Americanisms and British English

USA - UK

bill fold - wallet

check - bill

cookie - biscuit

cotton candy - candy floss

diaper - nappy

fall - autumn

faucet - tap 

first floor - ground floor

hood (car) - bonnet (car)

make a left - turn left

mail -  post

movies - films

purse - handbag

take out - take away

truck - lorry

trunk (car) - boot

vacation - holiday

zip code - postcode

zipper - zip

UK - USA

autumn - Fall

bill - check

biscuit - ccokie

bonnet - hood

boot (car) - trunk

candy floss - cotton candy

films - movies

ground floor - first floor

handbag - purse

holiday - vacation

lorry - truck

nappy - diaper

post mail

postcode - zip code

purse - change purse

tap - faucet

wallet - bill fold

Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

zip - zipper

The Wrong Name On Your Air Ticket Or hotel reservation

Does your name get mis-spelled? Does your post (mail) go missing.

THE USA AND UK
After I returned to the UK from the USA, friends and businesses sent me mail addressed to London. They did not specify the UK. Some of my post was sent to London in Canada. I received invitation to events long past, 6 months later when I was in the UK.



Back in the UK the street names caused confusion.


I used to live in Hillview Rise. I received mail addressed to Hillview Ride and Millview Road.

Family Names
What about family names? I get Lansberry and Landsbury and Landsberry.

For Sharot I get Sharon and Sharrow.

First Names
And first names? For Angela I get Anglia and Angel.

At school I was called Hazel Nut and I dropped Hazel when I left school.

But now everybody insists on your correct name. When the dentist shouts Hazel it takes half a minute before I realised they are calling me.

That was just the problems I encountered in the UK.

I remember several occasions when I was told the hotel did not have my reservation or airline booking.

EUROPE - France
France The first time was years ago in Lille in France. Four of us arrived at a hotel in Lille. We arrived by car from the UK, hoping to check into our rooms, shower and change into smart clothes, and drive across town to a reception held by the tourist board.

The hotel had no reservation for any of our four names. We tried calling the French tourist board office. We got an answering machine message in French. I eventually managed to translate, with the help of the receptionist, that the office was closed for an event and they would return next week.

I asked (in French), do you have a vacant room, where we can leave our bags and use a shower and change our clothes. Look, Our reservation says we have rooms here.

The girl on reception said they were fully booked. But somebody had not yet turned up. I asked, how far are they travelling from? We got the last ferry. Maybe they are not coming. Who booked those rooms.

She told us, the rooms are booked by the French tourist board.

I gasped, "Those bookings must be for us!' Four rooms and four of us. They have booked in their name instead of ours."

She still seemed doubtful.

We showed her that we were going to an evening dinner organized by the French Tourist board. If the rooms were for anybody else, we would either swap rooms or go to the other hotel.

Now I know when rooms are booked for me by anybody else, to ask for the name of the person doing the booking, and to have a letter saying the name of the person booking and the name of the person occupying the room. Plus of course the phone number out of hours to contact if there is any problem with the hotel booking, or we are delayed on our travels and need to cancel the room.

ASIA
In Asia the family name comes first, followed by the two personal names. Common family names include Lee and Lim. So minister Lee Kuan Yew, the family name is Lee. You say the three one-syllable names together, as if it were written Lee-kuan-yew or Lee, Kuan-yew. think of the way in an old English boarding school a boy would be called Smith rather than John, and taking the class register the master would call two brothers: Smith, John or to match the three syllables used in Chinese, Smith, Johnny, and Smith, Peter.

As a result, in Asia, a Western woman whose name is Andrea, and whose husband is John Smith, might find herself address as Mrs John. That is at first disconcerting, later amusing. However, it can lead to confusion when it comes to hotel reservations and air tickets.

We have several time been told that we don't have any booking in our name for a restaurant or attraction, or a hotel or air ticket. If this happens to you, ask to see the list. If they will not permit this, because they are suspicious of your intentions, or afraid of violating data protection, try to read the list upside down.

Or ask them to look for both your first name and last name separately. A change in spelling can make things worse. It helps if you know which date and time you made the booking. For example, John Smith may make a restaurant booking, but there is nothing under Smith. Nothing under John either.

However, looking at the list, you see a booking for two people, made by a Mr Smith Joan. This might be the answer to the problem, especially of Joan has not arrived and has the same phone number as John Smith.

Useful Websites
Singapore Airlines
singaporeair.com

About the author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker

Small Moves? From a parcel to a washing machine, who can help?

Problem
How do I move just a few small item, or one item?

Answer
A tiny item can go with me in a taxi. A larger item can be posted by the mail service, or a collection service which arrives with a large envelope. For a one way trip, I need 'a man with a van'. For a bigger item, it's a two-man job which costs more.

For something you are selling, try 'collect only' on ebay. Put your area in the headline if allowed.

You can also hire escort delivery services, people who are driving across the USA and will take your goods with them.

https://www.anyvan.com/av/low-cost-man-with-van?
https://www.postoffice.co.uk/mail/uk-guaranteed
https://www.parcelforce.com/worldwide-directory/usa
https://www.ups.com/ship?loc=en_GB#/step1
https://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/transporting-a-washing-machine/
https://blog.upack.com/posts/moving-a-washer
http://www.samsung.com/hk_en/support/skp/faq/1094898 
(transporting a cwashing machine info on bolts to keep drum fixed and warning to keep machine upright

Author
Angela Lansbury

How to Get Readers, for Writers, bloggers and readers of travel articles and more

Problems
An internet source is subject to typos from the writer and changes made later by spell checker.

Readers have strong views on preferences for one company rather than another, one country rather than another, one website rather than another. I read on line that some people are boycotting certain sites because they believe not enough is being done to stop terrorism. Other would prefer the BBC to the Mail, or the Mail to the BBC, or an American source instead of a British one. Some people would visit or live in Greece rather than Turkey, turkey rather than Greece, and so on. Some want to know about bargains, others about luxury.

Story
When I first wrote about honeymoon destinations for the British magazine Brides, I was told that although the majority of readers wanted to read about luxury destinations, their budget was more modest. Therefore I had to feature places in 3 price ranges, 5 star, three star and one star. That way every reader would find practical information and every advertiser could be sure that the editorial would be supporting the readership at which they aimed.

Therefore, when I have time, I try to give three choices in the hopes of giving everybody something which suits them in every way. This means occasionally instead of starting a new blog, I add an extra website to an old one.

However, when it comes to the internet, I am told by SEO experts, that if you aim too widely, the reader does not identify you with any particular niche. If you want readers to come back, you must select either bargains, or luxury. This is the challenge for bloggers.

If you would like me to write articles on your blog, or to copy your articles, or to have permission to copy my articles on your blog with links back to mine, please get in touch.

Angela Lansbury travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, teacher of English and other languages. 

Storing Travel Brochures and Video CDs In Shoe Boxes With Labels

Problem
I have a stack of brochures from a trip to Italy but they are creating a clutter. They slide off the table onto the floor. I put them in a plastic bag. Disaster. Too many bags. I'll never be able to find them.

 I pack them in a shoe box. Now I have them neat but I still can't find them.

Answers
Shoe Box Labelled with Pen
1 You can write the name Italy on the end of the shoe box in pen. Yes, I do that. It does not look tidy, organised, professional. Besides, the writing is too small and I still can't find it.

I have not taken the time to do what I was advised by a much-moved mother in Rockville, Maryland. She told me, when moving house, label every box on all six sides, the four sides and the top and bottom. That way, however the boxes are stacked, you can sill see the label from every angle.

I could then use a black felt tip pen. It would not look tidy, even if I used a ruler to keep the bottom of letters straight, drew a faint pencil line an inch above, marked the spacing of the letters with dots.

Better to print. I could print out the word Italy in large black type, by enlarging the font to the largest size allowed. But that takes a lot of ink. I then have to fix the flimsy paper onto the box.

I get out a brochure entitled Umbria to read and put it back down on top of the box. The width is just the right size. I could tear off the cover and stick it down.

I don't like to destroy a brochure - even though I often have two copies of brochures. Besides, I don't have time.

I reach for a long elastic band, the sort you get on parcels held together by the postman. (In the USA you would say mail man). You find elastic bands on the ground everywhere, all over the world. I have seen them in Italy and Singapore. Lets over the whole top. Find another brochure.

My first effort was simply to leave the brochure on top of the box, attached with a big rubber band. That worked very well when the shoe box was on a long table.

But sideways on, the original shoe box name on the lid is a distraction.

My next effort was to look for other items to stick on the sides.

You can also make a collage of travel brochures. All from one country, or from several. This works on a small box, a shoe box.

Of course the answer for a DIY or craft enthusiast is to completely cover the box with a holiday theme. Stick on duplicate photos. (I have loads from America in the late 1900s.) Print pictures from the computer, maybe print from my own photos on the laptop or mobile phone.

Or cover a box with Xmas birthday or gift wrapping paper. Add a window in the centre with the word Italy.

Or cover a box in white and draw a freehand sketch. Add large curly calligraphy of the country name. Make six matching boxes from different states of the USA. Or stack boxes for countries in South America, Europe or Asia, Russia or China and satellite countries.

I hate cardboard boxes. yet they are too good and stiff to throw away. They keep dust off the contents. They group things together. They stack neatly.

For more details on Umbria:
www.umbriatourism.it

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share posts.

Apologies For Spell Changing In Previous Posts - how to turn off spell changer

I have been writing a book called Larry The Talking Labrador. I had just sent it off to be printed, using print on demand company Lulu.com. When I went back to the text to correct it for the ebook edition, I found that several words had been changed by the spellchecker. I now know how to correct the problem.

If you've been following or dipping into my travel blog posts, you may have noticed that on several occasions I have had to spell out words with spaces between each letter. I blamed the blog site. I now realise the problem might have been the computer I was working on.

When I found the umpteenth nonsense change made in my book text, I googled, change spellchecker on (and the name of my computing device).

I found an instruction for changing the spellchecker in mail, on a forum about not showing the recipient of a letter your spelling alterations underlined in red. My first thought was that was no use to me as I was not writing a letter but a text.

Then I wondered whether the same applied to text. I tried it. You go to edit. Look for spellings. Click on the choices. One click changes it to on or off. Another click reverses your choice.

Wonderful. In my blogs I can now stop my spellchecker converting all my French words back into the nearest English equivalent.

In my system I have two separate functions. Underline and alert to possible wrong spellings. Change spellings automatically. You can probably change one or both on your machine.

The purpose of this post is:
To remind myself how to turn off the spelling changer.
To remind me how to turn it back on again.
To tell you how to do the same.
To tell you so you can help others.
To apologise to the managers of the blogging site.
To keep you entertained with useful information and amusing stories on your travels.

Angela Lansbury BA Honours, author and speaker.

Where to find the news: Reuters, BBC etc

   As an ex-pat, tourist or business traveller you may wish to read the news about countries you are visiting, have visited in the past or will be visiting - or to get more detailed news coverage of a story in that country.
   If there is a dispute, or if secrecy covers a scandal or royal birth, you might get more news from the bolder newspapers in an adjoining country.
   Today I read on the BBC and Daily Mail websites. I googled the event I was researching, Up came a link to Reuters. Here are some other useful sites in the English language:

LISTS OF ONLINE NEWSPAPERS
Covering A-Z of every country from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe:
onlinenewspaper.com
wiki/category:Lists_of_newspapers_by_country
wiki/list_of_newspapers_in_south_africa
world-newspapers.com

COUNTRIES /AREAS LISTED BELOW:
Africa; Australia; China; International; UK & Ireland; Ireland; Malasia; Middle East; Scotland; Wales; USA and Canada; NZ; Russia; Singapore; South Africa; UK; Ireland; USA; Canada; Wales

INTERNATIONAL
bbc
reuters.com

UK and IRELAND
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk/worldservice
dailymail.co.uk (large USA section)
express.co.uk
ft.com (Financial Times. 8 articles free per month of subscribe.)
independent.co.uk
mirror.co.uk
news.sky.com
telegraph.co.uk
theguardian.com
Sun (site asks for a subscription)
uk.news.yahoo.com

EUROPEAN:
Many tourist magazines carry discount coupons for local restaurants.
See lists above for newspapers and magazines In English published in:
Belgium: expatica.com
France: thelocal.fr france24.com
Italy: thelocal.it theflorentine.net biweekly
Poland
Portugal
Spain thelocal.es
(To be updated - please send suggestions. Thank you.)

AFRICA
bbc.co.uk/news/world/africa
(See South Africa below)

AUSTRALIA
abc.net.au (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
au.news.yahoo.com
smh.com.au (Sydney Morning Herald)
theaustralian.com.au
heraldsun.com.au (Melbourne)
perthnow.com.au
watoday.com.au (Western Australia)

CANADA
cbc.ca
nationalpost.com

CHINA and Asia
chinadaily.com.cn
globaltimes.cn (Global Times)
peopledaily.com.cn (Beijing and China)
scmp.com (South China Morning Post) (Hong Kong and China)
weibo.com (Site appears in Chinese. Use google translate. Then you must sign up and sign in)

SINGAPORE and Asia
mypaper.co.sg
straitstimes.com
todayonline.com

MALAYSIA
nst.com.my New Straits Times, Malaysia
thestar.com.my

INDONESIA
thejakartapost.com

INDIA
timesofindia.indiatimes.com

IRELAND
breakingnews.com.ie
irishexaminer.com
irishtimes.com
rte.ie
theirishnews.com

ISRAEL
jpost.com
israelnationalnews.com
Jerusalemonline.com

MIDDLE EAST / ARAB
aljazeera.com
arabtimesonline.com

NEW ZEALAND
nzherald.co.nz

PAKISTAN
thenews.com.pk

PHILIPPINES
philstar.com (Philippine News)

RUSSIA
english.pravda.ru

SCOTLAND
dailyrecord.co.uk
heraldscotland.com
scotsman.com (The Scotsman)

SOUTH AFRICA
iol.co.za

USA/CANADA
cnn.com
huffingtonpost.com
LA Times
nytimes.com (New York Times)
Washington Post
USA Today

WALES
walesonline.co.uk

Twitter
Agence France-Prese (AFP) on twitter

Others
ABC; NBC; Google News; Fox News; news.uk.msn.com ; nbcnews.com; wsj.com (Wall Street Journal), Yahoo News

In Other Languages
With the help of Google translate you might find some foreign language newspapers useful:
lemonde.fr Le Monde (French)