Alias

I live a double life.

Trying to remember when to use certain words is tricky…

Flat/apartment
Mobile/cell phone
Jumper/Sweater
Trousers/Pants (you don’t want to mess that one up!)
Cinema/movies
Car park/parking lot
Diary/calendar
Lift/elevator
Chips/Fries
Hob/Stove
Biscuits/cookies
Pudding/dessert

…and the list goes on. I try to say the right things to the right people. Here they say half eleven instead of eleven-thirty and 13 November instead of November 13^th. I live in between. I try to use British English when I’m talking to people here and then revert to American English when I talk to people at home. If I mess up I tend to hear one of the following comments:

“Ah, I love Emily and her funny American sayings”

Or

“Ohhhh, aren’t you becoming all European?”

I still can’t anticipate all the phrases I use that are particularly American and will make people here laugh. What can I do? I embrace my American-ness but am trying to adapt, too. Fortunately the real me doesn’t have anything to do with what phrases I use.

I’ll still never be as cool as Sydney Bristow. I mean, if I can't handle different versions of English there's no way I can keep up with her.