American English and British English - How I was confused by words you read, see on signs and hear

Flag of the UK

Same language? Mostly. George Bernard Shaw, playwright, and wit, described, American and Britain as ,'two countries separated by a common language'.

My long lists are at the end but I shall start by entertaining you with some stories of problems I had with American English.

I was brought up (raised) in England. As a student, I went on holiday all round the USA on a Greyhound bus. I had a special ticket, not just for students, 99 dollars for 99 days. The Greyhound buses still go from city to city, carrying passengers from station to station, and you can send parcels. the buses carry the logo of the greyhound, symbol of speed.

In America, the first difference was the use of the word bus. Greyhound bus? The bus was what we in England call a coach. A long-distance coach. The Vehicle was a one-decker, going from one city to the next.






Greyhound company symbol

 
Greyhound bus.

When we got off the bus, sometimes at dawn, when I was not at my brightest, I faced the challenges of language.

At the city stops, I could not see any signs for toilets. They were labelled rest rooms.

Sometimes we stopped long enough for a snack. The menus offered apple pie a la mode. That meant with a dollop of ice cream on top.

I soon learned that a lorry was called a truck in the USA, and even Canada, which often uses British English.

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Might-E Truck, Canadian company vehicle.

After I married, we went to the USA again. At Disney world on a monorail we heard that the vehicle would be stopping 'momentarily'. We rushed to the exit, fearing the monorail would be making only a brief stop. No. They meant, in a moment.

Food
Later, when we lived in the USA, I still found some of the vocabulary challenging. We soon discovered that biscuits were called cookies.

Clothes
In shops, nobody understood when I wanted to buy a nappy. I didn't understand the word diaper.

Pants were a constant cause of confusion. Now, I can usually work out what is meant. But the unintended double entendre is embarrassing.

Erase
When I asked for "a rubber" in a department store's stationery department, the assistant told me, "We don't stock them, You need a drug store."

Whilst I continued shopping, looking for a ruler, I soon found a rubber. I asked the assistant, "What do you call this?"
She replied, "An eraser."

I popped into the nearby drug store and asked, "Do you have rubbers?" She showed me to a shelf displaying Durex. Ah. Condoms.

Right
In the car, I did not understand a passener's request for me to, "Make a right!"

Put what right? Correct what?

He meant a right turn.

I asked, "Are you in a hurry to get home?"

"No hurry,"  my passenger replied. "I'm not expected until 'a quarter after'."
"What's that? You mean a quarter past."

"Sure, do."

Hm. I would have said, that's certainly right.

Garage
I said, "Than you dont mind if we stop. I need to fill up with petrol." I asked the American passenger, "Is there a garage near here?"

He told me, "Nothing nearby."

A few yards later, around that next corner, was a garage. I demanded, "What's this, then?"

"A gas station."

To him, in America, a garage was a place or business which did repairs (and stored cars).

Food
We stopped for food, looking for a take away. It was called a take out.

Worldwide, the words differ for Take Away

A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, & the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. & Canada); take-away (U.K., Australia, South Africa, & Ireland, and occasionally in North America);takeaways (New Zealand); grab-n-go; and parcel (India & Bangladesh Pakistan) is a prepared meal or other food items, purchased at a restaurant or fast food outlet that the purchaser intends to eat elsewhere.

In America, when we drove through West Virginia in the Nineteen Eighties we wanted a restaurant. But we saw only fast food, and clubs.

Eventually we saw a passer-by and asked him for a restaurant. He pointed.

I objected, "But it says Club!"

He explained, "The clubs are restaurants. Because they serve alcohol, diners have to join a club, by paying one dollar and giving their identity and age, in order to enter a premise serving alcohol and to be served alcohol."

We went to the restaurant and were asked to fill out the forms. We did so. Then we were asked to pay three dollars, one dollar each.

My husband objected to the three dollar charge,"I can't drink because I'm driving. Our son is too young to drink.  My wife doesn't want to drink."

The restaurant owner chewed for a moment, then said, " The law requires me to charge you, a membership fee. But I can reduce the price of your meal, by three dollars. Because, it's late at night, and I'm about to close, and I've no other customers, so I'm sure happy to have your business.  How's that? Great. I'm so glad to see you. Where are you guys from?"





Websites
wiki - American English
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_American_and_British_English#Vocabulary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyhound_Lines
Terminology worldwide for Filling Stations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filling_station
https://www.sweet2eatbaking.com/uk-us-conversion/

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker and speech trainer, was born and educated in England and lived in the USA.

I have several more posts on Americanisms and learning languages.
Please share your favourite posts.

Is your family safe while travelling? Motorbikes in Singapore and worldwide

I am going to tell you about luck, police investigate, DIY first aid, and the cost of repairs to vehicles.

Singapore Flag

Lucky Numbers And Sale Prices In Singapore
 In Singapore buyers of motorcars and bicycles are interested in the car or bike having lucky numbers in the numberplate.  Eight is lucky. Number four is unlucky inspiring death because the word for four sounds like death. The good news is that if you have to sell your vehicle, you will get a better price if it has eights in the numberplate, and if you are buying you can pay a lower price for a vehicle with fours in the numberplate.

Flag of India

Indian Safety & Insurance
I am a Westerner, a Caucasian, so I am more inclined to rely on caution and prevention - and insurance. I was amused in India to see vehicles plastered with images of sacred cows and Gods, supposed to protect the vehicle.

I was less pleased to learn of the high accident rate, to see cows wandering along the motorway towards or across traffic, or lying dead in the road. The accident rate was scary.

Superstition & Prevention
I read a book about superstitition and an investigation was done in hospitals. It was found that the days 12 and 14 were no luckier than the 13th of the month in terms of admissions and deaths. Another finding was that swift attention and acurate diagnosis of  illness and injury affect statistics. So a quick response by medics on bikes to both heart attack victims and road accident victims saves lives in countries such as states in the USA which have introduced such a service.

 At weekends and holidays when medics are in short supply, overworked by drunk drivers causing accidents, or junior doctors are on call in hospitals and reluctant to attend quickly at evenings and weekends and national and relidigous holidays you get less attention and less quick attention and less accurate diagnosis.

My Many Accidents
I have been in several accidents. Once as a driver turning right at the lights in the UK.

UK flag

Now I understand why many junctions do not allow right hand turns, or prevent traffic oncoming, only allowing each lane to move seaprately.

Once, in 1984, as a pedestrian in a crowd crossing the road in Corsica. The moral of the story was, look both ways when starting to cross and reaching the centre of the road. Try not to cross a road below the brow of a hill. Remember that in the UK, cars are on one side of the road, in France and Corsica they drive on the other side.

Later, my car was hit from behind on a motorway in England. (By a dozy driver who had just come to the UK on an overnight flight from the Indian subcontinent.)


In Singapore I waw a passenger in a car which hit a pedestrian. (The pedestrian was jaywalking so was deemed at fault. The driver was in a hire car so any fault in maintenance was not the driver's fault.)



Singapore flag

I was reminded of all these factors this week when my husband came off a bike after being hit by a vehicle in Singapore. Since he rides for business and pleasure, on public roads and on racetracks, has taken courses by professional drivers, and watches racing on TV, he has been in or seen many accidents. You need to think of prevention of accidents and cure.

As far as I know, he was not doing anything wrong or careless. His bike was not out of fuel. He was wearing a helmet.

He claimed another vehicle hit him from behind. Fortunately they were near a junction so public independent cameras recorded the incident. In any case drivers have a duty of care and if it can be shown that you are hit from behind, even if you are stationery, it is the fault of the driver which hits you, in the UK as well as Singapore. (You can check with the insurnce company, the AA, or your lawyer.)

Photo Records
It is useful to take a picture of the position of the vehicles after the accident, to remind yourself and as evidence. Photos might show signalling and skid marks on the road. The length of the skid mark might indicate direction, position and speed. You also need the damage to the vehicles.

I like a record of the people involved (in case they give false identities or you lose their details). But they probably won't want to be photographed, suspecting you might have some ulterior motive such as blackmail, character assassination, revenge, who knows.

If you have a dashcam (dashboard camera) that will automatically record the other vehicle with the people inside and them as they get out, without them taking issue with you for photographing adults or children.

Statements
Insurance companies tell you not to admit you are in the wrong (to the other party) as this can be used against you by the other party's insurance company. Your insurance company might take issue with you. Check your insurance document. You will probably be able to find the clause which tells you not to say anything, because that might invalidate your claim.

Preserving Personal Documents
It would be handy to have your identity on your person, not in a bag left behind in a broken down or inaccessible vehicle. Imagine trying to claim for a car which burns out when you have jumped out and left all your documents in the glove box with no record on your person nor at home nor in the workplace.

So it's handy to keep records duplicated on your person and elsewhere. Also a credit card or travel card in your pocket in the event that you have to leave your vehicle and travel onwards or back home on public transport or must hire a vehicle.

The same goes for a driving license, even if you were not planning to drive.

Another useful item is some kind of first aid. Even a plaster to cover a wound, and a length of sterlile bandage and a piece of waterprrof tape or a safety pin. Plus a quick link to a first aid book or website and a knowledge of  first aid. I have a first aid kit in the boot (Americans say trunk) of my car in the UK. However, if you are hit from behind and the boot is not accessible it is handy to have a plaster in your pocket or purse. (The British word purse is more like wallet, whilst the Americans use the word purse to mean a small bag.

First Aid
By chance the very day of his accident, the Singapore government had delivered to every resident in the neighbourhood a fridge magnet with advice on DIY first aid for burns, scalds and accidents and emergency number.

The Magic of Ice Packs
The ice pack advised for reducing pain and swelling for minor scalds was also useful in reducing the swelling on his leg. First he photographed the injury, the blood and the swelling. Then showered to remove dirt which could infect the grazing. Finally we secured an ice pack to his leg with large rubber bands. We used face flannels to protect his skin from ice burn or being indented by the rubber bands.

Morale
Often you are busy tending to the injury and trying to reassure the patient. Only the next day or the next week do you start to feel anxious, especially as you tell family or friends or colleagues or relive events for a hospital report or police or insurance assessors who look at the vehicle, as well as the repair shop.

By now we are quite philosophical. Although shaken, we keep telling ourselves, we were very lucky. It could have been much worse. We are the survivors.

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_emergency_telephone_numbers

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Berlin's ITB promotes Germany's tourist attractions: learn about Mendelssohn wedding march, Disney's castle, the Pied Piper and more

That's the German flag, horizontal stripes of black, red and yellow. Not to be confused with the Belgian flag which has vertical stripes and the yellow in the middle whilst the German flag has red in the middle.

Belgian flag.

Berlin's ITB
I just received a notice about ITB Berlin, an invitation to go and have a chance to win air tickets to somewhere. This would involve me in spending time and money on getting to Berlin.

ITB is in March. I have never been to Berlin and it is somewhere on my wishlist. If I were both in the travel trade and nearby I would go. If I were not in the travel trade, just a traveller, and nearby, I would be watching the English language and German language press to find out what is new and exciting.

My first query, the first thought in my head was, what does ITB stand for?

Wiki and the website of the organization answer that question.

ITB is German for international tourist borse = with a double dot above the o - sorry but the way to type double dots inside blogger is eluding me. I have not found it - yet. (I just heard a speech about not saying no but saying not 'yet'.) The letters and sounds of b and p are close together and borse and purse are the link. It is a purse or pocket or exchange. So, international tourism exchange, not just an exchange of information, although that comes first, but taking action, trading, booking of hotels and events and setting up holidays and travel and services and events for you and me.

Berlin's Attractions
If  I go to any event or conference I try to arrive a day early to be sure of being on time at the start and like to stay later to visit the city. What if you are reminded about Berlin as a destination, can't get to the event, but wonder about going anyway? You might well start a tour of Germany in the capital, the most populated city in Europe after London, England.

Berlin is familiar as the backdrop to the city of Cabaret, the film starring Liza Minelli. Berlin was a divided city, now reunited. Famous for the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie.

My checklist of places to visit or re-visit starts with the Berlin Wall:

Berlin wall section.
Photo by VWPolonia75 from Wikivoyage.

1 Berlin Wall Museum
See the colourful murals. Read about those who made it across, those who didn't, sadly 130 casualties, and how the wall came down with great celebration, reuniting the city, West and East.

Allied Museum, Berlin. Section of the Wall displayed.

2 The Jewish Museum
Next on my list is the Jewish Museum, Europe's largest Jewish museum.

Moses  Mendelssohn, portrait, Jewish Museum, Berlin, Germany.

In the largest Jewish museum in Europe, the main old museum contains portraits of Einstein and Mendelssohn, and the eyeglasses of Moses Mendelssohn (son of Mendel). He had a hunchback and when told his young lady heard of the hunchback and refused to see him, he asked for just one minute to speak to her and apologize.

He told her, "Marriages are made in heaven and my guardian angel was told my wife-to-be would have a hunchback.
"My guardian angel replied, 'She will be unhappy. Let my young man have the hunchback - and bear all the world's troubles for her.'
"Sorry to have taken up your time. But if you liked what you heard, may I speak to you again one day, for just one minute?"
She saw him again, heard him again, and married him.

He spoke in German, so I reckon my translation into English is as good as others at capturing the essence of what he said so warmly.

Did he use those spectacles to read and teach himself Latin to become one of the leading philosophers of his day, immortalised in a play about himself and his friend Lessing? Or did he lose his sight studying by candle-light? Go to the museum and be inspired to learn more about famous, extraordinary people, and the daily lives of ordinary people, from the past.

His grandson wrote the Mendelssohn wedding march. (The one which sounds like descending a staircase. The rival tune is the one parodied as Here comes the bride.)

Jewish Museum Photo from Libeskind in Wikipedia.

The Jewish museum's modern extension is the famous or notorious, controversial Holocaust memorial, designed by architect Libeskind, all jagged and disorientating. Love it or hate it, a must see.

Garden of Exile, Jewish Museum.

The Holocaust Memorial

The Holocaust Memorial, Berlin.Photo by Alexander Blum in Wikipedia.

Other cities and attractions include:

2 Bonn - Beethoven Museum - the country is full of museums connected to music

3 Wine regions with wine tasting
German is renowned for white wines. Riesling is the grape which supposedly smells of petrol. (Americans say gasoline.)

4 Romantic Road (castles on rivers and lakes, black and white medieval villages on riversides and hillsides)
Rudesheim and many more - follow the trail

5 Theme parks

6 For romantic adults and young adults the inspiration for Sleepy Beauty Disney castle Neuschwanstein (German for new swan stone) in Bavaria, Germany.
See the three fairytale castles built by the 'Mad King' of Bavaria.

r	Ximonic, Simo Räsänen (post-processing) & Tauno Räsänen (photograph). Wikipedia.

7 WWII and Nazi past -
Nuremberg museum
Durer's house.

Durer's House, Wikipedia.

Belsen
(where Anne Frank and her sister died)

Munich -
 and Dachau where a map of the railway lines shows how trains took people from every major Nazi-controlled city in Europe via Germany to be exterminated across the border at Auschwitz-Birkeau in Poland.

8 Munich and the Oktoberfest
For beer, wine, food and fun.

9 The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Pied Piper's House, Hamelin. Photo by Bush6984 from the Wikipedia article on the Pied Piper.
The story supposedly records an event in the 13th century, when a rat-catcher in pied (multi-coloured) clothing, offered to lure away the rats (which may have spread plague) but was not paid more than half the promised sum, or not paid at all. In revenge lured away all the children (except three who were lame, deaf and blind). They were never seen again.

Possible explanations are that it is a legend with the pied piper symbolizing death from the plague era. If it was a real event, maybe children went dancing with a piper and disappeared into a sinkhole or the sounds and rhythm of the dancing sparked an avalanche.

Records suggest that orphans and unemployed youngsters emigrated, following brightly dressed recruiters. This resulted in the surnames from Hamelin appearing in other cities to this day.

The story was immortalised in German by Goethe, and the brothers Grimm, translated into English. The popular poem in English by Robert Browning is wonderfully rhythmic.

When I visited Hamelin I looked for a hotel where tourists could stay. When a hotel owner showed me his bedrooms and I tried to take a photo, he angrily told me to leave! I was surprised. Any English or American hotel owner would have been delighted, moved lights, asked me to write them up on Tripadvisor. I thought my PR might have been lacking.

Then I picked up a news sheet on the bus which gave an accusing account of a dispute about the funding of a re-enactment of the Pied Piper story.  I thought, so, centuries on, nothing has changed. Chilling.

However, that was a long time ago. Besides, every hotel and hotel owner is different.

The Romantic Road

Photo by Pedelecs.
Dinkelsbuhl. Romantic Road. Germany.

 Follow the trail maps and the signposts along the romantic road through riverside and hillside villages with steep gables.

Places to find local food: Rathaus Ratskeller
Berlin has a red Rathaus.

Berlin. Red Rathaus. Picture from Wikipedia.

On the main square of most cities is a converted medieval Rathaus, not a rat house (for that tale go to Hamelin) but the town hall.  The cellar or Ratskeller with big pillars is usually made into a vast cafeteria serving set meals. A bit like the British medieval banquets at stately homes. Girls and ladies and lads and men in olde worlde costume serve flagons of beer and local food at assorted prices. Busy at lunchtimes.

One notable Ratskeller I visited was in Bremen near the statue of the three animals which are a city folk legend and symbol.
Old picture of Bremen Ratskeller from Wikipedia.

Expect music, historical pictures and framed documents and local history and information on local sites and guided tours. Austrian cities have the same system of the Rathaus and Ratskeller restaurant.

German White Wine
I sampled many wines and stood on the Heidelburg Tun, a giant barrel in Heidelberg castle.
German wines include:
Auslese (late picked and sweeter as it has longer to ripen)
Black Tower (brand of white wine in black bottle)
Liebfraumilch (Our dear lady's milk, referring to the Madonna)
For something sweet, Boppard ice wine tasting in a shop on the main square of Boppard. Must book.

Useful Websites
To learn or brush up your German for free on the internet
duolingo.com

Overview of Travel
GERMANY AND BERLIN
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Germany
https://www.visitberlin.de/en
See Germany and Berlin in wikipedia, wikivoyage, wikitravel, tripadvisor.
https://www.itb-berlin.com/

BERLIN WALL
https://www.visitberlin.de/en/berlin-wall-memorial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Berlin_Wall_segments

https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowUserReviews-g187323-d196239-r542038704-Memorial_of_the_Berlin_Wall-Berlin.html
https://freetoursbyfoot.com/checkpoint-charlie/

JEWISH MUSEUM
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Jewish_Museum%2C_Berlin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Mendelssohn

PIED PIPER
Pied Piper House Restaurant, Hamelin, Germany.
https://www.tripadvisor.de/Restaurant_Review-g198595-d1356484-Reviews-Rattenfaengerhaus-Hameln_Lower_Saxony.html

ROMANTIC ROad
https://www.romanticroadgermany.com/

WINE TOURS
https://www.worldwidewinetours.com/germany/german-wine-tours/
https://www.tripadvisor.com.sg/ShowUserReviews-g187345-d6698203-r391171629-Vinothek_Georg_Breuer-Ruedesheim_am_Rhein_Hesse.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have many more posts on cities in Europe, the USA, Canada, Asia and worldwide. Please share links to your favourite posts.

American or English Words?

American - English
cookies - biscuits
gifted (verb past tense) - donated, gave a present
tasked - given the job, asked to do a job or task
purse - bag / handbag / clutch bag
change purse / wallet - purse

English - American
biscuits - cookies
presented with - gifted
delegated a task - tasked
bag - purse
purse - change purse, wallet

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and teacher of English and other languages.
Please share links to your favourite posts with your friends.

Americanisms - pocketbook and raised

Problems
Americanisms
What are they? Where do you find them?

Answer
You find them on line in articles written in and distributed from the USA. You can also buy books of Americanisms and find lists on line.

Story
I was reading an article in the Daily Mail when I came across a new word to add to my ongoing list:
pocketbook.

From the context, that it came with a shoulder strap, I assumed it is what we in Britain would call a shoulder bag. Another phrase which is becoming common online and in the USA and UK is messenger bag, a small shoulder bag, used by men as well, but mostly women, worn either over one shoulder of diagonally to leave both hands free, help prevent loss, keep the bag in front of you to prevent theft and for ease of access and stop it falling off your shoulder.

As I was describing the article to somebody else, I found myself about to use another Americanism I had picked up from the article: She was 'raised' ...

Raised and Grown
In the Uk we would say, 'She was brought up in London.' (Or New York, or wherever). In the UK you raise plants and crops and cakes have a raising agent. That's for the passive. I am thinking about the verb to grow. Plants, crops and people grow and are grown. The active verb would more likely be: 'She grew up in London.'

English people often use the instruction 'grow up' pejoratively (negatively or insultingly). It means: Don't be so juvenile or petty.

Summary

US - British English (alphabetical)
billfold - wallet
pocket book - handbag
purse - bag
wallet - purse

British English - Americanism (alphabetical)
bag - purse
handbag - pocket book
purse - wallet
wallet - billfold

Tips
http://www.learnenglish.de/mistakes/usvsbrenglish.html

Author
Angela Lansbury, author and English teacher.

Ice cream in London - and your security at kiosks and queues

Alcoholic ice cream? Cheesecake ice cream? You probably don't associate London with ice cream but every High street and shopping mall will offer you two or three or more outlets which specialise in ice cream or have an ice cream selection on the side. The same goes for Singapore. Maybe the same applies worldwide.

Two great countries have influenced this. The Italians brought ice cream to London. The Americans offered us not three but severn or 30 or 31 flavours, a new one for every day of the week. Finally in London such luminaries of innovation, top chefs and restaurants, started introducing savoury and novelty ice creams.

A few for you to look at or try:

Top of the range of surprises:

Dinner restaurant in what used to be the Mandarin Oriental opposite Harrods. The dessert ice cream is made in front of you on a trolley. They've been doing this for over a year but if you want to sample it please check with them before going and see the prices for lunches and any special offers because it's very expenses.

Petrus - again top of the range of restaurants so look for special offers for lunches. The surprise is the solid ice cream chocolate spare or half sphere which cracks open and inside is the melting ice cream.

Check ice creams in your area in your local high street or mall.  Here are some I found recently.

Intu shopping mall, Watford.

You get a teeny lick on a miniature flat spoon. Enough to see if you like it. I tried two. The pistachio was disappointing, not much flavour or after taste. My preference was the cheesecake and fruit flavour.

These two far left are alcoholic. I haven't tried them yet. Next time.

By the way, secure your bags if you are buying from a stall. Whilst you are talking to a member of staff somebody may come up behind you to look at the ice creams and jostle you. You open your purse or pocket to get out your money, have ice cream in one hand, an open pocket or purse. You walk a few yards and realise your pocket is still open.

 Fortunately everything is still there, passport, money, etc, and the family of three, mother on one side, children jumping about the other side, were a perfectly honest family just looking at ice cream. But what if they hadn't been? Plan to keep your money for a purchase separately, or already in your hand. The same goes in a queue in a busy shop at sale time. (In Britain say queue. In America say line up.)

Shake away have a kind of ice cream drink. They came out at lunch time one day offering tastings. Crunch bits. Very good.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Americanisms and Britishisms, car, purse

US - UK
automobile - car
button (pin on) - badge (in the UK a button is something you sew on which goes through a button hole
coin purse - purse
license plate - number plate (for car or vehicle)

main street - high street
purse - clutch bag or bag

truck - lorry

UK - USA

badge - button

bag - purse

car - automobile

high street - main street

lorry - truck

purse - coin purse

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker

Action For Summer: Packing; Pills; Preventing Heatstroke; Underground Malls

Top tips I picked up.

1 Wear light colour clothing.
That sends me re-packing my summer holiday suitcase. Do I need to remove all the black clothes and change them to white? The white clothes don't just look more summery. They keep you cool.

Did I wast my money buying black clothes? The black clothes such as tee-shirts with metallic palm trees are fine for indoors in icy air conditioning, in the cooler evening. But not if you are likely to be asked to go out for an afternoon walk and don't want to waste time changing clothes.

Those robes men wear in the middle east are right for outdoors in the sun. The black clothes women, and widows, often wear, are only suitable for indoors in air conditioning.

2 Drink water.
Not just for comfort. So you can perspire and cool off.

3 Recognise heatstroke.
If anybody is getting confused, cool them quickly with ice under the armpits.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/medications-cool-summer-heat/story?id=16724277

Where is it hot? In the South of North America but also in summer you can be sweltering in New York and Washington DC. I remember when I lived in Washington DC zig-zagging down the city streets in and out of shop doorways and diverting through department stores to cool myself.

In Singapore visitors from overseas go shopping in Orchard Road and complain the country is too hot. But running from the central crossroads along Orchard Road you can descend to Basement one or Basement two and walk about half a mile along the underground shops, full of cafes and shops and even an aquarium and market stalls and food courts. If you start at Tang's, or Orchard Station, you can walk from there underground across the road to other malls and hotels.

Pills
1 Keep them in your bag (US Purse) or pocket, not in luggage which might be stored in a hold or left out on the tarmac beside the plane.
2 Carry an insulated sandwich bag.
 (Americans when they say purse mean what the Brits call a handbag. What the Brits call a purse, the Americans would call a change purse or wallet.)

Water
USA
The USA is very good at providing drinking water in hotel on every other floor and in the lobby of many buildings and and hotels and waiting areas.

UK
In London there's now a water dispenser in the Passport office at Victoria.

In a hotel, you will often find water dispensers in the gym.

Worldwide
Remember to drink water provided free at many coffee shops, before or after you drink your coffee. Collect the water when you collect your coffee and make sure you and the family all drink a glass of water each before you all leave.

Angela Lansbury B A Honours, travel writer, photographer, author, speaker.

Follow me on Facebook, link to me on linkedIn, watch me performing poetry and explaining easy ways to remember grammar and spelling on YouTube.

British English and Americanisms - hose, power outage, consignment store

In today's Daily Mail in the US section I read about a power outage. In the UK we would say power cut.

US-UK
a la mode-French for in fashion but in the USA a pie a la mode is a pie or dessert having additional cream, often whipped cream. (Check with the serving staff what they mean or look at the menu pictures.)
boardwalk-deck (or promenade, although a promenade is often concrete)

billfold - wallet
consignment store-sale or return shop for secondhand fashions
dime store-bargain basement/cheap shop
eraser-rubber
hood-bonnet (part of a car)
Hoover-vacuum cleaner
hose-stockings
Kleenex-paper tissues, paper hanky
make a right/left-turn right/left
over easy- (fried egg) cooked both sides, over meaning turned over, easy meaning whites are slightly runny
power outage-power cut
sidewalk-pavement
pacifier-dummy
purse-bag
pavement-tarmac/road
pleased to meet you-how do you do (formal)
rubber-Durex/condom
trunk-boot

UK - USA

bag - purse

deck - boardwalk

Durex - rubber

dummy - pacifier

bonnet (front of car) - hood

egg cooked both sides - over-easy

how do you do (formal) - pleased to meet you

paper hankie - Kleenex

pavement - sidewalk

power cut - power outage

purse - coin purse

rubber - eraser

stockings - hose

turn right - make a right

(dessert) with cream - a la mode

vacuum cleaner - Hoover

wallet - billfold

I compiled this list from what I found different living in Rockville Maryland and on visits to the USA from England and also on websites and in newspapers. Somewhere in storage I have at last two books of dictionary style translations. One is a small and inexpensive paperback.

For a more comprehensive list go to Wiki comparison of American and English.

Angela Lansbury, author, travel writer, translator and tutor of French and English, A level, conversation, packaging, written work, websites.