I’ve noticed that living in Hong Kong is having an effect on my English, especially when it comes to my vocabulary.
Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997, so is to be expected that the English spoken here is peppered with British vocab and grammatical structures.
There are also tons of Brits living in HK, particularly in my neighbourhood (the Soho/Mid-Levels/Central area of Hong Kong). So it probably should come as no surprise that my vocabulary has British undertones.
Here are a couple changes in my English that I’ve noticed:
– I say “toilet” instead of “washroom“. A year and a half ago, before I moved here, I would have cringed at somebody saying “I have to go to the toilet”. And yet, I routinely use the word when I have to excuse myself to do my business. The word “toilet”, to North American ears at least, just sounds vulgar. But for Brits/Aussies/Kiwis it is pretty commonplace. And so now I always say it and can’t seem to stop.
– I say “flat” instead of “apartment“. Nobody says apartment here. When I was back home in Canada this summer, I would describe my “flat” to friends and family (namely using adjectives such as “tiny”and “ridiculously and nonsensically expensive”). I’m sure they were looking at me cross-eyed due to this bizarre usage. Nobody ever says flat back home to describe a lodging. To describe a tire, yes, but never to describe a lodging. (LOL)
-On a few occasions I’ve caught myself saying “at the weekend” and “shattered” instead of “on the weekend” and “exhausted“. Oh boy!
It’s not a big deal, but these changes in my vocabulary definitely elicit a laugh from me since I’ve been told on a few occasions that I actually have quite a strong Canadian accent. But no worries. Tomato, tomahto, right?
32 Comments
I'm in the United Kingdom and still can't get with most of the catch-phrases here. But from time to time I say "brilliant", "take away" instead of to go, and "straight away" instead of right away.
Besides those, none really.
@Spinster: brilliant sounds so quintessentially British to me…
Same thing happened to me when I was in Spain. Not only did I incorporate some new Spanish phrases into my vocabulary, but I incorporated some English ones as well ie at university, as you wish, etc.
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