A Spot of Olde England in São Paulo

I have started to acquire some English language students, and hope to get one or two more. So far all of my students live in my apartment building, which certainly makes it convenient. One of my more improbable students, Elio, is a Brazilian who earns his living by teaching English. He is about 40 years old and lived in London for 4 or 5 years in his middle 20s. I would say that his English is fine, but he pays me to help him with his vocabulary and his pronunciation. Sometimes he reads to me. Sometimes we just talk. Fortunately, because I don´t want to feel guilty taking his money just for listening, we have never met yet without my having helped him have an epiphany of one sort or another with regard to the language.

What I love is the fact that he learned British English. There have been several instances where we are just talking, and he says something that is 100% British. The most recent was his reference to something in his refrigertor which had "gone off." And there was the polite question at our first meeting if I "fancied" something to drink. I wish I had been writing them down, because we have hardly ever talked, in person or on the phone, without my noting with delight some particular word or expression which was totally British. As I said, I love the way the Brits talk.

We all know a lot of instances where the Brits have a different word for something than we do...(elevator/lift, flashlight/torch, hood (car)/bonnet)...but the examples I can think of are all nouns. Once we were chatting and I had to call an end to it because it was time for me to fix dinner. Elio said that his partner was also fixing dinner and that it was a good thing because he, Elio, was feeling a bit peckish. I didn´t say anything, but I was quite sure he was misusing that word. To me, feeling a bit peckish meant one was in a bad mood, or a moderately bad temper. After dinner, I looked it up and found out we were both right. In England, "peckish" means hungry. In the US, it means crotchety. So far this is the only example I´ve encountered of an adjective with totally different meanings in England and the US.

Finally, since I´m on the subject of England, in Anthony Trollope´s "Can You Forgive Her?" he describes something as being "as cold as charity." Isn´t that awesome?

And I have to mention Henry James´response to Trollope´s title, even though he was supposedly a great admirer of Trollope, "yes, and forget her too for that matter."

More about being an English teacher next time.