Two Nations Separated by a Common History

Welcome, old-fashioned reader, as this week we delve into how it's not just vocabulary which separates the US from the UK: there's a whole additional level of analogies and cultural touch points which simply do not map between our two nations. And sometimes, that has quite hilarious consequences.

Moored semi-permanently in San Francisco is the SS Jeremiah O'Brien, one of the last remaining World War Two Liberty ships. Back in April, our visitors from the UK were keen to visit the ship and as willing hosts, we duly obliged. In a surprising but on reflection quite predictable turn of events, the ship had been to our home town of Southampton at least once:

We spent the expected amount of time wandering around this ship, marvelling at how hastily thrown together it appears, with our younger visitors enjoying pointing its armament at passing ferries. As we were just getting bored enough to move on, we were approached by one of the volunteers who keep the ship open as a floating museum, and he began to do what these volunteers are supposed to do: educate us.

Our plucky volunteer, clearly a Bay Area local, took us down to the depths of the engine room, where he endeavoured to try to explain to our young guests (aged 10 and 8) how a steam engine worked. Of course, this is barely necessarily given that our family history means they basically have steam in their blood, but whatever; it led to what might be the most amusing and bewildering exchange I've heard in my time in the US, as the volunteer tried to talk about the build-up of steam pressure pushing the pistons back and forth.

Here's how this started:

"So how does a pressure cooker work?"

Lots of blank looks in response to this; the last time a pressure cooker was spotted in the UK was either in 1974, or on top of an Aga in the glossy pages of Country Life. This was not a cultural touchpoint our young guests could latch on to.

"OK, let's try something different. How do you cook ramen?"

Now, I think I've yet to encounter what I'd describe as 'peak Bay Area', but this is close. For our Bay Area audience, let me just inform you that in the UK, we don't live on a diet of espresso, sourdough and ramen noodles like you do here. Put another way, our youngsters didn't even know what 'ramen' is, let alone how you cook it.

"OK, how do you cook spaghetti?"

A perfectly reasonable answer came from our youngsters: "You put it on the hob, then..."

At this point, dear reader, we found out that the word "hob" isn't a thing that Americans know. Here it's a stovetop or something like that. Folks, I've checked: "hob" is a 16th Century word, so there's really no excuse for you not knowing it over here.

Anyway, we eventually found enough common vocabulary to explain the steam engine to at least some degree of detail, and the patience of the volunteer was rewarded by our natural British awkwardness, in that we really felt we had to stop and listen. As with many of these things, a well-placed guide that can make things engaging really makes a visit. We wandered off for something to eat (eventually ending up at Applebee's - I'm shaking my head even thinking about it) enriched with our new understanding of the concept of ramen, even if the steam engine remained something of a mystery.