Yaight?

This post is dedicated to Nona.

I promised Nona I would do a post about some of the differences in language here as compared to home, so here we go!

The main thing I picked up on was how people here say hello. Sometimes it's hello and hi, but most of the time, it's "Yaight." Basically it's a combination of the words "you" and "all right," however, they don't pronounce the "l" or the "r," it's just "yaight." I can't do it properly, because I have to use the l's and r's. In any case, I wasn't sure how to answer this. I just say, "Fine, how are you?" or "Hey," haha. But one day, in class I sitting alone feeling kind of down, when this girl turns to me to say hi, but says, you know, "Yaight?" And I was like, "Yes - do I look sad??" Haha. Fun times.

Anyway some other interesting observations - for orange juice, instead of pulp, they say "bits," so no pulp = no bits, or with bits. Also, whole wheat bread here is "wholemeal" bread. It's pretty much the same thing.

Oh yeah, and the most known things are chips here = fries; chips at home = crisps here. Another big thing I've noticed is that in the alphabet, here they say "Zed" for "Z." Like at home, we say "A to Z," or "X, Y, Z." Here they say "A to Zed" or "X, Y, Zed," but the letter stands alone as a Z, it's just pronounced "Zed." I have no idea why. I asked one of my friends here, and they had no clue. Hmm, something different.

There's also a way to how the British phrase things. They'll say, "I had a lay-in this morning," which means they slept in. Or they'll say they might "have a read," or "have a sit," it's pretty interesting. It's all so British!

Some more language things

to pull = to hit on
lift = elevator
quid = a pound, or money in general
pudding = dessert (I had to explain to my program director what pudding was in the States, I don't think she fully understood)

Apart from language, I thought it was really funny how much they love American television. "The O.C." is REALLY popular here. Also, my friend said she loves "One Tree Hill," and is goign to come to America just to go visit the town where it is set. I thought that this was hilarious! They also have shows based off American TV shows, like "X-factor," which is exactly like "American Idol," and has Simon Cowell as a judge, but British.

That's really all I can think of right now. I know there's more, but I'll just have to write it down and have another post. But that's it for now! There you go, my Shanona!