Discussion Post: Being British

[crazyparakiss.livejournal.com]

When writing British characters I have found, as an American, that it can be rather hard to capture the language, the attitude, and most of all the traditions. Thanks to some of my amazing British friends here I have gleaned more understanding about these subtle differences between two cultures. winterstorrm suggested “Watching the English” to me and I suggest it to any author of the Harry Potter fandom who wishes to learn a bit more about English culture, whatever nationality you are.



Britspeak:

This is just a small selection as an example. Please refer to Kubrick Potter's Brit-pick guide for an almost definitive list.

Gotten—Since my first Britpick I have been constantly vigilant with this one, I went so far as to spank a Brit I know for it in a fic (funnily I didn’t KNOW she was British so this is me being embarrassed) So here is what I say to people when I see gotten in a fic! NO NO NO! I was told by the great and powerful tari_sue that this not to be used ever! Always go with got! :D

Forgotten- Forgot

Bangs –No, Fringe is appropriate. Bangs equates loud noises.

Braids—Plaits (on that note Braiding—Plaiting)

Pants—Trousers

Underwear—Pants

Panties—Knickers

Zipper-Zip

Vest—Waistcoat

Undershirt—Vest

Purse—Handbag

Sneakers—trainers

Jello—Jelly

Jelly—Jam

Pancakes—For HP specific CAULDRON CAKES

Candy—Sweets

Soda—Coke, Sprite, Pepsi (the name of the soda)

Take out—TAKEAWAY (I like this word, hence all caps XD)

Egg plant—Aubergine

Garbage or trash—RUBBISH (I like this word >.> so it must be in all caps)

Apartment—Flat

Drugstore—Chemists

Co-worker—Colleague

Elevator—Lift (The Ministry has the lifts)

Check—Cheque

Check at a restaurant—Bill

Check as in the check pattern on clothing—exactly the same, Check :D

Nightstand—bedside table

Store—Shop

Wager—Bet

Curse/Cuss—Swear

Closet—Wardrobe (Like an armoire, it is a piece of furniture.)

A walk in (built into the house) closet—A walk in wardrobe/Dressing room

Let’s talk UK Fries!

Chips=Thick cut potato wedges that are deep fried.

Fries= Julienne fries, like shoe string fries.

Crisps= THINK POTATO CHIPS (also any packaged “chips” would classify as crisps)

Chavs= Trashy uncouth people who live on benefits, have no job, lots of kids, and smoke lots
BritSlang dictionary: Here

Brit Daily Life:

No running tabs in a pub. You pay when you order, every time you order. (There are exceptions to this but as a general rule, go with this rule.)

No sitting down and waiting to be served in a pub. You would go in and find a table and get the number then go to the bar to order the food if you are not getting food you can go to the bar and then sit down wherever. Some pubs have restaurant areas and they are waiter service for drinks and food.

No sitting on the front porch, things like sitting on the porch only chavs sit in front of their house in England.

100 pence to the pound, just as American’s have 100 pennies to the dollar (I thought that was kinda handy and neat so I added it, not that it’s really all that useful when writing HP.)

BritAttitude:

Walking up to a person, thrusting out your hand, and saying, “Hi, my name is _____” is something that is a No-No.

Brits do not cheer at the end of a film (movie).

Brits do not sing often the national anthem before sport games unless it's an international and they do sing it is just as likely to be Land of Hope and Glory or Jerusalem as God Save the Queen.

Brits find patriotism embarrassing and think American's are way over the top with theirs.

BritTraditions:

MOST BRITISH MALES ARE NOT CUT! And if I have to explain what I mean by “cut” then you are FAR TOO YOUNG TO BE READING THIS BLOG. Anyways, if they are cut it is usually for religious reasons.

Brits do not 'date'. They 'go out with someone'. Usually exclusively. It is unlikely that someone would be 'dating' more than one person as this would be cheating as it doesn't work how it does in the US.

No baby showers (although this seems to have taken off a little in trendy circles).

BritGeography:

Whilst England could fit into Texas eight times this doesn't mean if someone lives twenty miles from a certain other town they are going to know the person you are asking about in that town. Yes we can drive to the sea in as little as two hours from most places.

Therefore, a two hour drive for a Brit is considered a long one (whereas a two hour drive for a Texan is a daily, one way, work commute, ah I remember those years living in Dallas XD).


Now we are trying to keep the post short because we would love to have questions. On anything! British culture, slang, pastimes, married life, not-so-married life, raising children, schooling, working, etc. If you can think it you can ask it! Also if you are British and want to contribute to what winterstorrm and I have here then I encourage you to do so! We can always use more knowledge while we journey to write better. :D So come one, come all!

Comments

[nabi-sarang.livejournal.com]

My favourite thing when talking about british things is in OOTP when the Dursley's have all their windows open in the heat wave. I remember Americans going crazy over that saying why not use air con XD. We don't have enough heat for air con so yes we DO open all windows if it's a sunny day.

[mab.livejournal.com]

the areas I know my beta/britpicker gets after me:
towards (UK) vs toward (US)
forwards (UK) vs forward (US)
Speak to (UK) Talk to (UK) vs Speak with, Talk with (US)
Normality (UK vs Normalcy (US)

these are just from my most recent corrections.

*sends beta email to come add her voice to the comments if she has time/desire*

[germankitty]

Trucks aren't all that common in the UK outside of professional necessity, or for people who have to haul large loads on a regular basis. A family would sooner drive a station wagon/estate car (if they regularly chauffeur kids and sports equipment, say, or go on longish family vacations by car). Also, it's quite common for people to do their daily shopping on foot (SHOCK!HORROR!), especially when living in/near the center of their village/town/city.

A train is often a cheaper/more conventient means of transportation between two cities than a flight.

[jakuako.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've got one! I email back and forth regularly with a British friend of mine and she recently sent me an email in which she spoke about nail varnish. Twas exciting, because I'm always picking up Britglish from her to add to my mental HP glossary, and lately she hadn't said anything I didn't already know. (Not that this one is so very useful for HP fic, but you never know.) So. Nail varnish. Rather than nail polish. Fun. :D

[valinorean.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this! Being neither British nor American, there are things I automatically get right and there are things I get wrong. Then after writing in HP for so long, when I try to write non-HP fics I had to remember to un-Britpick myself--and sometimes I don't even know how!

[wellhalesbells.livejournal.com]

My beta just got me for sweaters. Of course they're jumpers! Considering how happy I get every time I see it in fanfic, you'd think I'd jump at the opportunity to use it. *headdesk*

I've been corrected by my Brit beta in regards to wishing someone a 'Happy Christmas' and she assured me it was Merry just like in the US. But then watching some random Brit film on Netflix last night, the characters are wishing one another a Harry Happy Christmas. Which is right then? *is confused*

Here are a few fun links ...

[germankitty]

... which I've collected over the years for all your US-to-UK-and-back needs:

The Septic's Companion is an A-to-Zed dictionary of British Slang words and phrases, written by a Scotsman living in America.

Separated by a common language blog post

English vocabulary: US vs. UK

Selected Vocabulary Differences
Between British and American English

The Best of British, The American's guide to speaking British

Selected Vocabulary Differences
Between British and American English

And lastly, go to Wikipedia: English Idioms

[inamac.livejournal.com]

I'd also encourage people to make use of hp_britglish which has a good tags system, and a very large back-catalogue of questions on British tradirions specifically related to HP fanfic.

One other thing that is important to remember about British medical stuff is that the NHS is 'free at the point of service' - All Brits pay 'National Insurance' contributions (usually deducted from their pay by employers, or as part of their taxes if self-employed), and that funds the National Health Service. No doctor is ever going to ask for any further payment if you need treatment. Mostly hospitals don't even ask for your NI number - they assume that if you're British, you're entitled to treatment.

Wherefore there exists...

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

... britpickery, at http://britpickery.livejournal.com/profile.

[sara-holmes.livejournal.com]

I would say this, but I reckon the dead-give away between British/American writing is the swear words. The age old ass versus arse debate comes to mind, as well as my over-use of the word 'twat'.

For me, the biggest issue is schools. Where do I begin? We do not have grades, periods, kindergartens, freshmen, seniors or any of those peculiar things. Neither do we have high-schools, elementary schools or principals. And I'm pretty sure what Americans call college is different to what we call college. We Englishy type folk start small children off in nursery (age three or four) and then they go into reception (four or five). Sometimes they two year groups are lumped together as a 'foundation unit' within a primary school and are called F1 (nursery) and F2 (reception.) Then primary school goes from year one to year six (5-11) and then you go to secondary school. After that, it's college/sixth form/whatever crazy scheme the government has decided to use this week, and then University if you so choose. We get holidays (not vacations) and half-terms (small holidays) around three major terms, Autumn, Winter and Summer (holidays being Christmas, Easter and Summer). We have state schools and private schools and now we also have academies which are a nuisance jolly lot of fun. Gah, far too much information. Maybe one day I'll organise this into something more coherent?


Some more Englishisms I have been picked on about lately:
Focussed with too many esses.
Calling an oven an Aga.

"only chavs sit in front of their house in England." LOL. We once sat on a sofa in the front garden and claimed we were rednecks.

[winterstorrm.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the weather-speak, Kiss!

[lady-of-clunn.livejournal.com]

How about money?

I don't know how many stories I've read in which somebody was stuffing 'one-pound-bills' into a stripper's bra, knickers, pants, whatever.

Seeing as there is no one-pound-note, I'd like to see the poor stripper handle his pants full of pound coins. Heavy little bastards, they are.

I've also read about people having wads of paper money stuffed into a pocket, clipped together with a money clip. I've never seen anything like it, so I guess it's an American thing?

[lady-of-clunn.livejournal.com]

Another one!

The set-up of towns.

British towns have grown over centuries from a teeny tiny village seed. Streets can be windy and narrow in places and do not cross at regular intervals. Even after living in America I have no concept of how long 'a block' is. So, when describing the way to somehwere it won't be "drive ten blocks and make a right at 78th street" but rather along the line of: "walk about a hundred metres until you reach the 'Red Lion' (it's funny how many pubs in the UK are called 'Red Lion'), turn left and follow the road to the market square.

Pretty much all places big enough to have shops have a 'High Street' = main street, where most of the shops and restaurants are. Often there are also bakeries, a post office (sometimes integrated into a shop that sells nothing and everything and magazines and newspapers) and GP surgeries either on the high street or just off. Due to the recession, there is often talk of the 'decline of the high street', meaning a lot of empty shops on high streets across UK.

[thisgirl-is.livejournal.com]

It has come to my attention that we need to talk about coffee, and the extremely different defaults between how Americans drink coffee and how the British do. What you drink, how you drink it, how it's served, etc.

[jakuako.livejournal.com]

Question: pancakes in England are a breakfast, right? Because I thought Cauldron Cakes were a sweet, so they wouldn't exactly correlate... Unless for some reason pancakes in Britglish aren't the same thing as the American pancake.

[ennedepaix-fics.livejournal.com]

This is only a little thing but I thought it might be interesting as you mentioned spanking a Brit. I am English and, when writing, I go to write 'gotten'/'forgotten' then think, 'Oh, but people will think I'm not English' and change it. I don't really say it when speaking out loud but it comes naturally - depending on tense - when I'm writing. Just find it funny that Britpicking is ingrained on my brain even though I'm English. Also, something that so many people consider a no-no is something I would automatically write. Another way of showing how hard it is for an outsider to grasp our language. We're just so fickle and flighty!

Also, as you mentioned 'check' as in the pattern in your post, I'd like to add what Americans call 'plaid' we call 'tartan' and very uniform square, two-colour check would be 'gingham'. Don't know if they use that in America.

Chavs= Trashy uncouth people who live on benefits, have no job, lots of kids, and smoke lots
I'm from Kent - I know all about the chav! Supposedly, the term started in Chatham and on the Isle of Sheppey.

Brits find patriotism embarrassing and think American's are way over the top with theirs.
I think there's an inbuilt hypocrisy with us Brits and patriotism. For example, I am neither proud nor ashamed of being British. However, if someone slags off the British I will defend these isles with the wrath my mum gave me! This, for me anyway, also extends to the particular area I live in because people are so keen to put it down. It's like, 'I'm allowed to slag this town off because I was born and bred here but if you start on it, saying exactly the same thing, I'll bite your bloody head off!'

What's everyone's opinion on swearing? It seems to me that us Brits are a lot more swear-happy than our American counterparts. But that might just be me being a foul-mouthed gobby woman.

(New member by the way though not a new writer. Just a very lapsed one. So hello!)

[scarletladyy.livejournal.com]

(I realise I'm a tad late! I opened this as soon as I saw it on my flist, but I have so many tabs up it just got buried!)

I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but one thing that really annoys me whenever I see it written is: "I'll write Harry" or "Draco wrote me". It's always "I'll write to Harry" and "Draco wrote to me". Always remember the 'to'!

Our school systems definitely work differently. In England (I know Scotland's system is certainly different), to go to university you need to have A-Levels. Usually it doesn't matter what A-Levels as it's the grades that make up the UCAS (UCAS is our admission service into university) points. For example, an A* is worth 140 points, an A is 120 points, B is 100 points, C is 80 points, D is 60 points and an E is 40 points, so if you got BBC, you'd have 280 points, and could take any university course up to 280 points. Some courses and/or universities may want you to have taken certain subjects at A-Level though, but not all. Looking at one particular course in Molecular Biology at one university, you need to have received ABB for your A-Levels, but the subjects could have been anything - Art, Philosophy and History, say.

You can get A-Levels at sixth form (a lot of secondary schools have sixth forms attached to them and so the school just goes up to year 13) or college (colleges tend to do more vocational courses).

I was recently driven near mad where the Brits used dollars. I just... what?! Most mistakes I can understand, but not every country uses the same currency!

Apologies if the school thing got a tad complicated! ♥ As a side note, if anyone ever wants a Britpicker, I'm always available :) I absolutely love Britpicking and would be happy to help.