U.S.A. and G.B. - two English language variations

Welcome to the English language variations that occur due to the versatile places of residency. Learners have different opinions about language variations; however, when those same learners travel from one continent to the other – it becomes obligatory. To that end, it is not a topic of interest solely for ESL learners. When traveling to Great Britain from the United States or vice versa – it is important to be aware of a number of differences. For example, if you go with your basketball team to Great Britain and a waiter offers you chips, that is not what you will get – you will be served fries. After lunch you might be informed that the coach will pick you up and you end up waiting for hours for your coach rather than entering the bus that was waiting in the parking lot to take you to the game. In the evening, the cab driver talks about his recent flat being nice and with a great view which sounds ridiculous for a flat tire. Of course, the driver was talking about his apartment. It is such details that can cause quite unpleasant misunderstandings. The way to avoid them is to go over the lists posted on the Internet or possibly to buy dictionaries that offer the vocabulary which would take much longer – not to mention the burden of having to carry around a dictionary.