This is Louis and Dave!

You guys might remember Louis from

a few videos I did from Istanbul a year and a half ago.

They're both in Tokyo right now so

I've asked them to help me with a lesson for you guys!

I get a lot of tweets asking to explain the difference

between British English and American English

so today I'm going to have these British guys help me!

So we are going to be talking about the difference

between ... or differences between

British English and American English

You both speak British English.

We do.

We try.

Could we get a brief introduction from both of you?

Yeah, so I'm Louis Cole

and I've got a channel "Fun for Louis"

where I do daily vlogs and travel the world

and that's where we met,

me doing my daily vlogs in Istanbul.

and I'm Dave Erasumus

and I do experiments.

I try all kinds of different things

that are new and difficult for me.

So they're here with a project,

which they'll tell you about later, but

let's just get started with some differences.

First of all, I really like British English accents

What do you guys thing of American English?

I think that people from England or Britain

are more used to American accents

We hear it in all the movies.

It's like way more common for us to know about

American culture and accents.

When we go to America, I find that

Americans are more obsessed and excited

to meet someone from England

or you know, hear our accents.

We'll just go over some very basic things

like R's at the end of words

we pronounce different like the word "color"

Oh yeah!

I didn't even notice that.

Yeah we miss R's off a lot of words, right?

but you know, the spelling of color is different as well.

Yes, there's a "U" in it.

Yeah, we have a "U" in it.

We have a "U", I don't know why.

Yes, it's just short isn't it?

It's very windy.

We're on the roof of a building.

Don't ask why.

I actually think that British English is a little bit more

easy for Japanese people to pronounce

because Japanese people have a hard time saying R.

Oh, I've got an interesting story.

When I was last here,

I've got a friend who is Japanese and

she had an app on her phone that helped her

tell the difference between L and R.

because it sounds the same.

Right.

Right and light, we both say...

it's ライト for both of them.

So they're like, what's the difference?

and it's harder to hear because of the way

the language is.

It's harder to tell the difference between L and R.

See, this is why we don't say our R's

because we want to help Japanese people understand!

It's the only reason I do it.

Do you know as well,

if you get really lazy in British English

you can say... you can drop your T's as well

so in america it would be "water"

No, we say "water"

We say "water"

So you cut the T and R!

Really??

Oh, I thought it was "water"

but that's kind of a lazy way to say it.

More poshly, you would say, you know,

I'd like some water, please.

In American English, you say, it's like "water"

Water. Yeah, exactly!

We would say "water."

But it's also different within the UK, right?

Yeah.

Oh, really different!

You both are from?

Near London.

So south of England is pretty same-ish.

and then you get West Country,

I can't deal with the accents, but

the north of England.

and it's not ... geographically it's not that far

but the accents get crazy different!

Scotland!

Sorry, one second.

moshi moshi, are you here?

We're on the roof.

Moshi moshi. What does this mean?

It's "hello" just on the phone though.

You can't say it in real life?

Just on the phone.

Is there an equivalent in English?

I don't think so.

Just say hello, right?

Yeah, hi.

What's up?!

I'm going to use moshi moshi then!

When we're on the phone?

Yeah, let's do it.

I'm going to use it. I like it!

There are a few words,

that I didn't even know you guys pronounced like this,

but how do you pronounce that word?

I mean, I can see that.

Maybe we're adding more syllables.

We are adding an i in.

Wait, unless we spell it differently!

Do you?

I can't remember.

Oh, speaking of spelling

How do you spell pajamas?

or do you even say pajamas?

Oh, there's a Y in there.

We have a Y in our pajamaas.

I had no idea!

"adult" you say?

Yes, that's different.

It's just emphasizing different letters, isn't it?

It's a little different.

That one surprised me too.

Those are the words that we...

we have the same words, but we pronounce differently

and then, we also have words that are

completely different.

For example, like famous ones are

elevator

and lift

Pants?

Trousers.

Unless, you really want to talk about my pants.

Pants are underwear!

I made a video where I was introducing

these new pants that I got

they were like "Don't say pants!"

"It sounds so weird!"

vaccum cleaner

hoover

Because of the brand, right?

and the reverse is

we say "band-aid"

and we say "plaster"

because band-aid is the brand.

Oh, I see, yeah!

the opposite of the hoover vacuum thing.

Yes! Yes!

On a car, everything is different, right?

The hood is the bonnet.

The trunk is the boot.

The blinker is the indicator.

The gear shift...

The gear shift is the...

wait ... the gear stick.

so many differences.

Cars are just completely different.

Okay some vegetables that I would never even know!

Eggplant! What do you call eggplant?

Aubergine!

Yeah! I didn't know that.

aubergine... and you call...

zucchinis we call courgettes

But aubergine and courgette are actually

French words which we've adopted, I guess.

Okay, that makes sense.

Same in Japan.

Like they adopt words from everywhere

some of them are American English

some of them are French

some of them are..

So everyone gets very confused.

Would you say "I want to rub it out" though?

No, we erase it.

We would...

Give me my rubber, please.

I'd like to rub it out.

Because when we say rubber

we think of condoms

Yeah, we never call condoms rubbers.

You just call them condoms?

It's usually a rated G channel

but sorry. Just had to clear that up.

Oh this one was... What do you call a drug store?

or a pharmacist?

Pharmacy, yeah.

Don't you call it a chemist's shop?

Going to the chemist.

Yeah, we call it going to the chemist.

That's so weird!

That's true, that is weird!

I haven't thought about that in a long time.

So even with all of these different words though

we manage to understand each other

which is kind of interesting.

Well, I have to adopt my language...

When I'm in America, I change what I say.

Like, we say car park instead of parking lot as well.

I change what I say because a lot of Americans

don't understand what I say.

but you know because American English

is common enough for you guys.

Yeah, yeah.

I've started saying "restroom" like wherever I am now.

I say "restroom," which I adopted

from being in America because

They don't understand toilet

or "loo."

you know, I can't.. I can't, no on knows

They understand toilet, don't they?

No, this is a funny story, right?

I went into a hardware store, like a big

Home Depot store, right?

and I said, "oh, where are your toilets?"

because I needed to go to the toilet

and they said follow me

and they walked, right?

and then they arrived, and they were selling the toilets!

and I was like, "No, I don't want to buy a toilet..."

I want to use the toilet

I don't think you want me to use it here...

I think otherwise, they would have understood you.

Maybe, yeah.

Okay, so those were some of the differences!

There's a lot more!

but I wanted to take this opportunity

to have these guys on my channel

because they're very cool!

and very fun, as you guys saw!

and before we go,

if you guys want to tell them a little bit about

why you're here and your project.

Yeah, so we're traveling the world right now.

We've been to... started in London

We went to Ethiopia and Africa

We went to Dubai. We went to...

New Delhi, Shanghai, Seoul,

and now we're here in Tokyo.

and we're going to go on to Rio and Brazil

and Reykjavik in Iceland.

That's our full tour.

and we're doing it in a month

so we're like completely jet lagged!

and what are we doing?

We're looking to have conversations with people

in every country.

about how they see the world,

what kind of problems they see

and big ideas that could help that country

or the world at large flourish more.

and then on the 28th of April,

we'll be launching a big application window basically,

where people can submit video ideas

from anywhere in the world

whether we've been to the country or not.

and then we'll sift through them

and try and find some ideas

that we can really get behind and support,

and help grow.

So, yeah, check out solvey.com

for all the updates and everything else that's going on.

So we're about to actually have the discussion

after this, with some people in Japan, in Tokyo.