The “Four Yorkshiremen” Sketch

What a marvelous display of one-”down”manship!

Of course, we had proper Four Yorkshiremen sketches when I was a kid.

Whoa whoa whoa! What on Earth is British English?! Last I heard, it was just called English! From England, no less!

True, no British English, but as an ignorant American with a British boyfriend, I have to say that for about the first week I spent with my now-partner, I couldn’t understand easily half of what he said. I got embarrassed saying “what?” more than twice, so I really lost quite a bit entirely.

Then a funny thing happened on the way to where ever: after a short while, my ear grew up or something and now there’s never a time I don’t understand him–ever, even while others do. Nice to know I can still adapt. Now he’s the one who can’t understand fast Southern or muttered speech or Hispanic accents in dialog in movies or whatever. It’s weird, the whole thing of speaking a same language that is simultaneously totally different.

We even have idioms that take the same pattern but use different terms, like “throw a wrench in the works” versus “throw a spanner in the works.”

Sorry…any excuse to talk about my cute boyfriend.