Cultural Differences
When I first arrived here in London, I thought that the accent would be way more noticeable. I am saddened to say that that is not the case. The accent is clearly there but both countries people tend to say about the same things so it’s not as exciting as I once thought it would be. The accents that are the hardest to decipher are those of people from the northern part of England. I think it gets really old to the locals when I repeatedly have to ask them to repeat but once I say that I’m from America, they seem not to mind and actually are more interested to talk to me.
Fortunately, I haven’t had any moments where I am genuinely stuck in a rut when it comes to language. It has been fairly easy to switch wording when it comes to everyday items. Things such as ‘takeaway’ instead of ‘takeout’, ‘chips’ instead of ‘fries’, ‘prawns’ instead of ‘shrimp’. Clearly, I learned all the food lingo! Other than that I’ve gotten used to waiting in the queue instead of the line, buying a pair of trousers and many more. The funniest term I have heard here in London, was during a carnival in a local park. As always, I was checking out the food stands and came upon one that was quite ironic. Here, cotton candy is called candy floss. I found this absolutely hilarious because I think of floss and I think of dentists and healthy teeth which is opposite on what I would think of cotton candy. Nevertheless, it has been fun to find out the differences in the two culture and how similar yet different we can be.
