Observations, continued

6) The English have a funny way of pronouncing things.

My ear aches for the beautiful sound of all the accents I heard in England. I've never heard so many beautiful sounds - even the chavvs (England's po' white trash) have a way of speaking that is downright charming. There were a couple of times I found myself pronouncing things and getting funny looks. In these cases I was clearly pronouncing things the right way - it's the English that were wrong. For example:

The cities of Gloucester, Gloucestershire, Worcester and Worscestershire... You (no doubt) pronounce these like I do - phonetically - Glue-kess-ter, Glue-kess-ter-shy-er, Wor-kess-ter or Wor-shess-ter, Wor-kess-ter or Wor-shess-ter-shy-er. NO. Do not pronounce these words this way. You will be speaking "ugly American". You pronounce them like this: Gloss-ter, Gloss-teh-sure, Wooster, Woo-steh-sure.

I mean really. Who knew?