- My family moved from the US to the Netherlands, where my children learned British English.
- Even though it's the same language, words' meanings are so different.
- My son's grandma didn't understand when he asked for an "ice lolly" or a "plaster."
When we moved to the Netherlands, we were relieved to find an international school with instruction in English for our two young sons. But even though the school was technically in our native tongue, none of us were prepared for the challenges of using British English versus American English.
On the very first day of the international school, my 7-year-old son got in trouble. His teacher thought he was being sassy and even said, "I know you know English." What she didn't realize was her request for him to put his "rubbish in the bin" was as foreign to him as Dutch. After hesitating several times, he had gingerly set his trash in her plastic storage bin instead of the garbage can.
These misunderstandings would continue well after we returned to the US.
Children adapt quickly
My boys quickly adapted, as children do. But they weren't sure what it meant to "get in the queue," since the only "Q" they knew was the letter. And speaking of letters, "zee" changed to "zed." Their class for English language arts was known as simply "literacy" in the Netherlands. And "math" was now the plural "maths."
At first, it was cute when my boys would call their sweaters "jumpers" or their sneakers "trainers" or asked for their "gym kit" for PE class. But no matter how many times I heard it, I had a hard time thinking of myself as "Mum." And "mummy" meant something entirely different in my brain.
I finally had to put a hard stop on the British English when my son asked me for a rubber. For a kid who would eventually return to the US, that's one term I had to nix altogether. For us, it is and forever will be an eraser.
They confused their American relatives with their new British English
When my parents visited, they also noticed our new language quirks. With grandparents babysitting, my boys asked for "ice lollies," which completely flummoxed my mom, who knows the treats only as "popsicles." It was even worse when my kid asked for a "plaster," also known as a Band-Aid.
And after three years overseas, the same son who got in trouble on his first day of the international school got in trouble when he restarted American school. He'd gotten used to his Dutch swim coaches saying, "You go take a piss now," to signal bathroom breaks. Outdoor urinals were called pissours. And the Dutch in general aren't uptight about swearing. So my son, in his new American fourth-grade classroom, made the terrible mistake of asking if he could be excused to "take a piss." In a tense school conference, administrators informed us there's a zero-tolerance policy for swearing. A cultural misunderstanding for sure, but it was also a lousy first impression.
Even now, years later, little Britishisms remain in our lives.
Instead of going on vacation, we say we're going "on holiday."
An English friend recently invited us to dinner and asked if I could bring a "pudding," but I understood she meant any dessert would do.
While playing Uno recently with my youngest, as we reversed directions I commented, "We switched to anticlockwise, as they say in Europe." My son stopped and stared at me, saying that in his head, he always thought of it as anticlockwise — instead of counterclockwise — but never understood why.
These little differences in expressions and terminology, though confusing and sometimes comical, helped open our minds and understanding of a language we thought we already knew.