English vs English

[deanb]

Sounds Irish to me too at the start. Others are...maybe west country.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

The show's main actress (the young blonde one that talks first) is Scottish but it's a soft western Scottish accent not a strong/stereotypical one. the most pronounced other ones are North East England accents most notable the dark haired girl looking in the mirror and the guy saying 'I need to know what Murray is up to' near the end. Like a Newcastle accent but there are a lot of similar ones around there that I wouldn't be able to distinguish.

[deanb]

Someone made a thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3hg7tf/nonbritons_of_reddit_what_part_of_british_culture/

[deanb]

So quick question, does "trump" mean the same thing in America?

i.e

- to break wind

- to fart

- to pass gas

- to have flatulence

 

"If this trump follows through it's gonna be shitty"

[TheMightyEthan]

No, I've never heard that before.

[deanb]

Oh man, you guys miss out on so many pun opportunities.

[deanb]

 

Yeah some more niche quirks. But yeah, we count thunder in lightening in elephants.

 

Why are houses in thousands? Also I'm not sure why he's saying the numbers aren't lined up. Most of the time they are set up to have odds n evens on opposing sides of the row.

[TheMightyEthan]

Something interesting to me about that video is how the guy who's been living there for 10 years still has what I would call Generic American accent, but the lady who's been living their for 13 years has a touch of a British accent.

[TheMightyEthan]

I just got far enough to understand what you meant about houses being in the thousands.

 

I don't know how it works at other places in the country, but around here at least you typically have a central east-west street and a central north-south street (because everything's on a grid), and the numbers count out from there.  So say Main Street runs north-south and is the central street for address purposes, and you have numbered streets that run east-west (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc).  If you're in the first block to the east of Main Street then the number part of your address would be 1XX - the XX standing in for the specific building number.  If you're in the second block east then it would be 2XX.  Often odd numbers are on one side of the street and evens on the other, so the address on the south side of 3rd street to the east of Main might go 101 E 3rd, 103 E 3rd, 105 E 3rd, etc.  Then in the next block, the second block east of Main, they'd be 201 E 3rd, 203 E 3rd...  The north side of the street would then have all the even numbers, so it'd be 102 E 3rd, 104 E 3rd, etc.  On the west side of Main it would work the same way, but you'd be counting the other direction, and they'd be W 3rd instead of E 3rd.  So you get to the thousands once you get more than 10 blocks away from the central street.

 

North-south running streets would work basically the same way, but north-south.

 

Some towns start off in the thousands, so like the first block would be 1XXX instead of 1XX, but otherwise would work the same.

 

It's a very systematic way of naming things that can be useful for navigating.  If you tell me an address in town then just based on the address I have some idea of where it is, without any other information (especially if it's on a numbered street).

[deanb]

The 10 year guy is CGP Grey. I think he pops back to America relatively regularly too. Being relatively tech savvy I imagine he watches a fair few American shows too. Whereas the 14 year lass is probably on a healthy diet of Coronation Street and Eastenders (especially as I doubt 14 years ago it was as easy to get hold of streamed American TV)

 

edit: also personally I'd say the woman sounds more American. CGP Grey had been confusing to me when I first started listening, he kinda cycles between sounding weird british and weird American. Never firmly one or the other. Almost..sorta BBC English (though that's less a thing these days). He enunciates stuff quite clearly, both from doing his videos and I guess if he's a teacher that'll do the trick too.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I think of the way you say low thousands is not really the correct mathematical way to say it, as you're not splitting up the units correctly (I assume you'd write 1,600 as we do, not 16,00)  but does sound nicer spoken, but it makes me wonder how would you pronounce 5 digit and bigger numbers in the USA? e.g. 16,000 has got to sound better (and less confusing) as "sixteen thousand" than "one hundred sixty hundred". Where is the change? Does it make a difference if the number is not a nice round number, and so loses the appealing simplicity. E.g. "ninety five hundred twenty five" stops sounding simpler than "nine thousand, five hundred and twenty five" and starts to need thinking about (at least for me)

 

I've never heard anyone use picadilly for counting seconds, maybe that's a london thing? I'd use elephant.

 

I was confused about the house numbering too, not that I check on every road I've been down, but whenever I have, the houses have gone up sequentially odd one side, even the other, so If you were looking for house 21 and you just got to 20, you could cross the road and be in the correct place. The only time I could imagine that being different is in a cul de sac were I think they would go round in order starting on the left.

[TheMightyEthan]

We only say the hundred thing for numbers less than ten thousand, and not for even thousands. So 2000 would always be two thousand, 2100 would be twenty-one hundred, 2150 would be twenty-one fifty (which can actually lead to confusion when talking about money, because $21.50 would also be twenty-one fifty).

 

That's all in addition to the other way of actually saying two thousand one hundred and fifty, which would obviously also be understood, it's just less common in speaking. And for anything 10,000 or more you would never do the hundreds thing.

 

Another thing we do that I'd be interested to know if you guys do is like with 301 instead of saying three hundred and one we would usually say three oh one. Or like 356 would be three fifty-six. Do you guys do that too?

[deanb]

Three hundred and fifty six.

 

Oh and from Patrick Stewarts AMA a Yorkshire poem

http://www.wimp.com/yorkshiredialect/

(yeah tbh I can barely understand it myself)

[Mr. GOH!]

Almost nobody in the US would call 9900 ninety-nine hundred. In fact, I think using 'ninety' for any number in the nine thousands sounds odd.

 

CGP Grey sounds American, not British. The woman has a slightly-funny American accent that I associate with people from the Pacific Northwest, but may actually be rooted elsewhere in the U.S. 

[TheMightyEthan]

I've definitely heard people say "ninety-whatever hundred", but I agree the hundreds system gets less common the closer to 10,000 you get.

 

The woman didn't actually sound British to me, but she did sound like she had a little bit of a British accent on top of whatever she originally had.  Though it's possible you're right and it's actually just a US accent I'm not familiar with.

[deanb]

So errm this seems like a English vs everyone that I'd not been aware of at all, but apparently most places don't have supermarkets selling booze. I not long ago picked up some sandwich making stuff, and a bottle of Echo Falls from the same shop and apparently in most of the world that's a bit off (I also bought a wine glass while there too cos for some reason we don't have any, last time we had wine we drank it from turkish tea cups)

 

I thought it odd you guys had like a bullet aisle, but hey seems you guys think we're odd for a booze aisle.

 

Oh another thing: How many varieties of stuff do you guys have on tap? Cos multiple ciders is seemingly considered weird and I know we have even more if you include bottles too. Normally over here at a larger pub (Say a 'spoons*) you'd have a few ales, a few lagers (normally the big brands there like carling, fosters, carslberg etc), and usually two spots with a bunch of say 3-4 local ales/ciders, alongside spirits  on the back and fridges below...okay I googled and I can't find any images of american bars with taps in them.

 

*I imagine franchised pubs aren't much of a thing? Wetherspoons (aka 'Spoons) is almost as ubiquitous as McDonalds/MaccieD's over here). I know back home a fair few pubs were Black Sheep pubs, though I think that's not quite a franchise, it's like a sponsored ale or something, there's a few Theakston ones around (I should really know this...okay looked it up it's called a Pub Tie, they're usually obligated to purchase and stock beers from certain breweries).

Picture of a nice small Black Sheep pub:

 

I guess you guys did ban alcohol at a constitutional level a while back which would probably explain the wide disconnect in drinks culture between the two nations. A lot of bar/pub scenes in American film and TV always seems to have a sort of artificial sheen on it, but given it's so prevalent throughout majority of films I'd guess that's kind of how they are. Given I was underage (even by UK count) when I went to America I've no personal first hand experience.

 

Oh these musings come from reading:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3my4h7/non_brits_that_visited_the_uk_what_was_the_most/

 

(Where we apparently have a lot of crisp flavours which is odd considering you'll all recognise the logo of our main crisp company I'm gonna link:

https://www.walkers.co.uk/

 

And for the brits that aren't aware here's the big American "chip" company)

[TheMightyEthan]

Re: the supermarkets* thing, most supermarkets I've been in have an alcohol aisle, but it's typically just low-alcohol beer (3.2% alcohol by weight) and maybe some box wine.  What's legal to sell in the supermarket differs state-to-state though, and for instance in Missouri you can walk in to any supermarket and buy all the liquor you want.  There's been a bit of a push recently to remove the supermarket alcohol restrictions in Kansas, so we'll see if that goes anywhere.

 

*I'm of the understanding that "supermarket" means two slightly different things on either side of the pond: you guys use it to mean a general-goods store like Walmart, where we use it to mean a large grocery store.  So I've never seen bullets/guns in what I would call a supermarket, but Walmart definitely carries them.

[deanb]

A "general goods store" and "large grocery store" are largely one and the same over here, apart from M&S Simply Food (middle class shop) I don't think there's any large shops that do just food (and the large M&S Foods I've maybe only seen one or two off, most are not that huge).

And yeah, it was a Walmart with bullet aisle, and even an entire McDonalds inside of it too.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

supermarkets are still ostensibly large format food stores, they just diversified into areas with higher profit margins (mainly clothes, then homewares and entertainment). Food is definitely the main focus though and they all started as food only.

 

If this is a typical walmart:

I'd say most UK supermarkets are the opposite of that - the blue would be food/drink and the green everything else. I'd Marks and Spencer would be the only equivalent to the above format but no one would call M&S a supermarket, even the food-only ones.

Edited September 30, 2015 by TheFlyingGerbil

[TheFlyingGerbil]

oh, and thinking about pubs, I don't believe many pubs are run as franchises. Traditionally they are owned by the brewery that supplies their own beers at discounted prices to the landlord who buys in other drinks (wine, spirits), and other beers at normal prices but may be prevented by the brewer from buying in rival beers. The other traditional type is a freehouse which wasn't owned by a brewery, but by the landlord them self, they had the choice of what they bought but without the brewery provided discounts often struggled and some breweries would refuse to deal with them as they were rivals to their own pubs.

 

Wetherspoons is a bit different to both as it is a chain, but not a franchise, they are all owned by one company, but that is not a brewery.

[deanb]

Yeah I'm using franchised where I should have used chain.
 
I'd say M&S are closer to department stores I guess, just smaller and all over the place, and with a food bit tacked on. Which I'd guess the tacked on nature of the food is why they have the Simply Food stores. I think M&S are primarily clothing for their money iirc. I remember watching a documentary on them a while back where they'd bet on grey being the fashion and fucked right up. But then got in Twiggy n that lot and turned it around again.
 
I mean, this isn't just any food...
 
(Huh, apparently Newcastle is home to the smallest M&S in the world. I know where it should be but can't say I've ever seen it, so it must be tiny (or not M&S branded which might be likely as it's in a listed building, I'll have to have a look out).
 
Edit:

Huh.
 
Edit 2: Oh yeah for Americans (and a fair few brits here actually I guess, I'm not sure how big the brand is now):
This is Grainger Market, south of the Earl Grey Monument (big pillar with the inventor of tea on top). Grainger Market is home to original store of a small video game chain called Grainger Games, which might fire some synapses and folks go "why have I heard that" and it's cos they made video game news a few years back as being sponsors of the GMAs where they had booth babes, a midget, branded condoms and were doing coke in the bathroom.

[deanb]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/everything-comes-with-chips

 

You guys eat fork in right hand?

 

Also a chunk of this is quite Cornwall centric (for example calling it a country which only people in Cornwall do). Those silly DornishCornish men.

[Thursday Next]

I like this. Seems pretty fair in its praise and criticism.

[TheMightyEthan]

The polite way to use a fork in America is to hold it in your left hand to steady the food while you're cutting with the knife in your right hand, then you put down the knife and transfer the fork to your right hand to take a bite. It's incredibly stupid.

 

I'm confused about him saying the TV looks better. I was under the impression lots of your TV still wasn't in HD, whereas here everything is in HD unless you set it up wrong.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

How do American home bathroom lights work? We have pull cords because it's dangerous to use wet hands on a switch. Do you have a normal switch but outside the room? Staying in the bathroom it seems we are the only country that still has separate hot and cold taps, and it is incredibly annoying.

 

I don't understand why he thinks our coins don't make sense? Is it because they don't increase in size along with value? Do yours?

 

I don't think many people here call chips french fries outside of McDonalds. That's because french fries are specifically the thin cut type which is not what you're served in most places.

 

What's complicated about shower, or simple about yours. Maybe you're more likely to see an electric shower here as opposed to a power shower?

 

What's this about? "It’s not unusual to see people dressed different and speaking different languages". Do you assume everyone here is white?

 

I didn't know french beer had a bad reputation.

 

I've never heard anyone say cheers as a greeting, only as a toast and an informal synonym for "thanks"

 

He has a much higher opinion of our train service than any british person does.

 

I would guess not many people use ice at home except if they're throwing a party, but whenever I go out most drinks except beer, wine and have ice, please tell me you don't put ice in beer and wine, that's weird.