What a Difference an Ocean Makes: looking at vocabulary

“Miss, if you’re from Canada how come you don’t speak Canadian?” This is a question I have heard more than I care to admit, and not just from the youngest children but also from kids in secondary school. Apparently, school kids in London forget that the primary language spoken in North America is English. . The accents are different, some of the vocabulary is different, and the pronunciation is DEFINITELY different but they are different dialects of the same language. I have compiled some of my favourite word/phrase differences between the UK and Canada.

UK Word/Phrase	“definition”	Canadian Word/Phrase
Rubber	Used to “rub out” writing	Eraser … students do not know what an eraser is
Bin	Term is ONLY used for the thing you place garbage in	Garbage can… We use the term ‘bin’ for a wide variety of receptacles … “put your work in the humanities bin” must be altered to put your work in the humanities “tub”
Register	the class list where you mark off who is present/ absent	Attendance; in Canada we merely call students names and they respond “here”, in the UK you say “good morning/good afternoon [insert name]” and they should reply “good morning/good afternoon Miss Owen”
Pants	Items that you wear under your clothes on the bottom half of your body.	Underwear/Underpants  — the one and only time I have properly referred to pants was when one of my students was walking around without them or his trousers “WHERE ARE YOUR PANTS?!”
Trousers	Long legged items of clothing worn by everyone	Pants – this one is one of the hardest to catch myself with; I have asked students about “snow pants” and they look at me like I have ten heads… “snow trousers?”
Jumper	A thick long sleeved garment worn on the top half of your body to keep you warm	Sweater, Sweatshirt
“You alright?”	How’s it going?	“How are you doing?” “sup?”
Are you being/ please be/why are you not being sensible	Behaving in an appropriate manner	“are you making good choices?” Thank you for behaving properly I like sensible, it makes students think about their behaviour, I will keep it!
Pritt Stick	Item with a sticky substance used to connect two items together	Glue stick – Pritt Stick is the brand name but the kids do not know them as glue sticks in my experience
Felt tips	Item with liquid ink and a felt tip used to colour with	Markers
Hall	The place where schools congregate for assemblies and to do P.E	Gym
P.E.	Class where you do physical Activity	Gym, Phys Ed – do not EVER call P.E. by its full name or the short form Phys Ed… kids don’t know what P.E. stands for
Maths	A class where you do all sorts of fun things with numbers, shapes, etc.	Math – you may not think that ‘s’ makes a difference but it does; kids don’t know what you are talking about when you leave it off. Not sensible.
Biscuit	a round, sweet, crunchy baked item, usually eaten as pudding or tea	Cookie – not all cookies are biscuits, but all biscuits are cookies…
Cuppa	A cup containing a steaming liquid made from dried leaves or berries from various plans	A cup of tea. Tea in a cup
Bottom	The fleshy area that is sat upon	Bum, Butt, Buttock, Rear-end; I kid you not, “Sit on your bum!” is a considered incredibly rude
Lift	Magical device that helps you move between floors	Elevator to those of us in the regular world
I’m desperate for the toilet	A student really has to urinate.	“May I please use the washroom” – I will never grow accustomed to being asked to use the toilet, it seems crass to me
shop	Either the place where one purchases items, or the items that one purchases	Store is what we would use for the place of purchase; groceries is what I would call the items that have been purchased
Dinner	Meal eaten around noon	Lunch  — this varies by area though, some schools use lunch, other use dinner.
Tea	Meal eaten around 5 pm	Dinner – again, this varies by area
Pudding	Delectable sweet course eaten after a main course	Dessert – the only actual pudding I have seen consumed for dessert is Rice pudding (but Custard and Sticky Toffee pudding are both phenom!)
Poorly	When one is feeling anywhere from a bit unwell to near death	To feel sick, to be ill,