Although Scotland is an English speaking country, there have been a few classic “lost in translation” moments. Some accents are much stronger than others, and there are a few things that have completely different names. For example, quid is the equivalent of saying bucks or dollars, and they say queries instead of questions.
One of the most confusing miscommunications I’ve had happened in my concrete and steel design class. On top of my professor’s accent and the differing mathematical notation, the content of the material is fairly challenging. I went through the first 3 weeks of class being so confused until he started posting study material online. I finally made the connections between what he was saying and the words in the packet. Needless to say, I’ve been much more successful in the class since then.
I’ve also come to hate that the US uses a different set of units than Scotland. Civil engineering classes in the States are all taught using the imperial system because that’s the system the industry uses. Scotland, like the rest of the world, uses the metric system. There have been many times, both in and out of class, where I have missed information because I can’t remember the conversions. Celsius to fahrenheit, kilometers to miles, and kilograms to pounds are just a few that come up on a daily basis.
Adjusting to using pounds has also been slightly confusing. Pence, the equivalent of cents, took some time getting use to because all the coins are very different shapes and sizes. The first week or two I was here, every cashier knew I wasn’t a local. It took me forever to sort through the coins and give them the correct ones.
Amongst all the confusion, I have picked up a new favorite expression though, ‘cheers’. I know I’ve talked about it a little bit before, but it’s the Scottish way of saying ‘thank you’ or ‘to your health’. It’s just such a happy word, and everyone always says it with a smile on their face. Although I still haven’t figured out the correct response when someone says ‘cheers’ to me, I love hearing it.
