Not too much has been going on in recent weeks ... we've been working long hours and it's been cold/rainy ... so we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to blog about some of our observations on London.
First up, the language barrier. Yes, they do speak English in London, but trust me when I say that Great Britain English is different than American English, especially northern Great Britain English, and at times difficult to understand. Plus, the Brit's have unique phrases which has taken a time or two for us to catch on.
There are a few people that I work with that have 'northern accents.' They are from Manchester and Yorkshire. I love listening to them talk but typically only understand 70% of the conversation. I try my best to listen closely but often get hung up on one word that I do not understand and am lost for the rest of the conversation. My co-worker from Manchester, who refers to me as Jen-ay or Jen-e-faa, asked once, 'do you find me accent difficult?' I lost him at accent...vowels are not pronounced here. I responded, 'come again?' to which he replied 'well that answers it, don-it?' I felt horrible! Needless to say, I find myself asking people to repeat things a lot more often than I had anticipated living in an English speaking country.
Also with the language differential, we have come to learn some new phrases. Some of them are the typical British phrases that everyone knows - they really exist and are used frequently - and others are new to us.
Here are some of our favorites:
- Take-away - getting your food to-go
- Queue - forming a line
- You a'rite? - a method of greeting and a response is optional
- Quid - slang for pound
- Dodgy - sketchy, shady
- Cheeky - sneaky, blunt or bold
- Cheers - thank you, good-bye or toasting
- Bin - trash can
- Rubbish - trash
- Bollocks - non-sense, useless, bullshit
- Pooch - a puppy or dog
- Mutt - stupid or incompetent person (D.Trump is referred to as a mutt often at my office)
Other observations:
Food. Brit's love potatoes, carbs and pre-made meals. Chips (french fries) are served as a side to almost every meal. Order a pizza, it comes with a side of chips. Bizarre. When we first moved here, I loved it. Who doesn't enjoy french fries? However it quickly turned into potato overload. The real issue is that there is no good substitute for chips. In the U.S. you could substitute a side salad for fries and receive a legit salad. Here, the side salad is a bowl of leaves with no dressing. If you are trying to get the most substantial food per pound, you are better off with the chips. And such is the dilemma. And then there is the overabundance of bread. For instance, sandwiches are on a baguette with a single layer of meat and if you are a lucky a single layer of cheese. You don't even feel like you are eating sandwich because all you taste is the bread. And to make it worse, the sandwich is pre-made. If there is one ingredient you don't like on a particular sandwich, too bad, no customization here. Lunch is rough.
Water. Nothing is free London, and sometimes not even still water. If you'd like still water, it has to be requested at a restaurant. Even if you request it, it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll receive it. You might have to ask two, three or four times to receive a pitcher and chances are slim that it is going to get refilled.
Rules of the tube. Shane and I both commute to work via the underground subway (tube). There are a few unspoken rules of the underground that we now abide by. First, no eye contact. Second, no speaking. Third, there is no such thing as personal space during rush hour. The tube during rush hour is structured chaos. People queue up and walk in an orderly fashion until the train arrives and then it turns into a politely pushing/shoving scramble to get on. I'm a baby, and scared of the closing doors, so if the train is packed, I'll wait for the next one. The spaces that people think they can fit into amaze me. I wait until there is enough space for both of my feet before I hop on. Shane on the other hand is a Londoner and he'll hop on regardless of how crowded it is. He, like a true Londoner, makes space.
Ending all conversations with a question. It seems that all Brits enjoy ending conversations with questions. If you ask where a building is, they will respond "I think its just a half kilometer down the road, isnt it?" If you tell someone that you like their shoes, they will say "they are trendy, right?" If you tell a Brit that you like Adele, their response will be "She has such a great voice, doesn't she?" This also takes a little bit of getting used to.
Thanks for reading mates. Interesting, isn't it?
