The Language

Random Fact: "Until the 1990's, Hong Kong was part of the British Empire. Therefore, when they learn English they are taught British English rather than American English (like some of their nearby countries)."

Another awesome thing about England is the fact that we get three weeks off for spring break (or spring holiday as they call it). Everyone I talked to already had plans to travel home or they didn't feel like traveling b/c they had already traveled before. It is so cheap to travel from the UK into Europe, so they were not interested. However, my friend Eva wants to travel around Europe and we're talking about the cities we should see.

Speaking of which, her, a guy from Yorkshire, and I went to Gateshead so I can show them the Metro Centre. Yes, it's just a mall, but at one time it was the largest mall in all of Europe (and it has a theme park inside the mall). I tried to show them all the things they could do here, but it turns out that British and Hong Kong people don't hang out at the mall like people do in America. Hence the reason why there are few malls and mostly little stores in Britain.

I've been trying to help Eva with her English, but she's been studying British English and I know mostly American English (there is a difference). She asked Paul (Yorkshire) and I about what a really bad word meant. We had trouble trying to describe it to her b/c it was quite...bad. However, I think she managed to get what we tried to say.

I'm starting to pick up some of the language here, but not the accent. Acutally, I think my American accent is rubbing off on a couple of my British friends, LOL. I'm still pretty hesitant about using their slang too much b/c I'm not from there and I don't want it to seem like I'm mocking them. At the same time, I want to use it in order to explain things to them. Weird, huh?