Do Americans understand British English?

[knickernicker]

I can't think that there is any American phrase, word or accent that I wouldn't understand, but I wonder if an American would understand everything I say.
I remember sitting for a meal with some people from Boston and being acutely aware of needing to edit what I said to remove any British idiom. It was an odd feeling as when watching American films I forget they're a different nationality.

I think the daily show is shown on 4OD here. Last time I watched it a lot was around obama's first win, so a while ago! Must get back into it, it's very funny.

See, Jon Stewart, I just don't get. He shouts. He makes the same point three times, once in the build up, once in the punch line and once again. He laughs at his own jokes in case we didn't notice it was funny.

He is to subtle irony what miss piggy is to marriage guidance.

well that's weird

when I tried to open Scone's Jon Stewart link on my iphone it wouldn't play because it's restricted to the US (& pointed me to the comedycentral thing, which did open)

now I'm on the PC - using Firefox - the US thing does play & the UK one doesn't (my PC isn't in the UK, apparently!)

beastofburden, you are quite right. But he is actually very very subtle & smart by the normal standards of US TV

We use Expat Shield to watch BBC etc.

I've been reading up on silver patterns and sorority rushing on the Internet as a result of this thread and it all sounds terrifying.

Runner. Don't believe everything you read about rushing. I was in a sorority and there was nothing dangerous or harmful about it. Best experience of my life.

I want reading about dangerous stuff. Just the advice on what to wear, and personal grooming tips, and letters of recommendation, and advice to borrow pearls and a designer handbag if you don't have them already.

Oh I see. I just assumed since most things about rushing centre around hazing.

Watch out with Expat Shield. DH made me take it off after he discovered that even when I totally disabled the program through the icon in the start menu, it was still showing our IP address as UK.

Hola works well, that's a free Chrome extension and when it's off, it's off. 4od seems to have blocked it currently though but it will probably come back.

Hazing is forbidden by almost all colleges and universities in the US now. In addition, many hazing type activities are illegal under state law.

Pledged is an interesting book, probably 10-12 years old by now, about the sorority experience -- the author went undercover at a couple of sororities.

I was in a coed fraternity in college and we had very mild hazing led blindfolded through the woods, etc., meant to be spooky but weren't endangered or asked to do anything alarming. And I'm a total wuss, so it really was mild

I'm watching the first episode of Gavin and Stacey, and people keep saying "aww, fair play." Is it sort of like saying "you've got a point"? Everyone seems to be saying it very affectionately so "you've got a point" doesn't seem like the right equivalent.

Fair play is only a Welsh thing, in that context. It sort of means "all credit to him/her/you" it has a sympathy element, so is expressing empathy and suggests that you think the other person has tried hard or is decent.

Oh, thanks! That's exactly what the situations in the episode were like, someone had just done something nice for someone else, that's so cool. I realize now that it was only the Welsh characters saying it.

Is it also said in the rest of the UK, but with different connotations?

Hellymelly that's wrong- fair play means the same to English people too, not just Welsh.

Stacey just told Gavin he should move to her town. She said "it's well lush." ??

Oh dear, I'm well lush, best off to bed!

Also, is it ordinary that they both live with their parents although they have professional jobs? That's gotten a lot more common here (economy), but in 2008, when this aired, to have young professionals all living with their parents on a tv show would have been meant to indicate something unusual about them. Has it been a common thing in the UK?

gertie

Btw. beast I can't stand Jon Stewart either. Insanely irritating to watch. But I don't like any of those shows.

DD is 25 and living at home although she did live way for about four years previously.
But it is ly imminent that she will be moving on very soon.
DS2 is home at the moment, uni hols, he is 19.
Ds1 lives with his partner and child, he is 23.

Strangley whereas I have what could be considered a posh Berkshire accent my xdh came from a small town outside Glasgow known as 'Little Ireland' due to all the irish immigration there. People there speak hyper fast using glaswegian and north of ireland vocabulary which if you're not accustomed to it is hard to understand at first. He has problems getting people to understand him in london sometimes so when we went to the US I expected the same, but it was actually me who has issues and not him . Apparently the NYC and Massachusetts accents developed in a similar way to his and as long as he slowed down he was able to use the same slang words and in-jokes they had. It was a really amazing thing to see/hear, of course then we went to the west coast and my "Praw-per ahhr-pee" won the competition over there, although there was this distance that didn't exist with him in Boston.

Erm, it is late but what is 'praw-per-ahhr-pee'?

I'm from the South of England too btw.

My lame attempt at a phonetic 'Proper RP'

Sorry, didn't mean to be rude, just didn't 'get it'
Must be American!!

And as soon as I saw you write it I got it.

Night.