Aaargh - busybody neighbor! :(

Christina Websell kirjoitti:
"Christine BA" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell kirjoitti:
"Christine BA" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell kirjoitti:
American and British English is a bit different. We have different
words for the same things and this does come up in quiz questions
occasionally. E.g. We call it a car bonnet/a car boot/a pavement/a
tap/a car bumper so what is the American term? I am fairly sure I know
them all. Answers on a postcard please ;-)
(no, not really..) all invited to participate, just for fun.

Tweed

From a non-native speaker of the language, neither version, and a
non-professional as well (like Marina being a translator), here goes:

hood/trunk/sidewalk/faucet/...hmmm... didn't know bumper was called
something else in the US...
And no Googling, Wiki'ing or dictionaries used, cross my heart!!


So? What do you think the English terms are?
I have this difficulty with Nüle. She s very keen to know only UK
English but she's absorbed some American English like airplane which she
wants to get rid of.
It's interesting teaching a German to speak English properly.
We made a pact, you be my homeopath and I will teach you English.

She got the better deal. Her English is almost perfect now.

Tweed

Our British customer has complimented me on not having any Americanisms
among my speech. But I think that may be when I talk to him, as I tend to
be a kind of parrot and "adopt" the accent or way of speech of my
counterpart. One hears both US and UK English on the tv, so that way one
gets accustomed to both versions. And I do believe I mix the versions when
talking/writing without paying attention to it, as it doesn't make any
difference to me if it's UK or US as long as it gets my meaning across...

I might mean a difference to your British customer, so you might need to pay
attention to it.

Tweed


I do pay attention to it with them, but when writing or chatting
casually, I don't that much think about it.

--
Christine in Finland
christal63 (at) gmail (dot) com

Christine BA wrote:
Christina Websell kirjoitti:
"Christine BA" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell kirjoitti:
"Christine BA" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell kirjoitti:
American and British English is a bit different. We have
different words for the same things and this does come up in quiz
questions occasionally. E.g. We call it a car bonnet/a car boot/a
pavement/a tap/a car bumper so what is the American term? I am
fairly sure I know them all. Answers on a postcard please ;-)
(no, not really..) all invited to participate, just for fun.

Tweed

From a non-native speaker of the language, neither version, and a
non-professional as well (like Marina being a translator), here goes:

hood/trunk/sidewalk/faucet/...hmmm... didn't know bumper was called
something else in the US...
And no Googling, Wiki'ing or dictionaries used, cross my heart!!


So? What do you think the English terms are?
I have this difficulty with Nüle. She s very keen to know only UK
English but she's absorbed some American English like airplane which
she wants to get rid of.
It's interesting teaching a German to speak English properly.
We made a pact, you be my homeopath and I will teach you English.

She got the better deal. Her English is almost perfect now.

Tweed

Our British customer has complimented me on not having any
Americanisms among my speech. But I think that may be when I talk to
him, as I tend to be a kind of parrot and "adopt" the accent or way
of speech of my counterpart. One hears both US and UK English on the
tv, so that way one gets accustomed to both versions. And I do
believe I mix the versions when talking/writing without paying
attention to it, as it doesn't make any difference to me if it's UK
or US as long as it gets my meaning across...

I might mean a difference to your British customer, so you might need
to pay attention to it.

Tweed


I do pay attention to it with them, but when writing or chatting
casually, I don't that much think about it.


I would settle to know what "kirjoitti" means! Best wishes. MLB

MLB wrote:

Christine BA wrote:

Christina Websell kirjoitti:

I might mean a difference to your British customer, so you might need
to pay attention to it.

I do pay attention to it with them, but when writing or chatting
casually, I don't that much think about it.

I would settle to know what "kirjoitti" means! Best wishes. MLB

My guess would be "wrote" or "said" or something along those lines.

--
Joyce ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.

"Christina Websell" wrote in
message ...

"Christine BA" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell kirjoitti:
American and British English is a bit different. We have
different words for the same things and this does come up in quiz
questions occasionally. E.g. We call it a car bonnet/a car boot/a
pavement/a tap/a car bumper so what is the American term? I am
fairly sure I know them all. Answers on a postcard please ;-)
(no, not really..) all invited to participate, just for fun.

Tweed


From a non-native speaker of the language, neither version, and a
non-professional as well (like Marina being a translator), here
goes:

hood/trunk/sidewalk/faucet/...hmmm... didn't know bumper was called
something else in the US...
And no Googling, Wiki'ing or dictionaries used, cross my heart!!


Nüle found the difference between American English and UK English
difficult. She wants to speak UK English only but she had absorbed
some American English which she wanted me to correct. So I did.
Airplane springs to mind. UK says aeroplane.
Her English was better than my German when I met her in 2002 on the
chicken group, which is not saying much. My German is dire but she
so wanted me to improve her English. Her tenses were terrible.
Now after 7 years of "English tutoring" you would never know from
her posts that she is not a native English speaker.
I'm so proud of her.
I once asked her if she would like me to learn German to talk to
her. She said no, I was probably too old ;-) and she would prefer
to practice her English which she learned at school.
I learnt French at school, German was out of the question. Learn
German? Get real, why would we want to speak German except to say
rude things to them about the war?
It's different now.

I was a little bit scared when I went to Germany to visit Nüle. I
thought the Germans would hate me as a Brit. They didn't. They
were all wonderful to me, quite excited to see a real Brit actually.
Wow. A real English person, let us make her some tea as that's
what's Brits like.
It was awful tea, quarter of a tsp in 2 pints of water. Throw down
the sink stuff. I drank it and said Danke.


I quite enjoy all the international variations of English. Even
though my hearing is bad, I can pick out various accents more readily
than you would think. They must have more to do with rhythm of speech
and less to do with words that I realized. Accents within the US vary
much more than the international community knows. When I first
started college at American University in Washington DC, many of the
students could identify where someone else grew up within a few miles.

But I'm grateful that most international students who learn English as
a second language tend to learn a British version. It makes it more
fun to read their emails pretending to be American's abroad in need of
financial assistance. Its almost as bad when they try to pretend to
be British since they never get that quite right either.

Jo

I quite enjoy all the international variations of English. Even
though my hearing is bad, I can pick out various accents more readily
than you would think. They must have more to do with rhythm of speech
and less to do with words that I realized. Accents within the US vary
much more than the international community knows.




I had a sales rep on the phone once and after talking to her for a minute I
said "I can't figure out your accent. You sound like Tidewater Virginia
and upstate New York". She answered like WTF?! "I grew up in Virginia
Beach (Tidewater) and moved to Buffalo (upstate New York)". I pretended I
did that all the time. I am very bad with faces but good with voices but
not usually that good.

"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...

"Christine BA" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell kirjoitti:
American and British English is a bit different. We have different
words for the same things and this does come up in quiz questions
occasionally. E.g. We call it a car bonnet/a car boot/a pavement/a
tap/a car bumper so what is the American term? I am fairly sure I know
them all. Answers on a postcard please ;-)
(no, not really..) all invited to participate, just for fun.

Tweed


From a non-native speaker of the language, neither version, and a
non-professional as well (like Marina being a translator), here goes:

hood/trunk/sidewalk/faucet/...hmmm... didn't know bumper was called
something else in the US...

I think what they call a bumper is what we call a fender.

Joy

kirjoitti:
MLB wrote:

Christine BA wrote:

Christina Websell kirjoitti:

I might mean a difference to your British customer, so you might need
to pay attention to it.

I do pay attention to it with them, but when writing or chatting
casually, I don't that much think about it.

I would settle to know what "kirjoitti" means! Best wishes. MLB

My guess would be "wrote" or "said" or something along those lines.


Yep, it's "wrote" in Finnish.

--
Christine in Finland
christal63 (at) gmail (dot) com

Joy kirjoitti:
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...
"Christine BA" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell kirjoitti:
American and British English is a bit different. We have different
words for the same things and this does come up in quiz questions
occasionally. E.g. We call it a car bonnet/a car boot/a pavement/a
tap/a car bumper so what is the American term? I am fairly sure I know
them all. Answers on a postcard please ;-)
(no, not really..) all invited to participate, just for fun.

Tweed

From a non-native speaker of the language, neither version, and a
non-professional as well (like Marina being a translator), here goes:

hood/trunk/sidewalk/faucet/...hmmm... didn't know bumper was called
something else in the US...

I think what they call a bumper is what we call a fender.

Joy



Not according to Andy (outsider). He said a bumper's a bumper, sticking
out at the front and end of the car, and a fender is the part
over/around the wheel.

--
Christine in Finland
christal63 (at) gmail (dot) com

Christine BA wrote:
kirjoitti:
MLB wrote:

Christine BA wrote:

Christina Websell kirjoitti:

I might mean a difference to your British customer, so you might
need to pay attention to it.

I do pay attention to it with them, but when writing or chatting
casually, I don't that much think about it.

I would settle to know what "kirjoitti" means! Best wishes. MLB

My guess would be "wrote" or "said" or something along those lines.


Yep, it's "wrote" in Finnish.


Thanks for the language lesson. Joyce made a good call too. MLB

"Christine BA" wrote in message
...
kirjoitti:
MLB wrote:

Christine BA wrote:

Christina Websell kirjoitti:

I might mean a difference to your British customer, so you
might need to pay attention to it.
I do pay attention to it with them, but when writing or
chatting casually, I don't that much think about it.

I would settle to know what "kirjoitti" means! Best wishes.
MLB

My guess would be "wrote" or "said" or something along those lines.


Yep, it's "wrote" in Finnish.

Hmmm. Wonder if that is where the English jot, and in let me jot that
down, rather than write that down comes from.

Strange, now that I wrote that, I realize jot is one of those words we
all use but one you almost never see written.

Jo