"Maolly". No, it's Molly.

Now I have changed my blog slightly so that anyone should be able to comment and also there is the option to follow my blog by email, let me know if it works or not! I don’t know whether it sends you the entire blog or just a link. Am still getting to grips with this whole blogging technology so bear with me and let me know if anything needs changing!

Now, onto today’s topic... 

I haven’t really done much this week as the weather has been pretty horrific, very English, which is just not cool, and I’ve had plenty of work to keep me in my room and stuck to various books so I thought I’d share with you some of the inevitable Americanisms that we’ve come across so far. Firstly, I thought I’d 

share this with you...

For my American readers, I’m not making fun of you it’s that English humour we’ve been trying to tell you about! Now that, I think, is a fine place to start; Americans just don’t get it! When I sarcastically (and jokingly of course) answer “no” to the question “can I come in”, they just get offended and walk away. This of course made the first few weeks a tad awkward but we’re slowly getting there, they’re beginning to understand to not take anything we say seriously.

Another thing is the various words that they don’t understand. There are the obvious things like ‘trash can’ and ‘elevator’ but the shocking thing is that when we say our English words like ‘loo’ and ‘trainers’ they genuinely don’t have a clue what we’re talking about! We’ve put together a short list of some of the words that truly baffle our American neighbours:

Jumper

Wellies

Queue

Bonnet

Boot

Tap

Referring to the time as ‘half 6’, not ‘6.30’

Bin

Post

It’s really made me think quite a lot about our language and the way in which it has evolved and changed. In particular what has struck me is how much our language (as in English from England) has been influenced by America and not so much the other way round. For example if an American said to you “go put that in the trash”, you’d instantly know what he was talking about, whereas if I say “just going to put this in the bin” I am met with strange and confused looks. Now I know you're thinking that this is obviously because of the amount of American TV and films which we get in England but here's another list for you:

Lengthy

Reliable

Talented

Influential

Tremendous

These words are an example of some vocabulary which we have gained from America in the past 150 years or so. Surprising huh?!

The BBC did an interesting article a few months ago on the way in which Americanisms are gradually slipping into our language which I really recommend - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/14130942. What I find interesting is how unaware we are of it, I certainly am. I unconsciously refer to my friends as ‘guys’ and ask if they want to watch a ‘movie’ as opposed to a ‘film’, America is gradually taking over the world! 

So, as George Bush said, “Teach a child to read and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test”... Scary isn’t it?!