Pants, Underpants and Other Humorous Differences Between British and American English | 英美文化碰撞的那些趣事

Written by: Du Yubin | 杜毓斌

Translated by: Guo Hongfei

Illustrated by Tian Tian

In the autumn of 2019, I moved to the UK after working in Washington for a long time. I always imagined that since the US and the UK shared a language, I was unlikely to experience culture shock. I was wrong! During my time in London I encountered not only cultural shock, but also embarrassing cultural jokes. As a Chinese person who lived in both the UK and the US, I experienced the cultural difference between the East and the West, and also between the US and the UK. Once shared, such experience may inspire insights and thoughts in others. Even as a joke it can be worth a try.

On my first day at the office, I chatted with my British colleagues and we engaged in some small talk about where we lived. Two middle-aged male colleagues, far away from their beloved girlfriends, said that they shared the same flat in order to save money. After hearing this I replied, “You two are colleagues and roommates!”

Both of them blushed with awkwardness and explained, “Just to make things clear, we are flatmates, not roommates. We live in separate rooms.” Only then did it occur to me that “roommate” was from American-English, and referred to people sharing the same house but not necessarily the same room. In British English, the word “roommate” was interpreted more literally.

I burst into laughter and explained that I hadn’t realized that the same word had two different meanings. Little did I know, there were many English words that I needed to “re-learn” in England. Whereas the Americans call a knitted top a sweater, Brits call it a jumper. Likewise, Americans say eggplant and Brits use the French aubergine, to refer to the same vegetable. Football versus soccer, trash can versus bin. The examples are endless. And so are the ambiguities.

One day after work, I went to pick up my bike with a colleague. I mentioned that it was raining so heavily that my pants got wet. He started to laugh uncontrollably and said, “Do you mean your trousers?” I said of course, what else? He continued to explain that pants in Britain meant underwear. Though the British would understand either word, their first reaction to hearing “pants” would be to think “underwear”. He then joked, “What made your underwear wet?” Fortunately he was a friend who knew me well, or a misunderstanding like this would have been very embarrassing.

Unfortunately, what scares you the most often comes after you. I did embarrass myself once in public as a result of using the wrong word. By public, I mean Number 9 Downing Street, where the Press Briefing Room is located, right next to Number 10, the official residence of the British Prime Minister. On that day I went to the press conference. I arrived early and still had some time to go to the loo.

I asked the staff there, “Excuse me, where is the restroom please?” A new office lady politely asked me to wait so that she could ask for permission. After two minutes, she came back and said, “I will lead the way since there is still time before the press conference.” I was surprised that I needed to be escorted to the loo, but I followed the lady across various hallways, climbed many stairs and finally saw the sign for the loo. Right as I was about to dash in, the lady stopped me and said, “Not here sir. Please follow me.” She then guided me to the REST ROOM.

She opened the door for me. I looked in and saw a security guard resting there who had just finished his lunch. Annoyance and laughter seized me at the same time. I just wanted to use the toilet, but apparently she hadn’t understood me. While in American English the restroom refers to the toilet, in British English, it can be easily interpreted as a room for rest.

In recent years, gender and sexuality have prompted many debates in western societies. I feel that the UK is paying particular attention to these debates by adjusting public expressions that may arouse concern. For example, the word spokesman and spokeswoman have now become spokesperson. In the UK, sexuality is never a hindrance to love. Civil partnership is evidence of this. I once believed that such categorisation was specifically set for same-sex couples.

A colleague of mine often mentioned his partner, so I always thought he was gay. Then one day we had a chat and he said, “I am going to get married!” I congratulated him, “That’s amazing! Congratulations to you and your boyfriend. You guys must have been through a lot.” Hearing that, his jaw dropped and he replied, “I’m marrying a woman!” He then explained to me that the neutral word partner was used to avoid discrimination with regards to sexuality.

These days, many people use the word partner to refer to their other half, instead of saying boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife. So the next time you hear someone saying partner, don’t be surprised or make any assumptions like I did.

In the UK, people use “what a shame” or “shame” a lot, which sounds like disgrace, a negative expression. It is said that this phrase often reminds many Chinese of a mean middle-aged woman who often appears in western movies and publicly shames a poor man who has a different religion or tradition. However, in reality, this phrase is only used to describe a pity, so a more precise translation into Chinese would be “what a pity”. This one is also used by Americans so it’s worth remembering – you can avoid confusion in two countries!

Though cultural differences are inevitable, the longer I live abroad, the more I realise how much we have in common with people on the other side of the world. Although we may have different names for things, there is so much we can learn from one another, even if there are a few language hiccups along the way.

About the author

Du Yubin is a reporter for CGTN (China Global Television Network) stationed in the UK, part of China Media Group. His Channels on WeChat: Xiaodu’s Big World – how China views the world and how the world views China.

2019 年秋，我因工作调动来到英国。此前，我一直在美国首都华盛顿工作，自己认为英美在语言、文化上基本一致，一脉相承，应该不会有多大文化冲突。但在伦敦安居之后，竟然连连遭遇文化冲突，甚至闹出笑话，陷入尴尬的境地！作为一名在英美两国都生活过的中国人，这种不仅是东西文化，甚至西方与西方之间文化碰撞的体验，值得记录下来，可以激发一点启发与思考，即使当听个笑话都是善莫大焉。

刚到办公室报到，与英国同事见面，大家认识寒暄，很快进入礼节性关心阶段，询问起各自家住哪里来。其中两位男同事，虽然年纪老大不小，但因各自的女友都不在身边，于是为了省点租金，就合租搬到了一个公寓。我听说后表示了我的赞许：“你们不但是同事，还是室友（roommate）呢！”未料他们听了我的话，表情顿感尴尬，红着脸说：“我解释一下，我们只是 flatmate，不是 roommate，我们俩住在不同的房间。”我这才意识到我用了美式英语中的表达词语 roommate，引发了歧义。英式英语中 flat 才是描述一间公寓，而 room 是描述一间公寓里的不同房间，尤其是卧室。而美式英语，通常用 apartment 来表达公寓，而 roommate也只是泛指室友，没有他们理解的“住在一个卧室的朋友”的意思。我哈哈大笑，马上解释说，我并不知道这个词语的英美差异，绝 无暗示他们两位男士同居一室的意思。英美同属英语家族，然而 “代沟”不小。比如表达服装的词汇就不太一致：毛衣，英式英语是 jumper，美式英语是 sweater ；茄子的英式英语是 aubergine,而美式英语是 eggplant ；足球的英式英语是 football，而美式是 soccer（在美国说 football 则是指美式橄榄球）……举不胜举！当 同一个词语分别在英国美国表达不同含义的时候，可能就导致歧义了。

有一次，我和一位英国同事一起下班去自行车库，我跟他说，今天的雨下得太大了，我的裤子都湿了（My pants are wet）。他听后哈哈大笑问：“Do you mean your trousers?（你是想说你的裤子湿了吗？）”我说对啊，要不然嘞？他说，你知道 pants 在英国是“内裤”的意思吗？我说，你们不是用 underwear 吗？他说：“两个都用，但你说 pants，英国人的第一反应是内裤哦！内裤湿了，会因为什么呢？”至今想想都汗颜！幸好这是跟我很熟悉也很要好的朋友，否则在大庭广众之下闹此笑话，那可太丢人了。

不幸的是怕什么来什么！我还真在公共场合经历过由于语言表达失误而闹出的笑话。那是一个太公众的地方——唐宁街 9 号，英国政府新闻办公室所在地，就在唐宁街 10 号首相府的隔壁。那天去采访，我到得稍微早了一些，离新闻发布会还有段时间，便想去厕所方便一下。我问工作人员：“Excuse me, where is the restroom please? ”一位新来的女工作人员很客气地让我等一下，她去请示一下。两分钟后，她回来了，说：“新闻发布会还有一段时间，那我带您过去吧。”我心想，这里的安全级别这么高吗？上个厕所还要带我过去？于是，我跟着大姐穿越了好几个楼道，爬了好几个不同楼梯，才看到前面卫生间的标志。正要冲进去，大姐一把拦下我说：“不是这里，再跟我往前走。”她把我带到了一个标记着restroom 的房间前。大姐给我开了门，里面坐着一位保安，说是刚吃完午饭，在那里休息呢。我哭笑不得地解释道：“我就是要用下 toilet，上个厕所。”显然我又忘了我在英国，要说英式英语。美式英语的 restroom 是厕所，而在英国，真有人会理解成休息室！

近年来，西方社会在性别问题上存在诸多辩论。我感到英国好像特别重视性别问题，在很多公众或官方语言使用中调整了原先的表达。比如“发言人”的 spokesman 和 spokeswoman 被调整为 spokesperson。在英国，性别不是两个人在一起的障碍，而且有专门设置的 civil partnership（民事伴侣关系），我一度错以为一般申请“民事伴侣关系”的往往是同性伴侣。有位同事经常在聊天中提到 my partner（我的伴侣）怎么怎么样，所以，我一直以为他的性取向是同性。直到有一次，他跟我说：“I am going to get married!”我说：“太好啦，你和你男朋友走入婚姻，一定克服了很多困难，恭喜你！”他下巴都要掉到了桌子上，惊诧地说：“跟我结婚的是女士！”据英国同事说，partner 是近几年常用的一个词，以此避免性别因素带来的隐形歧视。现在，很多人不再说 boyfriend、girlfriend、wife、husband（男女朋友，妻子丈夫）这样的词，不再突出性别，也不再在乎是否举办过婚礼，都使用 partner（伴侣）这个词语代替。同性伴侣和异性伴侣都有民事伴侣关系。所以，当你听到别人说 partner 时候，别再惊讶，也别再揣测了。否则，尴尬的不是别人，可能是自己哦。

在英国，人们常常听到 What a shame 或者 shame 这样的表达，字面意思看似为“真丢人”或“耻辱”的意思。据说，很多国人听到这个词时，在脑海里浮现的形象是欧美电影中的街头大妈，在公开羞辱一个不遵守当地宗教或道德的可怜人。但在实际的使用中，这个词表达“真可惜，真遗憾”的意思。而在国内英语学习中，这种表达往往是“What a pity”这样的词，在美国也是多用这样的表达。我在美国生活的朋友第一次遭遇到这样的表达，还真想问对方：“为什么会觉得这事儿丢人呢？”幸好，我熟悉了这个表达，跟他解释后，他才恍然大悟，避免了尴尬。诸如此类，我遭遇了不小的英美语言文化差异，制造的尴尬和笑料也不少，可谓防不胜防。在英国，我还体会到很多在美国时没有感受到的东方文化，比如中国的茶文化，瓷器文化，还有从 17 世纪就开始感染欧洲的“中国热”，壁纸、家具都在其中。身在西方看东方，看到了我们可能不曾发现和感知的中国。虽然文化差异不可避免，但身处海外越久，就越能体会东西方民众的共通性，都追求美好生活，都善良友好。记录下这些点滴，也期盼东西方文明互鉴，和平相处，和谐共生。

作者介绍

杜毓斌，中央广播电视总台CGTN 驻英国记者。视频号：小杜大世界，

中国眼看世界，世界眼看中国。