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  • Hello guys my name is Fanny.

  • Welcome to this series on communication problems.

  • And in this video I want to talk to you about communication problems that occur

  • when we use different kinds of English because as you know we don't have the

  • same English in the UK and in the US, for example.

  • So some Americans don't

  • understand me when I speak English because I don't have the same

  • pronunciation and because I don't always use the same words.

  • Most of the time we do understand each other

  • but sometimes we don't and it can be quite confusing at times.

  • For example, umm, to me there's a ground floor in a building.

  • To an American person my ground floor is their first floor.

  • So if I talk about the first floor, I don't mean the same floor as an American person.

  • So see it can get a bit confusing.

  • And talking about confusion, I have a story which is quite funny.

  • I was in college at the time and I was on the phone with an American friend

  • and we talked you know for 20-25 minutes and then we decide to go grab a drink together.

  • So I'm like, "yeah we should we you know we should go out and have a drink."

  • And she's like, "Okay yeah sure. What a good idea."

  • And then she says, "Let me just put on some pants."

  • now you have to know pants in the USA,

  • means like trousers.

  • Okay your pants. Okay like these.

  • In British English, pants are underpants.

  • Okay?

  • So for me, when she says, "Let me put on some pants."

  • I get this image of my friend talking to me for 20 minutes naked.

  • You know with no underpants on.

  • So I was quite shocked and I said, "What?"

  • She said, "Yeah, yeah. Just grab some pants.

  • I said, "What do you mean pants?"

  • She said, "Oh no no no, I mean trousers."

  • And then we just laughed so hard because you know

  • for a minute there, there was a just a lot of confusion.

  • Um, so yeah, depending on where you come from,

  • I think you shouldn't underestimate ...um.. you know the differences.

  • And you have to be careful sometimes with the words that you choose.

  • You know? So...

  • Yeah that's something that can happen.

  • So you see even native speakers sometimes ..um.. don't really understand each other.

  • That happens as well.

  • So yeah that's what I wanted to tell you.

  • Umm, I hope you've enjoyed.

  • And see you in the next video.

  • Thank you guys for watching my video.

  • I hope you liked it.

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Hello guys my name is Fanny.

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