Cultural shock between Scotland and US?
Posted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:59 pm
So, I know that more of you are NOT from the US than are from the US, and that several of you are from the UK, and I think there's two or three of you from Scotland. Anyway, I quit my old job and in a week and a half I'm going to start work as a nanny. I'll be taking care of a little girl who just moved to the US from Scotland with her mother. Prior to moving here, they spent a year in the Czech republic, so I know the girl's used to big changes in her life (she's only 6 and already been all over the place!)
I'm just wondering if you're aware of any words or phrases I should avoid using that might be inoffensive to me but in some way bad to them, etc. I talked to the mom a bit about differences between people in both places, because it's funny, and we were both blatantly ignorant about each other's places of birth (which is better than pretending to know, I think). So hopefully I won't offend them. But I do know that there are some minor cultural differences between countries, and I'd like to avoid upsetting anyone if at all possible.
Haha, though - the accents are funny. I don't have a normal American accent (I sound more Canadian, but not properly that either) and the mom was trying to speak slowly when she interviewed me so I could understand her, but there were still a few things I couldn't understand. It's ridiculous, we all speak the same language but I SWEAR if you took people from various parts of the UK, various parts of America, Canada, and Australia, and you stuck them together in a room, there's no guarantee they could fully understand each other...
I'm just wondering if you're aware of any words or phrases I should avoid using that might be inoffensive to me but in some way bad to them, etc. I talked to the mom a bit about differences between people in both places, because it's funny, and we were both blatantly ignorant about each other's places of birth (which is better than pretending to know, I think). So hopefully I won't offend them. But I do know that there are some minor cultural differences between countries, and I'd like to avoid upsetting anyone if at all possible.
Haha, though - the accents are funny. I don't have a normal American accent (I sound more Canadian, but not properly that either) and the mom was trying to speak slowly when she interviewed me so I could understand her, but there were still a few things I couldn't understand. It's ridiculous, we all speak the same language but I SWEAR if you took people from various parts of the UK, various parts of America, Canada, and Australia, and you stuck them together in a room, there's no guarantee they could fully understand each other...
