In America we speak...
if you answered "American" you're
a. French
b. Wrong
c. All of the Above
We speak English in America. At least that's what I thought before I got here. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked how to say a particular word in "American."
I find that here in France I'm constantly reminded of just how American I am. Last week while washing dishes in a French friend's apartment I was made to feel singlehandedly responsible for global warming because of the water pressure I was using. Apparently I waste a lot of water while doing dishes. I told my friend not to worry because the earth something like 70% water (or is that the human body?) and I was then reminded by my friend that only 1% of that water is potable.I bet if I were French that I'd inherently know to use less water while washing dishes.
Today in the teacher's lounge I was organizing a bunch of papers I had for these different lessons I had planned. A few teachers were watching me and started laughing at the amount of paper I had. They said "Welcome to France..here to do one thing you need a whole bunch of different pieces of paper." And it's true. I've noticed just how much paper is consumed/wasted in my schools and it's so surprising because I thought the French were better about things like not wasting paper and recycling. I kind of chuckled and said to the teachers "and they say that us Americans are the ones who are wasteful of everything." They laughed and said they definitely waste more paper but I think I'll keep comments like that to myself next time.
Then there are the English assistants from England. I have just as many cultural/language exchanges with them as I do with the French. Today over lunch Tessa (an English assistant from England) and I were comparing notes on teaching and what we were going to do with our kids. This inevitably leads to moments where one of us does not understand the other. One time when we were planning a Christmas lesson I told her we could have them make cards on "construction paper" and she was really confused. I said "you know, color paper, a little thicker than regular paper, we call it construction paper." She said "oh, do you mean card?" She thought "construction paper" was hilarious and couldn't wait to share it with the other English girls. But really, card?? What's that all about?
Another time she was telling me about her friend's apartment and how cool it is that she has an airing cupboard. Tessa expected me to be equally excited about the existence of this airing cupboard but I just stared at her blankly.
Laura: What the hell is an airing cupboard?
Tessa: You know, it's room where the boiler is and it has shelves and you put your towels and sheets there so they stay warm. What do you guys call the room where the boiler is?
Laura: Umm, the boiler room? Duh.
Tessa: You Americans are so literal.
We also had an extended conversation about "I've got" vs. "I have." In England you'd say "I've got a headache" but in America you'd more likely say "I have a headache." They mean the same thing and we even counted - it's technically the same number of words. But clearly Tessa didn't agree with me that the English version was just too many words to say the same thing.
Tessa saw my big bobby pin (which they have some weird name for) and laughed at the size of it. She commented on how everything is "bigger and better" in America. They're not always bigger and not always better, but I'm inclined to agree with her.
Kid quote of the day: Laura, do you know Queens?
Laura: Yes, that's where I live! How do you know about Queens?
Kid: I have a cassette on New York. They talk about Queens and Queens Boulevard.
That wasn't really a great quote but it was so random for this kid to ask me about Queens of all places!
a. French
b. Wrong
c. All of the Above
We speak English in America. At least that's what I thought before I got here. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked how to say a particular word in "American."
I find that here in France I'm constantly reminded of just how American I am. Last week while washing dishes in a French friend's apartment I was made to feel singlehandedly responsible for global warming because of the water pressure I was using. Apparently I waste a lot of water while doing dishes. I told my friend not to worry because the earth something like 70% water (or is that the human body?) and I was then reminded by my friend that only 1% of that water is potable.I bet if I were French that I'd inherently know to use less water while washing dishes.
Today in the teacher's lounge I was organizing a bunch of papers I had for these different lessons I had planned. A few teachers were watching me and started laughing at the amount of paper I had. They said "Welcome to France..here to do one thing you need a whole bunch of different pieces of paper." And it's true. I've noticed just how much paper is consumed/wasted in my schools and it's so surprising because I thought the French were better about things like not wasting paper and recycling. I kind of chuckled and said to the teachers "and they say that us Americans are the ones who are wasteful of everything." They laughed and said they definitely waste more paper but I think I'll keep comments like that to myself next time.
Then there are the English assistants from England. I have just as many cultural/language exchanges with them as I do with the French. Today over lunch Tessa (an English assistant from England) and I were comparing notes on teaching and what we were going to do with our kids. This inevitably leads to moments where one of us does not understand the other. One time when we were planning a Christmas lesson I told her we could have them make cards on "construction paper" and she was really confused. I said "you know, color paper, a little thicker than regular paper, we call it construction paper." She said "oh, do you mean card?" She thought "construction paper" was hilarious and couldn't wait to share it with the other English girls. But really, card?? What's that all about?
Another time she was telling me about her friend's apartment and how cool it is that she has an airing cupboard. Tessa expected me to be equally excited about the existence of this airing cupboard but I just stared at her blankly.
Laura: What the hell is an airing cupboard?
Tessa: You know, it's room where the boiler is and it has shelves and you put your towels and sheets there so they stay warm. What do you guys call the room where the boiler is?
Laura: Umm, the boiler room? Duh.
Tessa: You Americans are so literal.
We also had an extended conversation about "I've got" vs. "I have." In England you'd say "I've got a headache" but in America you'd more likely say "I have a headache." They mean the same thing and we even counted - it's technically the same number of words. But clearly Tessa didn't agree with me that the English version was just too many words to say the same thing.
Tessa saw my big bobby pin (which they have some weird name for) and laughed at the size of it. She commented on how everything is "bigger and better" in America. They're not always bigger and not always better, but I'm inclined to agree with her.
Kid quote of the day: Laura, do you know Queens?
Laura: Yes, that's where I live! How do you know about Queens?
Kid: I have a cassette on New York. They talk about Queens and Queens Boulevard.
That wasn't really a great quote but it was so random for this kid to ask me about Queens of all places!
posted by Laura at 5:15 PM
3 Comments:
here's just one thing i wanna ask about the way Americans pronounce certain words. Like Caribbean, you do know we named it first right?
How would you like it if we pronounced states wrong?
Anyway, hope i didn't come across too agressive. I like America, cos it's WAY bigger than our little country.
Hi Adam,
I love my English friends, I love our cultural/language differences.
We have a great time swapping words and their pronunciations. I hope I
didn't come across any other way.
The differences in pronunciation are little more than amusing and
entertaining. No one pronunciation is right or wrong. You can pronounce
the names of our states however you please. If there is a "correct"
pronunciation of certain words/places then there are arguably some
Americans who "mispronounce" some state names. It doesn't bother me in the
least.
Thanks for reading my blog though!
Best regards,
Laura
Hi Laurita!!! Merry Xmas. I hope you enjoy your holidays back home. Give a big kiss to everyone there.
Don´t worry too much about the comments of the people, I don´t know why in these situations there is this thing of blaming the others about different aspects of the countries they belong to. I think it´s terrible to generalize but I also don´t know why, in the end we all tend to do it in a certain way.
I don´t know if this has got any sense... or has any sense!!! Anyway I find it´s funny what you were saying about cultural/language differences between you and the English, because it´s true that there are many differences although they are the same language. I think it´s something curious. It also happens if you compare my spanish to the one fron South america, and it´s really funny how even same expressions can mean a different thing!
OK- enough! I'll better leave and prepare lunch as I should be at work at four to prepare the four classes I´ve got in the afternoon... Enjoy my dear cousin! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX L.Moreno Azze
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