I Guess If They Say So....

I have met a lot of people from the UK and everyone of them that I have met has taught me some new English word. It’s rather amusing because sometimes I have a harder time understanding their English than the people who speak it as a second language. Sometimes it’s the accents, sometimes it’s the words. Here are some of the things that I have learned about UK English:

- Chips are French fries and chips are crisps.
- Flat = apartment. No one lives in apartments. They all live in flats.
- University is college. No one goes to college. They all go to University and all the schools are Universities.
- A cue is a line and the English love to stand in them. This is what one of my roommates told me: “Everyone in England loves a good cue. We’ll just stand in one to see where it’s going.”
- Chave is short for “Chelton Average” and it’s a derogatory word for someone who is an idiot or annoying or disgusting, etc. and they typically tend to be from Chelton. I’ve decided it’s the equivalent of a Jersey girl or guido.
- “Bloke“ and “fancy“. I’m just amused they actually use these words, as in “He’s a great bloke. I really fancy him.”

They also like to compare posh-ness. They don’t want to be accused of being posh, but all depending on where you are from and what your accent is will quantify how posh you are. In Salamanca there were 4 people all from the UK, at least once a day they would accuse one another of being super posh because they were from a certain part of England and had a certain accent.

I’ve also been really surprised at how small England is and how many different accents they have. Several people have mentioned to me that if they go to certain parts of England they have a really hard time understanding the people because the accent is so different. In the US we have the Southern accent, the east and west coasts and the northeastern (ND, SD, MN) accent, but I’ve never had a problem understanding these people when I’ve met them. Some of the English people have said that some of the accents are so thick it sounds like they are speaking another language. I can’t imagine going an hour away from where I live and barely understanding the people from my own country which is usually why I tell all the British people to come to Colorado, where we don’t have accents. To that they usually laugh and say “You have such an accent!” I guess I do if they say so...