It's not so bad driving on the other side in an automatic car - it gets harder in a manual car (I only did that once and it made me feel a bit like I was learning to drive again!).
It's the same for us in Australia re language. We get a massive bombardment of American culture, but we also get British TV (and even some Canadian shows, which you pick up subtle differences from US ones if you look closely enough ;-) - and of course our own TV. Plus my Mum was American and half my family is there (plus Mum's old friends), so that adds to my own knowledge.
I accept people will use their natural spelling and that not everyone is going to get all the little differences down: hood/bonnet, trunk/boot, garbage/trash/rubbish, ER/A&E, spanner/wrench, soda/soft drink, sweat suit/track suit, chips/crisps, lollies/candy, cookies/biscuits, trainers/sneakers/tennis shoes/runners, gas/petrol, jam/jelly - are just a few I can think of off the top of my head. But I do think, at the very least, there are a few words, like Mum vs Mom or cell vs mobile, that aren't too hard to get right!
Britain seems a bit ad hoc in terms of its adaptation of the metric system, so it's totally understandable to get that mixed up. And I do think it's believable that Draco could get it mixed up in his attempt to be helpful. And that is very funny re the travel time - definitely psychic ;-)
I'll look forward to your next update, whenever that happens to be!
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-09-07 03:37 pm (UTC)It's the same for us in Australia re language. We get a massive bombardment of American culture, but we also get British TV (and even some Canadian shows, which you pick up subtle differences from US ones if you look closely enough ;-) - and of course our own TV. Plus my Mum was American and half my family is there (plus Mum's old friends), so that adds to my own knowledge.
I accept people will use their natural spelling and that not everyone is going to get all the little differences down: hood/bonnet, trunk/boot, garbage/trash/rubbish, ER/A&E, spanner/wrench, soda/soft drink, sweat suit/track suit, chips/crisps, lollies/candy, cookies/biscuits, trainers/sneakers/tennis shoes/runners, gas/petrol, jam/jelly - are just a few I can think of off the top of my head. But I do think, at the very least, there are a few words, like Mum vs Mom or cell vs mobile, that aren't too hard to get right!
Britain seems a bit ad hoc in terms of its adaptation of the metric system, so it's totally understandable to get that mixed up. And I do think it's believable that Draco could get it mixed up in his attempt to be helpful. And that is very funny re the travel time - definitely psychic ;-)
I'll look forward to your next update, whenever that happens to be!