Monday, March 30, 2009

We speak the same language, but...


Bodnant Gardens - Pavillion, originally uploaded by brindegazon.

...But some differences can lead to very embarrassing moments.

I have been to the UK twice to date, and will go one more time in June. I loved it of course, but there are language differences I wasn't aware of during my first visit. This post is kind of a response to Misssarahlou's "What are you talking about?" post. She was showing the UK's side of things, as a new Canadian resident.

Well I'll talk about the point of view of a Canadian visitor to the UK.

So we'll start with PANTS. I was going to go shopping with my boyfriend at the time (Now husband) because he needed some clothes for his upcoming 6 months trip to Canada. We get to Wrexham, enter some shops, buy some stuff, then I ask my mother in law if Phil got some pants yet. She doesn't seem to take notice, she probably knew what I meants, but didn't correct me on that one. So we keep shopping, he finds some pairs of pants, then we go back home. In the evening, we went and had a cup of tea with cheese on toast at his grand parents' place, and we start telling them about our shopping trip. Then I say : Oh and he got some nice pairs of pants and 2 or 3 nice shirts.
...
SILENCE
...
WEIRD LOOKS
...
"Valerie, do you mean trousers?" hmmmm trousers ? Is there something I don't know ???? Well, apparently, PANTS are UNDERPANTS.

I wanted to hide under the sofa BIG TIME. So embarrassing...

Oh and imagine my face when I first heard "Toad in a hole". I really was wondering what it was. Well it's a meal. Comprised of sausage and a yorkie. With peas and gravy. Yum !

So that was my story, accompanied by a nice photo taken in Bodnant Gardens two years ago ! I loved that place, and will be going back this summer with my sister. (Along with a lot of other places. Like Cadbury's world... But this time, I won't indulge on chocolate too much =P Just a couple of Flakes will do.)

3 comments:

Temp said...

That was funny, it has happened to me worse in spanish depending of the country

Philz said...

Very Funny! Dwi Yn Caru Ti Llawer Baby. =)

verydeterminedin2010 said...

That's a really funny story. Language can be really confusing. I'm from England and I was the one giving funny looks when I first moved to Canada, and heard Canadians talking about 'pants'. For instance, a friend was wearing a skirt one day and said that she would have to go and change into some pants. All I could think of was 'isn't she wearing any pants already?', 'this is too much information' lol, and 'isn't she going to wear anything over the pants too?' I soon worked it out what she meant though, thank goodness :)

I hope you don't mind me following your blog. My name is Charlotte and I'm on the WWs site too, as I'm also trying to lose weight.