This is how special I am: two people flew from England to NYC to train me at my new job. I’ve been working with them all week (which is why I’ve been MIA from the Internet during the day) and it’s been awesome. Mostly because they say adorable things. So today I bring you my five favorite British things I would like us to adopt in America. Most are phrases they said, but one is edible.
1. ”Do you fancy a coffee?”
FANCY?! I must start using this. It’s so much more elegant than, “Do you want to get some coffee?” The word fancy made the workplace seem like an extravagant ball where I was wearing a fancy gown instead of business casual clothes.
2. Blimey. It’s not just a myth! People really do say this across the pond! However, so far they haven’t said ”bloody ‘ell” like my boyfriend Spike.
3. One of the UK people mentioned the timing of the trip randomly worked out because his friend was having a “stag party” in NYC this coming weekend. It took me a moment to figure out he meant Bachelor party!!! OMG! Stag party puts an image in my mind of Harry Potter’s patroness mingling with other patronesses. (Why yes I am a nerd. Why do you ask?)
4. And a bachelorette party is called a Hen party! Now I feel I missed out because I only had a bachelorette party and not a hen party. For this one I’m picturing my girlfriends and I putting on our finest jeans and going country line dancing on a farm while sipping champagne out of milk bottles. Also, hay gets stuck in my shoes.
4. This last one isn’t a phrase. It’s a candy bar. More specifically, a cadbury creme egg CANDY BAR. Not in the shape of an egg. This blows my mind. They brought us a box of chocolate bars and when I saw this, my eyes kind of bugged out. It was made by cadbury but would it taste the same?! It does! And in a more convenient shape for eating on the go (I don’t know about you but the egg shape always leads to sticky hands). Also, there was an Eclair flavored candy that really tasted like eclairs!!
Not my photo but that’s what it looked like.
I’m really hoping besides the stuff they’re trying to train me in that I also absorb their accents.
So what do you say, Americans and Canadians? Shall we start saying Fancy and Blimey? Replace zucchini (or zu-chee-nee as they called it) with corgettes and eggplant with aubergines? Shall we combine “isn’t it” into “in’it”)? I think so. Let’s start this trend here!
Also, I love that I knew more about British TV than they did, haha. I was telling them all about season 5 of Skins, which just started airing over there. They hadn’t seen it yet. I have. Go me! My excessive TV watching has now made me an expert in TV from other countries.
Tags: friday five
March 4th, 2011 at 11:44 am
Oh man! I love British phrases. My husband’s aunt lives in London and whenever his cousins visit, I can’t get enough of all the different words they use.
The last time they came over, they introduced us to Pimm’s and Lemonade (an English cocktail). Even their cocktails sound fancier!
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March 8th, 2011 at 11:52 am
I’m up to 6, 000 words but have run into a major computer problem. I’m going to be offline for several days. Grrr! I’ve also run into an unexpected trip at the end of the month, but I haven’t given up – yet.
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March 8th, 2011 at 4:40 pm
LOL, too funny. I already say “fancy”, but “blimey” and “bloody ‘ell” only come out when my son and I are talking in fake British accents (which is disturbingly frequent, come to think of it).
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