English: Mind the Gap

Most everyone knows that in the UK an elevator is called a lift and an apartment is a flat, but beyond a few dozen words, we like to think that we speak the same language as our friends across the pond.  Ha! 

I’ve been visiting for decades now, and the more I go, the more I know that sometimes, as I shake my head in assent, I’m not fully understanding what is being said.  There are completely different meanings for the same word, unknown expressions, syntactical differences and cultural nuances to be decoded in any conversation.  Reading the front page of The Guardian can be frustrating, and a quick trip to the supermarket can feel like a visit to a parallel universe. 

On my last trip, the first food to stop me in my tracks - and make me laugh - was Cullen Skink.  Wha…sounds like a cheap, smelly creature, doesn’t it?  It’s fish chowder.

Herewith, some photos snapped during a five-minute dash up two aisles (and a couple from back outside), which suggest that, whilst both languages are called English, the gap between the British and American versions is big enough to drive a lorry through.