Chapter 3 Excerpt

Words That Guarantee Embarrassment

Because of the minor differences in language usage, every day spent in the UK brings potential for major embarrassment!   Although the points in this chapter are highly amusing, they're also serious and could save your "derriere" a few times, especially in a professional setting.  

The chapter includes revelations like the fact that   "fanny" relates to the female private parts and is an extremely crude word in the UK. Most Brits know that Americans say "fanny", but I guarantee there'll be a split second of horror, followed by nervous tittering, should you utter this word.

"One of the biggest shockers to the Brits is when Americans refer to a person as 'she' or 'he' when that person is standing right in front of them or is within earshot.   I simply can't emphasize how rude this is.   Use the person's name, and if you can't remember it, the trick is to say   "We were just discussing".  

"In fact, Brits will jump through linguistic hoops to avoid using the personal pronoun in this situation.   Even when they know that Americans mean no offense when saying "he" or "she" like this, they still can't believe it is actually being said.   Again, I must stress that this is so rude!   A common response to the use of "she" will be the question, "Who's she, the cat's mother?"   (Despite heroic efforts on my part, I have yet to come across the root of this phrase!)."