Want to take a drive? Most of the English speaking world and former British territories drive on the left hand side of the road with the steering wheel on the right. So does Japan for some reason. America and the rest of the world drives the opposite.
South Africans drive on nationals, as in N12 to Witbank. Americans drive on the interstate, as in I5 to San Diego. Brits drive on motorways, as in M1 to Leeds. A circle in RSA is a traffic circle in US and a roundabout in UK. When you reach one be sure to use your directional in RSA, turn indicator in UK, turn signal in US. Once you arrive in RSA use a parkade, a car park in UK, a parking lot in US. Watch out for robots in RSA. I don’t think anybody else does.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
Gear!
Well written, me old china!
Unfortunately, in Australia rooting and footy teams do go together in some unsavoury ways.
The thing that puzzles me is why English-speaking countries get so hung up on local idiosyncrasies. In Italy for instance, two people from the same country, each speaking a language broadly called Italian can be completely unintelligible to each other because of different dialects.
The anomolies in the versions of English spoken in the various former colonies are nothing compared to the various dialects within England itself. The differences between London English, Yorkshire English, Manc English and Scouse English can be huge. And that's whout even mentioning Scotland. Ever read any Irvine Welsh?
One of the amazing things about English is that we all can understand each other even halfway round the world. My grandparents lived in Austria half their lives and can barely understand Germans outside of Bavaria. Chinese TV uses subtitles for everything. It's all the same written language but people from one village might not understand people from the village just over the hill. I've a friend in France who visited Quebec and needed translations.
Can you see how this is confusing to outsiders? We learn one thing and when we think we have a grasp on it, someone tells us another thing.
The reason most people in the world speak American English is because English English doesn't make any sense.
You can do it all just now, which is much later than straight away. Unless you’re American. Then just now is before right away. If you’re British then just now is South Afrikan now.
Come again?
I don't think most people in the world speak American English.
Your just now is in the immediate past. I typed that sentence just now. My just now is in the indeterminate future. I'll do the wash just now.
All languages became something else in Americas. :p
Same thing happens to the European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese. While in Brazil the word Camisola means nightdress in Portugal it means T-shirt. This is how the jokes on Portuguese people start. In Brazil we use the word Camiseta for T-shirt. Then we have the African Portuguese. African Portuguese is very close to the European Portuguese and they have the same accent. Portuguese and Brazilian people can understand each other perfectly.
In Brazil nobody can't tell the difference between American and British English until they learn the language and can notice the accent among other things. People who are not familiar with the Portuguese language think Portuguese is everything except Portuguese. I guess it's ok not to understand the differences when you are not familiar with the language.
I learned English by myself. I really need to improve it, I need to LEARN it once for all. Speakers from other countries make me confused. What is correct in USA is wrong everywhere else. I don't know what to do. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
It's probably not easy to learn the American version of a European language when your own native language is an American version of a European language.
English is too confusing.
AHAHAH that's right Mia.
Post a Comment