h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Exaple If you brittish and ask for a FAG in the U.S. well fag isn't a ciggerette here it's a homosexual you can see the problems that
would arise

Fan my brow. While I must admire the thoroughness of the research on American slang, some of your examples are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy out of date, and some of them (particularly those purported to belong in my region--the deep South) are just plain unheard-of. I'm really only posting because I think I know what I'm talking about--dangerous position, I know.

My parents are from San Diego, so I have no true Southern accent; actually mine is more British, since I lived the five most formative years of my life in Russia associating mainly with an English family when I DID speak English. THe first time I said "vase" (vayce) instead of "vase" (vahz) to my buddy she came unstuck. I've never seen anyone laugh that hard and long. That being the most innocuous example of the friction between our two languages, british and english, I have to agree that UK and American slang don't mix. But neither does Seattle with Atlanta slang, or Hawaiian with New York--shoot, my point is, NO ONE speaks the same language! Especially if they speak English, the language of idioms, when idioms arise from geographical peculiarities more than the mother tongue. I'm starting to sound like a pedant. Cheerio.

That's odd. I've heard 'vase' pronounced both ways without anybody ever thinking it was strange or funny. Where is your friend from?