Americanism and British English - still surprised xxx xoxo?

American English and British English are only slightly different, but I learn new things constantly.


An English author was asked by the copy editor to leave out xxx on the end of letters (mail and email) because Americans would not understand this mean kiss, kiss, kiss.


Americans and some Europeans think it means x rated. Readers are puzzled.

I have noticed but never understood xoxo. Apparently Americans use this to mean kiss hug, hiss hug.

What about Canadians?


Canadians follow British language habits more closely than the Americans.

I already knew what I thought were most of the Americanisms from living in the USA as well as the UK.

British English - American English
bargain basement/bargain shop - thrift store
condom/Durex - rubber
kindergarden - preschool
lorry - truck
Mum - Mom
nappy - diaper
primary school - elementary school
public school - private school
rubber - eraser
secondary school - high school
tip - hack
turn right - make a right

American English - British English
elementary school - primary school
eraser - rubber
hack - tip
high school - secondary school
make a right - turn right
Mom - Mum
on consignment - sale or return
preschool - kindergarden
private school - public school/fee-paying school
public school - state school/council school
truck - lorry
thrift store - bargain shop

Well, love to all of you.
xxx
xoxo

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please share links to your favourite posts.

How To Get A Job Teaching English In Singapore - and practise your demo lesson

What you need depends on which age you wish to teach.

I wanted a teaching job with flexible hours.
1 I wanted to be free evenings and weekends. That meant I could not teach at Berlitz which wanted me to be free to do a one to one lesson any time.
2 I wanted to be able to travel with my family and go back to the UK from Singapore to see my parents and inlaws and son at Christmas and in the Easter and summer.

I found the solution was to teach a short course in a private school. The courses would be four to eight weeks all day, 9-5 Monday to Friday.

Time Spent Marking
However, I also needed to mark homework books and essays in my own time, and correct exams done on Friday afternoon to be given back to the pupils first thing on Monday. That meant three hours of (unpaid) time over a weekend.

One solution to the homework marking problem is to read out the answers in class and get pupils to mark their own work. If you don't trust them, and want an accurate assessment of what they have understood and learned, you can ask them to swap books with the person sitting in front or behind.

Another solution is to set them working on exercise two silently, whilst you mark exercise one. They might need two exercise books, so that you can mark book 1 whilst they write in book 2. Alternatively, to share the work intruction and test books and ask them to write asnwers on loose leaf sheets with their name and class and date at the top.

The school might provide books, or work sheets which can be copied on their copier. If there are many copies avialable you can quickly choose and pick up the batch.
However, you may need to arrive early, wait for others to finish their long  to print out materials for the class.

How to get experience as a teacher to establish my credentials when seeking work as a business trainer? You can start giving workshops at Toastmasters. I would suggest join a club or two dlubs, even four or six, go through their pathways programme which includes interactive sessions.

When I wanted a work permit for a private school I had to provide my university degree certificate, the orignal, not a photocopy.

Before starting work I had to take an x-ray to show that I was clear of TB which is catching. You can't have teachers with TB talking and shouting, breathing and spitting over pupils.

The school typed out a simple short letter saying they needed a teacher urgently for a class starting that day. They sent me by taxi to the work permit department. Half an hour later I cought that taxi back to the school with my work permit. Half an hour later I was teaching my first class.

This year another teacher, a neighbour in Singapore, suggested I might like to work in state schools as a relief teacher, which he had done after retiring.

You apply through the MOE, Ministry of  Education.

Another friend of mine has applied four times to be a teacher of music and English.

When she was placed on the shortlist and called for an interview, her interview was in three parts. The first part was a five minutes demo lesson. One one occasion the adult judges acted like children in the audience being obstreporous to test classroom control.

Next a question about how she would react to challenges.

Finally the general interview on why you want to teach and your short term and long term goals.

I suggested that she should do a demo lesson at Toastmasters and get feedback. This would be useful for both teaching and interviews.

Toastmasters international clubs providing training in public speaking and a chance for you to rehearse a presentation you are doing elsewhere.

Useful Websites
https://www.moe.gov.sg/careers/teach/how-to-apply/teaching-schemes/relief-teaching
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

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