Tuesday 18 May 2010

UK vs US


It is not only the students who (hopefully!) learn something new each week at E-Style. One of the advantages of working with American teachers like Alan and R.T. is that I also learn new words each week.

As you may know there are many small differences between British and American English, especially with vocabulary, and if possible I try to teach my students both (usually after checking with Alan!).

Here are some common examples of different vocabulary used in the US and UK:

US: Apartment, UK: Flat (アパート)
US: Candy, UK: Sweets  (お菓子)
US: Chips, UK: Crisps  (ポテトチップス)
US: Cookie, UK: Biscuit (ビスケット)
US: First floor, UK: Ground floor (一階)
US: Fries, UK: Chips  (ポテト)
US: Line, UK: Queue  (待ち行列)
US: Movie theater, UK: Cinema (映画館)
US: Pants, UK: Trousers (ズボン)
US: Soccer, UK: Football (サッカー)
US: Trash, UK: Rubbish  (ごみ、くず)
US: Truck, UK: Lorry (トラック)

There are of course many other differences including differences in spelling and also grammar. I will introduce some more in a future post.