One of the best English to American translations I’ve ever seen…

I wish I would have had this as soon as I stepped off the plane on my first arrival.

I wish I had thought to look for blogs and stuff when I turned up, too… Instead I wandered around feeling like the only homesick American in England for 2 years. Then I met PeacefulYorkshire and things took a turn for the best

Been living here for a short 6 months so found this helpful and hilarious…..  Does anyone have any stories/tips for taking their driving test here in the UK?  I’m looking into it now and really dreading it.  It’s so depressing to have to go through this again after driving back in the states for 13 years. 

Hi DA, Welcome to our blog! And yep, we have written a post about this same experience… mostly due to the fact that I was in UK driving school at the time. Enjoy!
http://www.shesnotfromyorkshire.com/2009/10/05/the-part-where-you-are-ready-to-drive-in-the-uk-as-an-american-shamerican/

I should give this to my husband. We’re both South Africans and live in SA, but I’m English SA (all those British sayings mean what they do in the UK to me) and he’s Afrikaans SA. It makes for lots of muddy communications!

The Good ol’ British understatement! I love these lists and haven’t seen one for a while. Very good reference guide, don’t you think? Makes me wonder if all us expats shouldn’t have a separate page on our sites devoted to something like this… Thanks for giving me a smile!

Hello ladies (and gentlemen)!  I just love reading all the stories on this blog. I am currently in a long distance relationship with my Brit. We talk on skype all the time, and sometimes we just have those days where it seems like we are speaking completely different languages! Today was one of those days. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: “I’m trying to decided what to wear this wedding. I have a dress, but I think nice capris and a dress shirt would be more comfortable.”
Him (looking confused): “What are capris?”
Me: “They are sort of like pants…err… trousers that end below the knee”
Him: “So they are shorts. You can’t where shorts to a wedding.”
Me: “They are not shorts, they are capris, and they are black and dressy. I can wear heels with them.”
Him: “So they are trousers?”
Me (sighing and showing him the capris over skype): “No, they are CAPRIS, and I would wear them with this shirt. See, they are dressy and have a cuff.” demo outfit.
Him: “Cuff? Shirts have cuffs, you mean a hem.”
Me: “Are we both speaking English?”
Him: “You can’t wear shorts to a wedding, wear the dress.”

I got a kick out of this and thought I would share with all of you battling the language barrier

sorry this isn’t directly related to the post, but was just wondering whatsup with the 2 month hiatus? everything ok over there? noticed you’ve been missing from my newsfeed!!! hope you come back soon and all is well

So very true. After being in the UK for years, I still unfortunately sometimes interpret things the American way and then feel stabbed in the back when the Brit finally reaches the point where he or she has no choice but to be direct.  For weeks/months you’ve been complimenting me and saying that my few flaws are unimportant in the grand scheme of things. – Now my flaws have suddenly become intolerable!

Great advice!