Do you Dance or D'aa'nce? Vacuum or Hoover?

Have you ever had one of those days that you feel like you’re repeating yourself but never getting anywhere?

I can sympathise after my visit to the Post Office today. For some reason the man behind the counter could not understand what a post-it-note was.  After consistently repeating myself I gave up.

This has happened before.  The other week I asked for a Flat White in a coffee shop and the woman looked at me blankly. I did repeat myself until I had to describe to her what I wanted; a coffee with milk please. I thought I was asking for something that does not exist in the UK until I visited another coffee shop and carefully scrutinised the menu; yes there was an item called a Flat White!

I wonder how many other Brits don’t understand what I’m saying. Next time I might have to try ‘G’day mate, I’ve just arrived from woop woop, can i have a cuppa and a bickie?’ Their mouths will probably drop in amazement.

When I was at the health shop the other day the shop assistant was Eastern European and she was so pleased to hear me pronounce Vitamin as V’ite’amin and not V’it’amin, that we ended up having a conversation about it.

This has got me thinking about all the different words and pronunciation differences between nationalities. 

Pronunciation Differences

Australian                          British

D’a’nce                               D’aa’nce

V’ite’amin                           V’it’ amin

Ac’quat’ic                            Ac’qat’ic (think quack and take the ‘qua’)

M’awl’                                  Mall (think of the blokes name Al)

Different Words

Australian                          British

Eggplant                               Aubergine

Fridge                                   Refrigerator

Vacuum                                Hoover

Doona                                   Duvet

Capsicum                             Pepper

SR Flour                               Self Raising Flour

Snow Peas                          Mange Tout (sounds like a disease!)

Zucchini                                Courgette

Before I came here I’d never heard of Bunting either, I actually thought it might be a type of sport but no it’s actually a string of triangular colourful flags.

I think I might keep adding to this list... if there are any pronunciations’ or word differences you can think of let me know?!