shop talk

Last week I took home my second paycheque - "took home," but haven't deposited, because I still don't have a bank account, though that's a whole different blog post.

Thanks to the UK's quirky once-monthly pay schedule, the arrival of paycheque #2 tells me that I have been working at Aberdeen College for two months now - thus I've received a two month crash course in British dialect.

There are little intricacies of language that differ between here and home - things I didn't notice until fully submerged in professional life here.

So I've created a little lexicon for your education:

North America
"Weekly staff meetings are on Thursdays"
Britain
'Weekly staff meetings are on a Thursday' (and by 'a thursday' they mean EVERY thursday)

North America
"I blog outside of work hours"
Britain
'I blog outwith work hours'

North America
"Meeting adjourned"
Britain
'Right. That's us' or just 'That's us'

North America
"Did you have any luck?"
Britain
'Did you have any joy?'

North America
"Phone him at 123 456 789"
Britain
'Phone him on 123 456 789'

North America
"These notes need to be typed"
Britain
'These notes need typed' (yes, they ignore two whole words!)

Other office peculiarities:

- their post-its don't stick
- their file folders are flimsy and don't have tabs!
- they have hour and a half lunch breaks (no complaints there)
- they don't use a 3-hole punch. Only 2 holes or 4 holes (it's not standardized like at home)
- most z's are replaced by s's (for example, a Brit would have written 'standardised')
- they use single quotations where we use double (see lexicon above)

Any other expats or former UK residents, care to add to the list?