Sunday, November 18, 2007

"Dine In or Take Away"

I enjoy visiting other English-speaking territories, because the "English" they speak there often doesn't match the language I learned. Some examples of this are:
  • Dine In or Take Away. When ordering at a fast food restaurant, this is "Here or To Go?"
  • Boot. When I picked up my rental car in Melbourn, the attendant offered to put my suitcase in the "boot" for me. Cute.
  • Lift. Elevator.
  • Flat. Apartments are "flats" in the U.K. and in Australia (I assume other places?).
  • Car Park. I had to park my car in the hotel's parking garage (er... "car park").
  • Bottleshop. No, not "battleship" but a bottleshop, or liquor store.
  • Chemist. No, not somebody who blows off the entire left side of his body (he's all right now) mixing chemicals, but someone who fills your prescriptions, or a pharmacist.
  • Fag. No... I'm not being condescending to those with traditional gender-preference issues, but I'm referring to a cigarette. One of my associates from the U.K. said he learned not to ask to borrow a cigarette by asking, "Can I bum a fag, please?"
Anyway, there are certainly a lot more, but these are the best that I can remember.

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