Speaking

The best one is probably that they call a romper (or a one-piece jumpsuit) a ‘playsuit’. Everyone always cracks up whenever I say romper, finding it the funniest name for clothing. Although I can’t exactly defend the name, I think ‘playsuit’ isn’t any better.

Another one is zucchini, which they call a ‘courgette’ here. This caused quite the scarring incident when Meg and I thought the courgette was a cucumber and put raw zucchini (which people say they eat raw but there’s no way) in our salads. 

They also think us calling our basketball shoes ‘sneakers’ is the funniest thing in the world, where as they call them ‘boots’. Whenever I say sneakers, they imitate me saying sneakers in this nerdy American voice, like the word is somehow dorky to them. 

Oddly enough, the Irish words started to creep into my vocabulary. I find myself calling sweaters ‘jumpers’ often, cookies are now known as ‘biscuits, and chips are ‘crisps’. Still haven’t started saying “what’s the craic?” yet though, and I am not sure if that one will ever come naturally for me. Time will only tell!

SHARE THIS ARTICLE