Barriers to Communication

We’ve been doing some reflection on the differences between the US and the UK. In particular, we’ve been thinking about the language differences and how they become barriers to understanding one another.

Some language differences are as simple as the accent (class 1)– which has certainly been a barrier to us understanding the Scots – and some involve the addition of extra words (“wee small” instead of merely “small” and “sweetcorn” instead of “corn”). Other differences are in the way words are used: the Scots will say ‘chase up’ where the American will say ‘chase down’.(class 2) Or there’s the word “fair:” Talking about the Glasgow Fair, a friend of ours pointed out that “you know it’s not a fair, but a trades holiday.” Now, to the US … well, I guess there is a specific usage of the word “fair” … but a “trades holiday?” No. This is one of those cases where we’re just learning a new word.

Some meanings, though, are radically different. For instance, if someone says they’re going to “table” a topic in a meeting … well, in the US that means to take that item out of discussion. Here? It means exactly the opposite: to “table” something is to bring it up to be discussed.(class 3)

Also in the realm of the “radically different” word meanings are certain words like “dinghy” or “doctor.”

One of D’s coworkers is going out boat racing this weekend … on his “dinghy” (pronounced ‘ding-gee’ with the second ‘g’ sounding as in go). The word “dinghy” to the American conjures up something rubber, frequently yellow or orange, and certainly nothing to race. We’re told that, yes, they have those as well … but would call that a “rubber dinghy.” Otherwise, a dinghy is something made of plastic or fiberglass, with a sail, and can hold a couple of people easily. See this page for what’s meant by “dinghy” in the UK.

Most types of usage differences are sort of fun, or at least sort of funny. The usage of the word “doctor” is amazingly different, however.

To an American, a “doctor” is someone who has attended 4 years of college, followed by 4 years of Medical School at a University, followed by a year of “residency” (essentially, close supervision), and some number of years of “internship,” depending on the specialization, all of which adds up to something like 12 years of training after graduating high school at age 18. Thus, Americans see a “doctor” as someone with 6 or more years of specialized education after University. To be a doctor in the UK is vastly different. The word for a physician with that amount of education would be a “consultant” or something close to that.

In the UK one becomes a doctor by completing the equivalent of high school (frequently finishing as young as 16 years old) and then proceeding into medical school. Medical school in the UK takes 5 years to complete, at which time the student proceeds to work for 1 year under supervision. Thus, a citizen of the UK would see someone six years out of high school as a “doctor.” (See this Wiki Article for more info)

It’s a small thing, but it means that even just the perception of the medical field is, between the UK and the U.S., worlds apart. That is not to say that health-care here is bad, but that one should not expect a doctor here to know anything about anything other than their field of medicine, and that one can expect their doctor to be quite startlingly young as compared to a doctor in the U.S.

We’ve wandered a bit from language, but language is certainly at the root of what we’re trying to point out. So, so far we’ve accounted for:

1. Accent differences
2. Additional words, or colloquial differences
3. Words with radically different meanings

In addition to that, of course, are those things which you only run into with the written word, and perhaps particularly in an educational context.

In the UK, the use of the single quotation mark and the double quotation mark are completely opposite those of the US usage. In the US, to quote something, one would enclose the sentence in double-quotation marks; if the sentence itself contained quotation marks, those inner quotation marks would be made into single-quotation marks. This rule is reversed here in Scotland … and they get truly upset by the usage of the double-quotation mark: they call that usage “scare-quotes,” and feel that using them around any single word or phrase means that one is using mockery or sarcasm to make a point.

Oops!

So, if one were to refer to the medical professionals here as ‘doctors’ that would be simply calling attention to their title … but if one were to say that they were “doctors” then that would be questioning whether they deserved that title…!

These are the diversities which we’ve run into with regard to language — thought-provoking, amusing, occasionally frustrating. For both of us, words and language tend to be where we spend a lot of time and effort, and to find the very foundations of our understanding shifted has been sometimes maddening, sometimes disappointing, and sometimes quite infuriating. We would think that having university degrees in British Literature would have managed to convey these differences, but we’re having to pick these things up as we go along, simply by stumbling over them. If we stub your toe while we stumble, we apologize in advance; it’s the little things that we thought would be the same that trip us up.

Language comprehension is always tricky when writing a blog. We’ve had several responses to our comments about relationship “erosion,” some thoughtful, some apologetic, some sympathetic, some defensive, and one accusing us of whining when we’re quite privileged to be here. All of these responses came from people who read our words differently. Especially for those who apologized or were defensive, we didn’t intend to indict anyone in particular, our reflection was merely on the nature of distance, how easily that which we assumed to be unbreakable can be so easily severed.

On a completely separate topic, but one that’s kinda related to language, we may be taking a Spanish course from the University of Paisley West Scotland, but at D’s workplace instead of having to go all the way out to Paisley. Universities in Scotland simply don’t have enough people who are interested in doing degrees, so some (like Paisley) are offering to give you your first class for free! And, if you have enough people from your office who are interested in a course, they’ll send the instructor to you! Spanish with people who are better at rolling their ‘r’s than we are should be a kick. We’ve also decided to take up a Russian language course from Glasgow University, so we’re certain that our language skills will be put to the test this next school-year.

– D & T

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