With our upcoming trip back to Scotland in just over a week I thought I could use a refresher on “Brit-isms” so as not to embarass myself with any words that have different meaning over there.
Some of these I got a good laugh out of last year as I would use the “Canadian” word I am used to and it would result in a very confused look on the face of the Scottish person I was speaking to.
Let me see what I can remember…
1. “Pants” – contrary to what Canadians deem pants, if you travel to Scotland without learning their meaning to this word you WILL end up in a very embarassing conversation. Pants in Scotland means underwear.
2. “Trousers” – what Canadians call pants.
3. “Chips” – these are french fries in Scotland. Hence fish and chips!
4. “Crisps” – as a follow-up to chips, crisps are what Canadians know as potato chips. (Side story: We saw some Americans make total asses out of themselves by asking for chips at a little shop. What they really wanted was crisps and the one tourist made a comment “THEY call them crisps here not chips” in such a cold and bizarre tone that you would have thought the locals were test subjects in an experiment being discussed)
5. “Sweets” – this is candy. I went into the corner store and asked for candy and the shopkeeper had no clue what I was asking for.
6. “Toilet” – this is the word used for what we Canadians call the washroom. (Side story: I learned quickly on our trip last year to ask where the toilet was instead of asking for the washroom. Once on the ferry to Shetland I asked where the toilet was and the bartender looked at me a little funny and said “Oh, you mean the washroom?”. All I could do was say yes, shake my head and follow his directions to the toilet”)
I am sure I will face some more embarassing situations this coming year as I probably have forgotten some words. As long as I remember the difference between pants and trousers I should be just fine though!
- Michelle
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