I played Solid Snake (American character from a Japanese fandom) in a horror-based RP for a year before anyone told me that the lightbulb-on-a-stick device people take with them in dark places isn't called a 'torch' to Americans.
By the time I'd found out, I had long since dropped the RP, and I only discovered I'd got it wrong when I found a friend of mine bitching me out in a fanficrants post ("Did you know that there was this one writer who kept making Solid Snake call it a 'torch', omg omg") and people were responding ("OMG THAT'S HORRIBLE, SHOULD STOP WRITING FOREVER, TOO BRITISH TO WRITE GOD DO YOUR RESEARCH GODDDDD") and I popped up and said "Um, thanks for noticing, but it'd be really nice if you'd have told me."
She said she was too shy to tell me.
So when I picked up at the RP again I made a big post in the OOC comm begging people to pick up on Britishisms in my writing, and I got a profound groan of 'no-one cares'.
WELL, I CARE. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LEARN IF I'M NOT TAUGHT? I CAN'T MAGICALLY OSMOSE AN AMERICAN DICTIONARY INTO MY BRAIN BECAUSE I DON'T SPEAK TO AMERICANS IRL AND THE INTERNET HAS A WEIRD MIX OF SLANG FROM EVERY CULTURE EVER. I KNOW BRITS ARE SUPPOSED TO FEEL SLIGHTLY ASHAMED OF BEING BRITISH ALL THE TIME, BUT WHEN I ASK TO CHECK 'IS THIS OKAY' IT'D BE NICE IF PEOPLE ACTUALLY RESPONDED WITH ANYTHING BESIDES CONTEMPT AAH AAAH AAAAAGH
...Um. I just had to get that out somehow.
Well, er, drop_the_u is a pretty nice comm, especially for setting issues. And if you find it useful, join the advice team in hp_britglish.
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I played Solid Snake (American character from a Japanese fandom) in a horror-based RP for a year before anyone told me that the lightbulb-on-a-stick device people take with them in dark places isn't called a 'torch' to Americans.
By the time I'd found out, I had long since dropped the RP, and I only discovered I'd got it wrong when I found a friend of mine bitching me out in a
She said she was too shy to tell me.
So when I picked up at the RP again I made a big post in the OOC comm begging people to pick up on Britishisms in my writing, and I got a profound groan of 'no-one cares'.
WELL, I CARE. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO LEARN IF I'M NOT TAUGHT? I CAN'T MAGICALLY OSMOSE AN AMERICAN DICTIONARY INTO MY BRAIN BECAUSE I DON'T SPEAK TO AMERICANS IRL AND THE INTERNET HAS A WEIRD MIX OF SLANG FROM EVERY CULTURE EVER. I KNOW BRITS ARE SUPPOSED TO FEEL SLIGHTLY ASHAMED OF BEING BRITISH ALL THE TIME, BUT WHEN I ASK TO CHECK 'IS THIS OKAY' IT'D BE NICE IF PEOPLE ACTUALLY RESPONDED WITH ANYTHING BESIDES CONTEMPT AAH AAAH AAAAAGH
...Um. I just had to get that out somehow.
Well, er,