I was going to bring up differences within the UK - Les beat me.

Spent my first year organic chem labs not understanding my lab partner - a Geordie.

Remember listening to an elderly couple in Netherton near Dudley and not understanding a word of the Black Country dialect (maybe RtS can help).

Also I would keep altering spelling at school - on writing "nothing" I would want to alter it to "nothink" 'cos that was the way I pronounced it and heard it around me.

One thing that has always bugged me (and it is irrational) is the pronounciation (not always) of route as "rout" (like what an army may do) instead of rhyming with "root" on th west side of the pond. Also the interchangability of "bring" and "take". But then again these rules were probably invented to keep the teachers of English employed (don't take me seriously on that one, please!).

Cheers Rana