Anglais américain ou britannique ? That is the question (and the topic of today’s video).
Mais avant, je veux te raconter une histoire de mes débuts avec la langue française. Et ce n’est pas très glorieux…
Quand je suis partie pour faire mon année d’échange en 2002, j’étais 1ère de ma classe de Français à la fac (Tu connais Lisa Simpson ? Romain dit que c’est moi…)
J’ai embarqué dans mon vol Mississippi – Paris, sûre que parler avec des “vrais Français” allait être a piece of cake, du gateau.
Oops.
“Why do they speak so fast?”
“I never learned those expressions in French class!”
“When it’s just one French person, ok. When they talk to each other, I’m lost.”
“Why can’t they have subtitles, or speech bubbles likc in comic books when they speak?”
C’était tellement frustrant car en cours, j’arrivais super bien. Dans la vraie vie, beaucoup moins.
C’est pour ça que j’ai créé la série de vidéos “Apprivoiser la Patate Chaude” (merci à Speak English Ambassador Manon pour le titre !)
Cette semaine, tu vas rencontrer Vicki, une anglaise qui nous parle de comment elle a du apprendre à parler américain quand elle s’est installé aux US.
C’est du vrai anglais parlé, entre 2 anglophones natives. Are you ready?
Chaque vidéo de la séries Apprivoiser la Patate Chaude est accompagné d’une Hot Potato Sheet : des exercices et pour t’aider à suivre, le transcript du dialogue. Every. Single. Word.
CLIQUE ICI pour recevoir la tienne !
Now, it’s your turn! C’est à toi !
What other differences do you know in British and American English?
Partage tes mots dans le commentaires.
Ça se trouve que tu en connais plus que moi (vu que je n’ai jamais appris l’anglais britannique !)
All the best to you,
Christina
More good stuff...
Clique l'image pour regarder l'épisode. C'est magique !
Really interesting. I have a lot of fun with video. I appreciate vicki and your attitude. It is very helpful for me. When we are foreigner, we may accept the new culture and the way to communicate, with smile 🙂 Thank you for this video. I <3 that !
Hi Na-Rae! Great, I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed the video! Vicki is a ton of fun, and she makes great videos for learning English too! Look for Simple English Videos on YouTube and you’ll find her.
Yes, when you move to another country, you just have to adapt! As we say in English “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”.
Glad to know that you <3 the video! I'll do more in the future!
Thank you very much. This is the best exercise to improve his spoken English
My pleasure, Océane! I’m glad you like it!
Hello,
Nice video indeed. Thanks !
You could aldo have spoken the S & Z changes and ER / RE (centre / center).
Regards,
Fabien
Hi Fabien, You’re right! Maybe we’ll have to do a video on things like spelling changes between UK & US English, the s & z, the -re vs -er, the -ou- vs -o-, etc. Great suggestion, thanks!
hi Christina, Thanks for this video. I would love it if you made another video with Vicki and focused on pronunciation variations and differences between American English and British English!
OK, what a good idea! It looks like I’ll have to invite her back, and I’m sure she’d love that! I’ll add the idea to my list of video subjects for the future. Thanks.
Thank you for the video!
UK Learnt US Learned
UK autumn US Fall …
In Boston, Frites (FR) are French fries (US) and chips (FR) are chips (US) !
I had a small talk with a neighbor. She told me she had to learn new words and expression when she had moved from the West coast to the East coast of USA. I suppose they are many differences within the country as well!
Hi Magali! It’s my pleasure! It was a lot of fun making the video, because Vicki is a good friend of mine. You’re right, those are some other differences. There are so many! And chips vs fries vs crisps vs chips can be very confusing!
And yes, there are differences between regions in the US too! I’m from the south and we say things like:
“y’all” (for the plural of you),
“Bless your heart” (which you say to someone when something bad happens to them),
“fixin’ to” for about (as in “I’m fixin’ to go to the supermarket. Do y’all need anything?”)
“reckon”, which is like “suppose”, “imagine”, or “guess” (as in “I reckon we could call Jim and ask if he can help”)
Maybe a video on southern expressions could be fun 🙂 You could learn some expressions from my region of the US!
This video was excellent: funny, lively and interesting. That is just
Sorry I sent my feedback too soon… It is so important to hear different accents because in life English is not only important for communicating with Americans but to communicate with British people, Canadian or Austrialian or anybody who speaks another language because English is often the only common language. So since you have to cope with different English, different expressions, it is good to pratice this as well. I did not know the differences in the naming of vegetable in the US and in Britain, really interesting. By the way I noticed that the differences between namings of vegetable in Germany and Austria (where I live) are very similar… should investigate this 😉
Hah, no worries! I do that too!
And you’re so right, there are 1000s of accents in English, since it’s an international language! So yes, between different accents, different vocabulary, different pronunciation, and even different grammar, I don’t think we can talk about “English”, but about “Englishes”!
And which vegetables are similar to German? Zucchini ?
Where are you in Austria? I have a good friend who lives in Graz (which, I think, is Arnold Schwarzeneggar’s hometown!)
Hi Christina
Food names can really teach us much about a country and its history 🙂
in Germany vegetable names have often different roots and etymologies than in Austria like aubergine (eggplant in American English as I learned in your video) —> aubergine (fr-FR) = Aubergine (de-DE) = Melanzani (de-AT) = aubergine (en-GB) = eggplant (en-US)
“courgette” is Zucchini both in Germany and in Austria as in American English (really funny that British are using the French word and Americans the Italian one).
There are many other differences, to give you 2 more examples :
– “chou fleur”: in Germany Blumenkohl (which is the litteral translation of chou fleur) and Karfiol in Austria (from Italian “cavolfiore”).
or matching the name of your video serie –> potatoe is called in German “Kartoffel” whereas in Austria we use the litteral translation of the French term “pomme de terre”, “Erdapfel”.
I loved this video and am dying to see the next in this serie!
I live in the capital of Austria, Vienna, the world’s best city to live in according to an international study !
Hi Christine, I loved reading your comment, because it’s always so interesting to see the similarities and connections between language and geography!
Maybe in US English we use the German influenced words because we had more German (and Italian) immigrants than French immigrants in our history.
Really interesting, your comment! Thanks!
And I went to Vienna once, but a long time ago, maybe in 2000… I loved the city. It’s so beautiful, and there’s such good food too. I hope to get back there one day 😉
Thanks and have a great day!
But for England, the geographic closeness, and the fact that French was the language of the royal court means the British use French words!
Oops, I think something’s missing 🙂
I learnt British English at schoo, travelled to GB when I was young(er!) and had to adapt when we moved to the US.
A few words that come to my mind:
loo vs bathroom/restroom
boot vs trunk
swimming costume vs swimming suit
pavement vs sidewalk
and many more!
Hi Aurelie, Ah, yes, “swimming costume”! That word sounds so old-fashioned to me! But I suppose they say it in the UK… There are sooooo many differences! How are you adapting to life (and language) in the US? Where are you in the US? I’m from Mississippi 🙂