Shanghai Bob

I’ve been lucky to have a number of good friends who are eager to teach me to say and do things the proper English way.  I’ve learned to invite my “mates” back to my “gaff” (invite my homies back to my crib, yo) and to pronounce Bethnal Green like the locals do (Beffnal Green).  Both are good for a laugh coming from an American.

I get lessons from strangers, too.  Today as I was walking through the West End, I stopped by Fortnum and Mason to get a snack to eat in the park.  I settled on a pork pie, and asked the clerk if he could heat it up, to which he replied, “The pork pie likes to be eaten cold, sir.”  I thought this was a pleasantly indirect way of telling me how to act (a lesson in itself!).  I said, “OK, let’s do what the pork pie wants.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 8:22 pm and is filed under london.