I. Cultural Considerations and Resolution Strategies (U.S.)

One significant cultural consideration that came up all the time was the level of politeness and popularity of small talk. Even everyday routines such as going to the grocery store or ordering a coffee required a different approach than before. I had to learn to use a longer greeting pattern that consisted of a minimum of three parts ("Hi, how are you?", "Fine, how are you?", and "Good, thanks!"), instead of just saying "Hi" and leaving it to that. I had got used to the Finnish way, where small-talk is not a done thing and compliments are often considered as useless flattery.

During the first weeks I spent in the US, I was puzzled at always being greeted with big smiles and praising remarks concerning my blond hair or what I was wearing whenever I met new people. It took me some time to understand that this was the American way of being polite, and that for Americans, it wasn't excessive at all. On the contrary, I learned that unless you give little compliments, offer your help even when clearly not needed, and smile a lot, you will be considered impolite and even downright rude.

II. Cultural and Language-specific Considerations (U.K.)

During my time in England I came across some expressions I had difficulties understanding. Firstly, the mysterious word "Cheers!" that everyone seemed to use wherever I went. In my knowledge, "cheers!" was something one says when toasting with friends at the pub. In England, however, the word seemed to have another meaning as well. "Cheers!" was something people said to the bus driver when they left the bus, or to the cashier of a grocery store when they were handed their change. Finally I realised that "Cheers!" was an informal way of saying "thank you", popular especially among the young people. In time the word invaded my own vocabulary as well, which made me feel very English indeed.

Secondly, the laid-back question "you alright?" often left me dumbfounded. When I first arrived to Canterbury I didn't understand why people were asking me if I was okay all the time. Did I look like I was not alright? Did I seem scared or sad or something along those lines? Finally my English housemate explained to me that "you alright?" was actually an informal "how are you?" among friends. At that point I did feel kind of silly; I guess it was some basic knowledge of English I had simply missed at some point of my education. But then again, being used to the more formal "university speech" in Finland, I guess it was no surprise that I had forgotten some of the finer points of laid-back small talk among friends...

I think my time as an exchange student helped me get a better idea of the difference between American English and British English. Of course I was already aware of the differences between those two variants of English, I just don't think I ever really realised how big those differences really are. On occasion I would accidentally use American English in England, for example call crisps chips or the other way around, which of course led to a misunderstanding on the part of the my British friends. Food-related misunderstandings were of course pretty minor and harmless. Much more confusion would follow when I would talk of a "course" when I should have spoken of a "module". When my English friends spoke of a course, they didn't mean only one single course, like "Introduction to American English"; instead, they meant their whole degree programme. Their word "module" was the equivalent of my understanding of "course".

Mostly we had fun comparing the two language variants to each other. I remember one evening when my English housemate and I had a deep discussion about the difference between a cookie and a biscuit. Although cookies are mainly an American thing, there were cookies in England too, although biscuits were more common. After some pondering we came to the conclusion that the word "cookie" means that there is something added in the biscuit. For example chocolate biscuit is a bisquit when there are no chocolate chips; if there are chocolate chips, then it's called a cookie. The same seemed to apply to oatmeal biscuits. Oatmeal biscuits were just oatmeal biscuits, but if the biscuits contained, for example, blueberries as well, then those would be called blueberry oatmeal cookies. It seems to me that the world between American English and British English is full of confusing small differences.

One thing that struck me as interesting was the way the English people referred to themselves and their country. Although in Finland we often speak of "Great Britain" and "United Kingdom", those were terms I seldom heard from the mouth of a native speaker. Most of the English people I knew spoke of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales separately, never as an unit. I think it had something to do with their attitude towards Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. At least the young people I knew seemed to look down on Irish and Scottish people. When we international students would dream about going to visit Scotland, they would wonder why on Earth would we want to go there, as the place is full of "people living in the middle of nowhere whose accent you can't even understand". Also, my English friends weren't too fond of being referred as the "Brits" or "British"; they liked being called English much better.

What I found quite confusing was the British use of pet names. British people seem to like their pet names and often call strangers with names such as "darling", "love" or "sweetheart". Being the detached Finnish person I am, I found this habit quite amusing and also rather sweet. Of course, the pet names did not mean anything special - it was just a British habit. Should a stranger in Finland call me "darling" I probably would get scared and suspect the person was a crazy stalker at the very least, but when this happened in England I never thought anything of it.