We kindred hearts can overcome any language barriers!

I am not yet in my bed, thought now it is midnight, but please tell me what does mean "LOL", that I read in almost every message, it is not too late to perfect my (american)english!
thanks and now I shut down my computer!
Joelle

Joelle, LOL is computer slang for Laughing Out Loud. Also, TIA means Thanks In Advance
IMO (or IMHO) means In My (Humble) Opinion
ROTFLMAO means Rolling On The Floor Laughing My @ss Off
HAGO means Have A Good One (tho not used as often)
IRL means In Real Life
But my faves are the on-the-side smileys... :) :) :)!

Mar, I remember while working at Burger King, a guy (from England) came in and ordered a Whopper (a large hamburger). He later came back and asked for a fork and knife. "A fork and knife?" "Well of course. You don't expect me to eat it with my HANDS do you?"
I handed over his utensils! :)

Hey, Mar, I am an American, but I love vinegar on my fries. Everyone thinks I am insane. (I take it you mean malt vinegar, right?)

I am going to London in March, where I am sure the culture shock will be comparable to your US experiences.

When we visited France in 1998, our tour group was added to two Canadian groups. The Canadians loved our southern accents. This one girl kept asking me to talk, just so she could hear my accent. She said I sounded like an audience member from Oprah. lol

I tried to teach her to say, "Ah luv El-vuss" (I love Elvis) but she could never manage to put enough syllables into those supposedly one syllable words. HA!

Funny post, Mar! I've been through this kind of stuff over and over and over again, especially since I will be marrying a *very* midwestern American. Can't tell you how many times we've been in conversation and had to stop to go, "Wait, what's that? What's that mean? What are those?! You're talking funny!!" LOL! But, I gotta tell ya too, when he calls me "ma'am" in that smoooooth, sweet drawl of his -- *SWOON!* :o) Then it's all, "Ooh, say that again..." ;o)

Mar - believe it or not, you don't have to be from another country to get confused - things are different from one state to another. I grew up loving vinegar on french fries and drank "pop" not soda! A Soda was, as you believed, ice cream in your pop. When I moved to New Jersey I got teased plenty!

Thank you Lore for bringing to me some light about these "acronyms". I didn'tknow them, but I do prefer smileys too, they give some life to the computer!
In France we have many different accents and habits too, especially in the south where I come from, but in fact it is a charming accent, very "singing"!
In south Carolina,we discovered a southern accent, too, very far from the "very british english" we learned at school, and even after 15 months it was sometimes difficult to understand some people. but a great experience!
:o)

What a nice light-hearted message! When my neices moved to the Midwest from eastern Tennessee, they were referred to as " the girls that talk like Forest Gump". Not exactly the impression they were going for. By the way, have never tried fries with vinegar ( will have to) but I love fries with country gravy.

Oh what memories you have brought to my mind! I am from the midwest but went to college in Tennessee. I had never really been down "south" for any extended amount of time and was not prepared for the culture shock!! Imagine my surprise/shock when I went out my first evening in town... I asked a waitress for a soda and she replied, "Your a Yankee aren't ya?" I had never been called a Yankee in my life nor had I really even thought about it. I
was constantly reminded that I was a "Yankee".... when I asked for "goulash" instead of "chilli mac", when I borrowed a "sweeper" instead of the "vacuum", when I "pushed" the elevator button instead of "mashing" it, when I wanted to play "wee tee" instead of "miniature golf", when I "went out" to dinner with a friend instead of having her "carry me out", when I said "Hi! How are you doing?" instead of "Hey! How Ya'all doin'?"... I could go on and on, but one day everything changed. I had two friends who were from Japan (one northern and the other southern). One day the two were talking and I asked one of them what the other said. He replied, "I have no idea. He's using southern slang that I don't understand!" I about died laughing! It was then that it really sank in that we're all so different but that's what makes life exciting!!!

Happy Scrappin'!!

Mar-

After reading everyone's messages I had to leave one of my own funnies. In high schoool we had several foreign exchange students. One year one lived in our home with us and was very close to the other three exchange students. About halfway through the year they were doing a project in their history class. Our exchange students friend ask a boy in her group if she could borrow his rubber. He said "excuse me". Well, the class was quiet by this time and she asked again "can I borrow your rubber". Come to find out almost all translations to English for an eraser is rubber. Anyway, she had to have herself excused from class because she was so embarrassed when the teacher explained that our "slang" for a condom is rubber and that no one calls an eraser a rubber!!!!!

These are just too good!!! Brings back lots of memories for me. I was an Air Force Brat and in junior high found myself in California after a year in Alabama (our "home" state). In Spanish class the teacher repeatedly told me I could not speak Spanish with a Southern accent. Needless to say, he was not one of my favorite teachers.

Vee, that's HILARIOUS! *wiping away a tear*

Amy, that would be like a Brit person reaching over in the middle of class and asking, "Have you got an extra pad?" (as in, a pad of writing paper -- but not like that's the first thing we'd think of!). :o)

You're right about this also being a state-to-state thing. I grew up in Northern Oklahoma and my husband, in Central Kansas. Now, you'd expect those two places to be pretty much the same, right? No ... he buys "fuel" for his car. Fuel? Cars don't use fuel ... jets use fuel. Of course, some people would probably think I was being terribly personal if I told them I was going to "get gas"!!!

I have a friend from France, and her English is really excellent, but sometimes the idioms result in some real funnies. She teaches French two doors down the hall from my English class, by the way. One day at lunch, she came out of her room huffing, "I am so mad!" (It's her favorite sentence, and she says it as only a French person can, ha ha). "What?" I asked. "Oh," she said, grimacing, "my students are driving me over the wall!"

Oh, I've got a million of her sayings! And her reactions to southern culture are priceless. Just yesterday we were trying to explain "white trash" cuisine to her. She insisted that fried potatoes were a French thing, until we explained that in the south, white-trash style fried taters are cut thick and fried slowly in animal fat, so that they are soft and mushy and coated with grease. ha ha ha She was apalled.

After I married and moved to my husband's home state of PA, my mother in law came over one morning and said: "I see you have red up your room." Since I had a red bedspread at the time, and that was the only thing I could connect with what she said, I said, "Yes I have made the bed!" Later I asked my husband what she meant and he explained that it meant I had made the room ready for guests by cleaning it. LOL The other funny things they said were: "Make off the light", instead of "Turn off the light", and "Do you want to go with?", instead of "Do you want to go with me to wherever" and "You's guys", instead of "you guys". Of course they found my southern drawl even more funny. Penny