El Idioma de Inglaterra

Okay, yes, the title of this post is in Spanish.  It means ‘the language of England’, and I put it in Spanish because I really wish I could put my Spanish skills to use.  But alas, English is the native language of England and my homeland, too.  So no multilingualism for me.

To get to the point of this post, I am learning a ton about language over here.  Most of it comes from the fact that a lot of my friends are exchange students or international students, and English is their second language.  I am called upon to settle arguments, edit papers, help people tell stories, and teach vocabulary purely for fun.  It’s forcing me to learn a lot about English, about its grammar rules and why we use the words we use.  I mean, could you explain why we say “so many apples” but “so much fruit”?  These are my daily struggles.  

I also struggle with vocabulary at times.  People tried to teach me the tricky words before I left the US, like how a ‘jumper’ isn’t a type of dress or how the trunk of a car is called the ‘boot’.  But all of that wasn’t enough for the number of words I’ve learned since getting here, such as transgressive, chav, knackered, gutted, toastie, motorway, and many, many others.  Other familiar words have new meaning, such as proper, which over here means ‘truly’, and getting off, which means ‘making out’.  My other struggle with language is spelling, because the British have opted to use silly and unnecessarily fussy spellings and not to see the value in the way we Americans have streamlined (and improved*) their language.

I’m sure many of you are wondering, but no, I don’t have a proper Mancunian accent.  My accent has a sort English edge to it if I’m not thinking about it, but nothing so strong that I can’t instantly be identified as an American.  My friends tell me that of all the Americans they know in Salford, my accent is the most stereotypically American.  Sigh.  So I won’t be leaving here with a souvenir accent, but I will be taking British catchphrases with me.  Come July, Michiganders will hear me say things like ‘It’s a bit shit, really,’ or ‘We get on well nice, it’s absolutely fantastic’ and of course my favorite British phrase, ‘for fuck’s sake!’ 

I expected to learn a lot from studying abroad, but even I am surprised how much language I’m learning without learning a new language.  I guess it just takes getting out of your own dialect to realise how distinct it really is.  And even more, how much there is to appreciate in the old dialect and the new.  That’s love for Mancs and Michiganders, right there.

*Cases in point: cheque, programme, colour, centre, sympathise, etc.