The lot of you are giving me the chuckles. I'm imagining the surpassing reserve and manners of Wodin's upper class Englishman frustrating matmilne's brawny Scotsman, and the both of them trying to deal with a Yank over the radio! Throw in Ace_Pilito's Aussie, Rob Wiggin's Canadian Down- Easter and even gaw1's geese farts and I can about imagine what it'd be like. Alas that we could never get that fine-grained in WOFF radio calls!
I had a chance about 12 years back to go to England on "business" - to help repair a generator on the Isle of Wight - and my first night there I found no "washcloths" in my hotel room. At least that's what we call them in the 'states - when I asked for them at the desk, the clerk looked at me as though I was speaking Klingon! And I'm standing there describing these things with my hands ("little squares of cloth") and how you soap them up, etc. and she says, "Oh! You mean a flannel!" and I look confused and reply, "Well, we make them from terrycloth in the 'states, but if you use flannel, that works..." - and it was clear she didn't know what terrycloth was - and I said "yes, it's got like bumpy... well, it's the same as the towels..." and she says "Oh yes! You can get them at Boots!" I'm confused - "Boots - the chemist!" and it finally clicked with me that this must be a pharmacy, health and beauty & stuff like a CVS or Walgren or Rite Aid in the USA. And we had a good laugh about two <ahem> English speaking people who couldn't understand one another over so simple a matter! "We don't put them in the rooms- they keep getting nicked." and again, it took a second to register, but that I understood.
Hope y'all got a chuckle as well.
BTW - I can do a pretty good American hillbilly, too.
Ha ha....nice one Human Drone!
I studied at the University of York as an international student in the fall of 1993. I will not belabor with all the "war" stories, but...
1) I went into a fish n chip shop...poor young woman was trying to greet me, and I just could not understand her....it was a sad ending to our conversation with me saying "I know we are both speaking English, but I just can't understand you" (thick Yorkshire accents threw me!)
2) I lived in James College for three months while at the university, and my flatmates always had a grand time translating for me into "American English"...I could at least understand
them most of the time
Kind of like what HumanDrone describes above, I had to often think of every possible meaning of a word to understand what was being said, and sometimes of course that did not even work.
3) I studied music, and I was always amazed at how different the chorale singing was compared to how they speak it
4) Concerning washcloths, I had never flown overseas before this trip, and when the flight attendants passed out washcloths in the early morning hours, I thought it was a breakfast burrito (
)
5) I did not get a chance to see a whole lot while I was there (I did make it to London, Edinburgh, and Leeds, but that was it) ...I was very busy being involved in the "first-year" project for the music and theatre departments, a rendition of Benjamin Britten's
Paul Bunyan, an operetta. Unbelievably ironic in that, coming from Michigan (where I grew up and spent much of my collegiate years), I was acting as a Swede (I was the bad guy, Hel Helson; I'm pretty sure the young Britten made him up), in a play about the upper midwest USA (where I come from), while in England.
I absolutely LOVED my time in England...such a great place, and I'm fortunate to have had the opportunity. I recommend studying in a different geographical place and culture to all the collegiate-aged students I come across.
Regards,
Jeff
PS Midwest US voice for me, but I do not have much in the way of recording equipment, and there are likely others who would do better and are more suitably equipped...