The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #63508 Message #1032388
Posted By: Bill D
09-Oct-03 - 09:44 AM
Thread Name: BS: Tips On Learning (to be) English
Subject: RE: BS: Tips On Learning (to be) English
well, I believe I have learned a lot from reading this! I do know that that "thank you" and "sorry" bit seems to be a major cultural difference,*big grin*..in certain parts of America, (south, mostly), there ARE lots of built-in politenesses, but not in most bigger cities. I am sure that shopping and food will be an interesting change for you, Alan, but then you have lived in both city & rural areas here, and will no doubt adjust fine. I do note with interest that there DO seem to be more 'national' brands, store chains and newspapers than in the US, where there are lots of regional differences.
I think I will re-read some of those England/America threads noted above, and see if I can absorb more of the 'flavor' of what the differences really are. I think that Great Britain, having many hundreds of years more continuous history, has a few more cultural 'rules' than this big, new frontier in "The Colonies" (though those rules vary in different areas, most everyone seems to be aware of what they are when moving from Yorkshire to Hull to ...even Scotland.)
I, for one, will certainly look forward to reports, like Naemanson's reports from Guam...