A Brief Day in the Life - BRITSPEAK

So I think it is about time I write a post concerning my own blog/blog topic. And considering the surplus of vocabulary related anecdotes I could share, I think you now are now about to encounter my first post on BRITSPEAK! In the US, we really don’t speak English. In England they speak English. I even hesitate to say Great Britain or the UK (those are different from each other, maybe I will explain in the future) because in areas like northern Scotland, most people who are not accustomed to the accent would never believe that English is the spoken language.

As this is my first entry concerning Britspeak though I will go through some common terms that are necessary for getting around in daily life. We will venture through the course of a day and find all the fun words we need to get around. Lets start at the sidewalk.

One of the first things every tourist notices when they arrive in the UK (and doesn’t come as a surprise unless said tourist has lived under a rock) is that the Brits drive on the left side of the road. And the Brits recognize that they are the weirdos in this case because they have written which way to look on the ground, helping out all those people from almost everywhere else in the world that sticks to the right. This was particularly handy when I first moved to London but when I started traveling to the continent I was sorry the signage was no longer there. In fact, I had grown so accustomed to looking to the right that I had to be stopped from crossing the street by friends when we got to Europe. Even though the French, Spanish, German, etc. drive the same direction we Americans do I had mentally switched over and had trouble converting back to looking left. Okay so there is no Brit word here but its language related! Moving on.

While London is a great city for walking it also has a great underground system, most commonly referred to as the tube (ß our first Brit word!). I love the tube. Coming from Los Angeles where the public transportation system is lacking at best, the tube seemed like the greatest invention since the wheel. I took the tube almost every day and knew the lines better than I knew LA. No joke. When I got back home I was on the way to a friend’s house and I couldn’t remember what street came after Balboa. I had lived in LA my entire life and I couldn’t remember the grid of the valley but I could tell you every stop on the Central Line (and the District, Circle, Piccadilly and Bakerloo).

Want Me To Knock You Up In The Morning?

Want me to knock you up in the morning?

Did that catch you off guard? I can see how it might. First, it might seem a little forward of me to suggest such a thing when we have only just met. And second, it doesn’t make so much sense for a girl to make that offer when she would be the one getting the knocking. Nevertheless this is just one of the gazillion weird phrases the British use, in this case meaning ‘to wake up’ and having nothing whatsoever to do creating a baby. With that being said, if I catch you having fallen asleep while reading my blog I guess I’ll just have to knock you up. ; )

Anglophile. A person who is fond of English culture.

Anglophile. A lover of things English.

Anglophile. An admirer of England or English people.

Yep, that pretty much sums me up. I have been an Anglophile for as long as I can remember. I could name the six wives of Henry VIII before I could multiply big numbers (actually I still cant do that) and was reading Alison Weir histories instead of the Babysitters Club books (though I suppose I did that too). While I was born and bred in the US I was always absurdly proud of the quarter of me that is British and was utterly delighted by the discovery that I prefer my tea with milk. I would dream in an accent and couldn’t wait to visit to land of the Queen. Even before my first trip across the pond when I was 16 I knew my future lay in England.

When I moved to London in January I knew that my half a year there would not be long enough. I knew that my reverse homesickness would be twice as bad. Not that I didn’t miss my family, my friends, even my car but Los Angeles just doesn’t compare for me. I mean nothing against LA, which has always been and will always be my home. It’s where I was born and raised, and I do love it, just not as much as I currently love London. I made a personal list of the pros and cons of living in London (which will probably be featured in a future post) upon my return and it is safe to say that the pros severely outweighed the cons. In fact, the only cons were that I would miss my family and would have to gorge on Mexican food on every trip back to LA.

I think this blog will in many ways be cathartic for me. A way to talk about London without forcing my friends to listen. A way to remember the things I loved and miss. And maybe a way to share my insights with the world at large.

I am fascinated with Brit speak and how in the US we do not speak English, we speak American. You can expect a post or two (or twelve) about slang and the colloquialisms that make the British so… well, British. The Effingpot has an American guide to speaking British that I will likely reference and is good fun when you feel like procrastinating on real work. I plan to blog about pubs and drinking, markets and eating, and the amazingness that is an English breakfast with haggis. There will likely be a post about the difference between the theatre and theater (and the cinema too). And also probably about how in America people are more comfortable watching violence than sex but in the UK it’s the opposite. And then probably another one about Brit speak, just for good measure. But hey, maybe Ill make that one about cursing and all the awesome rude words you too can incorporate into your vocabulary.

So welcome to my blog good people and thanks for taking a gander at my ramblings. Cheers!