By: Gabriel
My name is Gabriel and I recently moved here from London, England, to Palo Alto, USA about a year ago. I wanted to share the differences that I noticed living in both countries, such as pronunciation of certain words, cuisine, and activities.
While English is the main language spoken in both countries, one key difference is the pronunciation of certain words, such as ‘vitamins.’ In the UK it is pronounced with a shorter “i” (like vit-amin), however the American way of enunciating it is with a longer “i” (vai-tamin). So, while the words are spelled the same and have the same meaning, pronunciations can quickly indicate where you grew up, and sometimes the person you’re speaking with may not know exactly what you mean. However, some words do not have the same meaning. Pants in the UK means underwear while in the US it means trousers. These differences have been a popular point of discussion with classmates especially!
The cuisines of the two countries also vary greatly. In London, desserts were mostly baked goods, while in America there is a vast variety of candy. For meals, England has many Indian inspired dishes. For example, the UK’s national food is chicken tikka masala where the chicken is made in a lake of spices and flavor. This is mostly inspired from when loads of people from different Asian countries migrated to England due to the partition and independence of India and Pakistan. My friend Basil, who is Pakistani, would always have flavorful dishes when I would visit his house.
Last but not least are activities. Now with sports the US is more dominant in baseball, American football, and basketball, while the UK has football, rugby, and cricket. Most American sports are adaptations to early colonization in the 1600s where Europeans migrated to the Americas. Walking is also a huge part of British culture, so much so that in England my family did not own a car. In fact, things are so spread out here in America, that I imagine you wouldn’t survive a single day in the US without a car.
My experience with the US has been exciting and fun so far. I’ve only ever been to California and look forward to discovering more parts of America. I look forward to visiting Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., as both cities played a massive role in shaping the American history I love learning about.