. I have to consciously drop Us out of words when I write in the US. The DCs poke fun at me and mispronounce words like colour when I write them.

However, I feel a bit strange using the word Mum and Mummy except in reference to my own mother -- I couldn't imagine myself ever calling her Mom, whereas I am Mommy to the DCs (for some reason they do not use Mom at all even thought they are now aged 13 to 24. DS has a completely non-mother related name for me, which is odd, though he sometimes calls me Ma).

Hats and fascinators at weddings are considered very British. I have never seen any at American weddings (mostly RC) and they were never a thing in Ireland either except for CofI weddings, though my mother has been to a few weddings recently where the mother and grandmother of the bride had a hat. I hate hats. I have never managed to find one that didn't turn me into Worzel Gummidge.

I think in the case of Frasier it was just bad writing in the case of 'gotten', but elevator is a word you would learn to use very soon after arrival (probably in the airport) so I wouldn't fault them for that. Around here, got is used far more frequently then gotten. As far as things British went, imo the worst sin of Frasier was different British accents for Daphne and her brother, but this wasn't something my DCs noticed at all.

I would never call Americans dumb -- maybe they are victims of a bit of patronising though? I do think there is more language traffic from west to east than east to west however.
British TV is hot in the US. I became aware of a fanatic little Doc Martin fan club among mothers in DD4's school two years ago, and DD4 and the computer lab teacher used to chat about Downton Abbey during lab time. Doctor Who and Sherlock are taking over the world, with no concession to non-British audiences that I can see. I wonder if some British speech will creep into the US as a result.

Oh, I was watching Frasier just the other night, and Daphne has a line about the dog misbehaving, and says, "If he keeps this up, someone is going to get a smack on the fanny!"

You'd think Jane Leeves would have had a word with the writers. It was definitely intended as "bottom".

That's one Americanism I had no idea about till I lived there, which suggests that most films/TV had managed to avoid it - so very odd that it should be said by an English character. Maybe Jane was deliberately being naughty?

Can I be clear that I wasn't inferring that I think Americans are dumb, it's just what we are told all the time.

I can't remember if I said on this or the previous thread but I recall Hugh Laurier saying that when he was making a live action version of 101 Dalmations years ago there was a scene with raccoons. He pointed out that we don't have raccoons in the uk. The answer came back 'says in the script you do'.

I think we are seeing more British films, TV and books going to the US with little changed for an American audience. I remember when in HMV when you would have to look in the 'world cinema' section for British films. Then Four Weddings and a Funeral changed that.

When we lived in Illinois I was always pleasantly surprised by total strangers asking 'hi, how are you?' Or 'hi, how are you doing?'

It took a long while to realise that it was really just a polite/informal/casual form of greeting rather than a genuine question.

The correct reply at most would be 'I'm good, how are you?'

Any further elaboration on the weather, or your great aunts digestive troubles for example, would be unnecessary and entirely unwelcome

Alice you mentioned that there are 'right to work states' in the US - what does that mean please?

I have to admit that I don't watch things like Friends or a lot of the US sitcoms now. I really enjoy the British ones. I do have my old favourites - I watch MASH and Home Improvement (have the entire boxset of that show!!). But otherwise, most British programming. Better jokes, for starters.

Pipbin - I think TV companies are just weird about accent and speech, I'd be subtitled on TV outside of Scotland, but I've never met anyone who couldn't actually understand my accent yet. (You know if I use real words and make an effort not to say things like wurruld instead of world, lol)

I mean Rab C Nesbett was subtitled in England and half the point of him was that he was drunk and no-one could understand him, they were going to subtitle the Saturday's reality programme in America because they have Essex accents, but honey boo boo goes out without any subtitles...I can't see how Essex can be harder to follow than things like that if that's not your accent?

So yeah I always just assume it's TV companies trying to avoid that one annoyed letter, lol.

Nydj en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law

I have only worn a hat to a wedding once in my life and that was in the UK. I think hats are ok, but I find fascinators completely bizarre, I have to say.

I watch a lot of British TV as do most of my friends. I think with Masterpiece Theatre on PBS (although they now just call it Masterpiece), the "Britcoms" shown on PBS, and BBC America, more people are able to understand British expressions. I also read a lot of British literature and I hate it when it is "translated" for US audiences. This is happening less now, though.

There is a new series on TV here in the States called Outlander (based on the books by Diana Gabaldon) set in 18th Century Scotland. It's breaking new ground as far as language is concerned; much of it is in Gaelic, with no subtitles, and there are also a lot of Scots words thrown about with no subtitles or translation. Clearly, the US producers are expecting their audience to understand much from context. (It's a US production but filmed in Scotland primarily with actors from the UK and Ireland.)

An interesting cultural difference in this thread was when someone asked about paying for the school buses in the USA and Replies from US said that they were paid for with people's 'tax dollars' even those who said they didn't pay later seemed to clarify that their tax dollars paid for it. In the UK, a reference to taxes would be deemed unnecessary as if it was free at point of use, then clearly, it is free but equally clearly, it would have been paid for by some means - usually by people's taxes. Although there was a worrying trend at the last election to refer to taxes from 'hard working families' paying for those on benefits etc but that's a different matter.

Thank you Alice for the explanation of right to work.

I've never worn a hat to a wedding or in fact been to a wedding where hats are worn...maybe that's a class thing? Lol

no-one has picked up Outlander over here, but, the Scots languages in the books weren't the best feature tbh, though to be fair Scottish authors struggle with it as well.

Still, I'm hoping I get to see it anyway.

tabulahrasa re the hats to weddings. Never worn one? hmmm. I don't think it's a class thing. I just thought it was a British thing - I've actually been asked at a relative's wedding why I wasn't wearing one. I just explained that I was American and felt like I would have been "pretending to be British" to wear a hat simply because everyone else was.

Maybe you'll get it after the referendum, tabula?

The languages, both Scots and Gaelic are handled much better in the TV series, I think (I have to take it on the opinion of others for Gaelic; I know Scots reasonably well for an American). When Gabaldon wrote the first book, she had never been to Scotland and it was pre-internet as well so easy access to research and experts was harder. They have some language experts working on the TV version, and they seem to be very concerned with authenticity.

See I've seen hats at weddings on TV and things like royal weddings...so maybe your family are classier than mine? That's what I meant, lol.

I don't know, I have only been to I think two weddings in England to be fair, maybe it's an English thing and rarer in Scotland?

I think with driving there is a difference between distance and time. I'm only about 15 miles north of Birmingham but it took me at least an hour to get there for work, on the other hand Stoke-on-trent is not a problem because of the speed of the traffic.

I think 12 hours would be the length of the country or possibly half of France.

I'm wondering if there isn't a higher percentage of homes using gas for heat here in the UK than there maybe are in the states?

Very few people are not on mains gas here, if you live in a town you will have the option of gas or electric for heating and cooking (or use both). One exception being some high rise flats. If you are on a farm in rural wales you may need to use oil.

And UK mumsnetters, would you notice/care about American spellings?

I curse Webster and use him as an example of how language is influenced as much by politics as by culture and linguistics.

An American lecturer at uni insisted eh was given a box full of letter 'u's at Manchester Airport and told to use them.

"Maybe you'll get it after the referendum, tabula?"

Lol, they should so use things like that in the yes and no campaigns...

Yeah, I knew she'd never been, the Gaelic got better in later books, but I think I read that someone helped her then though? Her geography was pretty shocking in the first book as well though, lol.

Still liked it though that's why I want to watch it, I've read all the books and the buzz is that the programme is good.

classier? Doubt it. Just apparently like hats.

Ah, see I used to love the forced air electric heating we had in MN. The vents were in the floor and used to blow the hot air up into the room (or you could put plastic things on them to direct the flow into the room). My mother used to shout at us because in the winter, we girls would all sit in front of the vents with our nightgowns draped over them, and be nice and toasty warm (and hog all the heat!).

I think 12 hours would be the length of the country
or trying to get home from Cornwall on a saturday in summer!