Differences - Americans and people from other countries

[yendor]

As an American, often times I think about the differences between us and people from other countries. The one place like to talk about first is the British Isles. I personally have always felt deeply rooted to people from the British Isles, because my family on my father's side came from Ireland. I really don't know about my mother's side, but I think her family was also from there as well. I just don't know what part. I think most families in America that have roots there feel the same as I do. The first thing I want to bring up is, 'words'. Even though we all speak English, there is a lot of differences between us. First off, the way we say certain words. The different words we use that mean the same thing. The different slang we use. How we say them and the different words we normally use on an everyday basis. There are a lot of British actors in America and once I had an engineering manager from England. So, I have been exposed to some differences. I remember the first time I heard my manager used the word, 'schedule', I had no idea what he was talking about. Even though we all speak English, the way he said it was very different than what I had ever heard before. The word, 'school' was another. Since I joined the FES, there has been quite a few word I've had to look up the meaning of because I had never used them before. One such word is 'bullocks'. Americans never say bullocks, we mostly say, 'bullshit'. Another word is 'whilst'. I had no idea what the meaning of that word was, until I looked it up. We always use the word, 'while'. One word the Brits use that puzzles me is, 'mate'. Americans never use the word, 'mate', unless we were talking to or about our wife or husband. That would be awful for a man to use the word, 'mate' when talking to another man, we would use, bud or good buddy, never mate.  I was in the Navy, so I understand why it is used. It never caught on over here. I could go on with examples, but I know y'all get my point. I know it has been said, Americans destroy or mangle the English language and I agree that is probably true. We are comprised of so many different nationalities and slangs people use, it's hard sometimes for us to understand each other. There is such a difference in the way people talk between the north and south that it is actually hilarious. I'm such a simple minded person, that I find this fascinating. I can imagine how people from Britain must cringe when they hear us Americans talk and the slang we use. I just wanted to throw this out. I'd love to hear some experiences or thoughts on this matter from people in Britain or anywhere for that matter. People with other subject matter along these lines should throw it out as well. 
 

[Ghostrider]

We find it strange in this country with the use on words from south to north east or north west. The play on words is similar to your country, except you have a lot more places.

The one thing that makes the English language hard to learn is the different words for the same meaning, as well as the slang.

It is very strange and interesting to listen to the different takes on words and that twang.

Real Welsh is something that I just don't get. It's almost like they ran away and chose their own language from Asia or something. I find it crazy when compared to the rest of England, Scotland and Ireland. Yet for most part of Wales they just talk with a roll on twang or a singing twang type of thing.

I've worked with a lot of different groups of people all over the world but as for Great Britain UK, I have to say that Aberdeen is one of the hardest places I've been to where understanding the language is a time consuming art and requires a patient local person to play the game with you and ease you into the basics.
Once you do that it's surprising how easy it is to actually grasp it all over time.
I had a year with these people and found it easy after 6 months of being around them.

They talk lightning fast, plus quite a lot sort of sing their fast talking in a high pitched voice in some cases.
I found them to be very highly strung but decent people. Naturally I'm only going by what I worked with. What I did find good though; they are very welcoming once you get to know them.
They call Scotsmen tight with money and stuff. I've yet to find that out as all I've ever seen them do is be very giving and accommodating.

It feels good when you go back to meet them with a few friends in tow and the friends are trying to listen to them talk, then literally scratching their heads and looking at me to translate.

I've often wondered if it would be better if everyone simply used one language and one version of that language but I think it would take away the curiousity and the nervous excitement away from us going to different places, because it would basically render everything mundane.

[yendor]

People from way up north like Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire are really hard to understand. I'm situated in Delaware which is mid Atlantic and people from the north say we talk southern. I don't see it myself. Another thing I find interesting is we name a lot of our towns, cities and counties from places in England. The county I live in is actually Sussex county. It was named after Sussex County in England I guess. 

[Ghostrider]

Dec 31, 2015 20:27:57 GMT yendor said:

People from way up north like Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire are really hard to understand. I'm situated in Delaware which is mid Atlantic and people from the north say we talk southern. I don't see it myself. Another thing I find interesting is we name a lot of our towns, cities and counties from places in England. The county I live in is actually Sussex county. It was named after Sussex County in England I guess. 

Yeah I noticed the towns and cities are named after English one's. It makes me wonder how a piddly little country like ours can have so much influence over the world. I know that America was after England in terms of colonization of our breed but it still seems odd and something that has much more deeper reasons, I think.

Anyway, yendor, which places would you say have the most friendly and genuine people and which one's would you say have the most arrogant and unfriendly, less than genuine type?

[yendor]

In this country, most definitely the people from the south are the most friendly. The further north you go the worse they get. most in the central U.S. are about the same, very friendly. Even people in California are friendly. Those in Oregon and Washington, not so much. All Canadians I've met are real friendly. We think of them as our 51st. state. When I was in the Navy, my ship was stationed in Norfolk, Va., so I only made cruises to the Mediterranean, North Atlantic and the caribbean. Most places I visited treated us sailors pretty well. Of course they liked the dollars we were spending. The places I didn't like was Turkey, North Africa and Norway. The people I met in Norway was very rude to us. It was obvious they did not want American sailors in their country. Any time we visited a country that had other ships there that were members of NATO, in the bars, we had a blast. One thing that is common among sailors from all countries is BEER. And boy did I drink me some beer while in the Navy. Let me tell you a story about the best port we visited while I was in the Navy. Our Captain had met the mayor of a small town on the Italian Riviera, called Finale Ligure. he met the mayor during a visit to New York city. The mayor had invited our ship to visit his town the next time we were in the Med. Well, we did and boy did we have a blast. We had to anchor out and used the whale boat and the captain's gig to get to the beach. The town's people actually gave us the red carpet treatment, literally. Before we got there they built a pier out in the water so our boats could tie up and they actually rolled out a red carpet all the way from the dock to the edge of town. They treated us like kings, our money was no good there, everything was free to us. Any time we went into a bar, immediately each sailor would have beers in front of him. I never paid for beer, wine or food the whole time we were there. They even gave us motor bikes and bicycles to ride for free. They LOVED us. It was such a beautiful place, We were all so sad when we had to pull out. I'll never forget that wonderful place. We did spend a lot of time in London. I did a some touring there, I went to Windsor Castle, I always visited castles everywhere I went. Of course I loved London, that's where the Beatles were from and I loved the Beatles. I probably visited all the pubs too. I love the neighborhood pubs. The women set on one side and the men set on the other. They had to put the beer in tubs of ice for us though. We Americans like our beer cold. I couldn't believe they drink beer room temperature. One thing I do regret while visiting England was not going to visit stonehenge. They had tours and all, but at that time in my life I didn't care about that stuff. I keep going on and on, sorry about that. I don't know you much, but we sure are becoming pen pals.