The most English things

While adjusting to life in England, there were definitely some cultural differences to get used to, even as a Canadian student. Now, having lived in the UK for a few months, I am finally beginning to adjust to living in a ‘flat’, going up ‘lifts’, wearing ‘jumpers’, and eating ‘chips’ instead of fries. However, I was pretty confused when my English friends discussed going to the ‘chemists’ (apparently a pharmacy).

A huge part of living abroad is experiencing the local culture. Luckily, my host institution provides many opportunities for international students to travel and see the area surrounding London. They had trips planned to visit Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Bath, Stonehenge, and the Queen’s weekend home: Windsor Castle. Having attended the majority of these trips, I was able to obtain a good grasp of the English life and experience the culture in a variety of places.

Even now, nearing the end of my semester abroad, the majority of conversations with my friends here still consist of us asking each other how we each pronounce different words in our accents, and what we call certain things. (Leicester is apparently pronounced ‘lester’??) Somehow, we still have not run out of examples. One thing I was surprised to learn about England was the variety of English accents; you can truly drive an hour in any direction to a different part of the country, and the accent there will sound vastly different. Before coming here, I had assumed that all English accents would sound synonymous. However, they vary by region more than I had ever anticipated.

Living in the UK now, I have almost gotten used to drinking ample tea, learning to cross the street looking in strange directions, and calling it ‘noughts & crosses’ rather than tic-tac-toe. However, there are still new aspects of English culture that I am learning, which continue to amaze me everyday.

British Monopoly: With ‘Kings Cross Station’ 
instead of Reading Railroad

By: Camille James, Vancouver Island University. Winner of the 2016 Stories from Abroad: British Columbia Study Abroad Scholarship.