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Subject:non-American English From:Kip Dale <kipd -at- SOFTLAW -dot- COM -dot- AU> Date:Wed, 21 Aug 1996 11:31:45 +1000
I think that one important thing to watch out for is words that
mean different things in English-speaking countries.
Being an ex-pat American living in Australia, I can vouch for
the fact that Americans and Australians DO NOT speak the same
language.
A few examples:
A boot can belong to a car or a foot.
You barrack for your sports team. Rooting is something that
adults do in the privacy of their home.
If you bonk some one on the head, you _really_ must do it in
the privacy of your home.
To be a bit more serious, there are a number of technical terms
that are different. A crescent wrench is a shifting spanner.
An electrical outlet is a power point. To buy internal electrical
conduit, you really have a lot of explaining to do. (Trust me.)
There is a web page that outlines a lot of this. It came up on this
list two or three month ago, but I lost the URL when my hard disk
died.
good luck
Kip Dale
Training Manager (and general all purpose and sometimes confused guy)
nanabelles
kipd -at- softlaw -dot- com -dot- au http://www.softlaw.com.au/nanabelles
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