Things that make me giggle

I don't know if this is the right place for this, if it's wrong, please move it!
I've started working at Premier Inn in Crewe, and it's a pretty interesting experience. My American accent has-of course-given me plenty of attention, but there's been some interesting accent/phrase situations that I've never encountered before now, even with DH.

The main one has been people calling the letter "H" "hay-ch". When I answered the phone one day, I was taking a woman's name down for a restaurant reservation, and she had an "h" in her name, and I kept calling it "H", and she kept repeating "hay-ch". I thought she was sneezing or something, and I'm sure my trainer thought I was daft. Is that just a Northern  thing? DH doesn't say "hay-ch".

And sometimes my trainer will say, "Gosh, what am I like?" when I think she means to say,"What AM I doing?", and sometimes they'll say, "Oh, I'm bad for that!", which I think means "Yeah, I do that too!".

Does anyone get gossiped about at work, too? DH says that it's just something that happens here, and I suppose that I did it too in the States, and it did happen in the States as well, but, it just feels weird. That's all.

Both the Hay-ch thing and the "what am I like" isn't regional. 

I quite like the phrase what am i like, as well.

The main one has been people calling the letter "H" "hay-ch". When I answered the phone one day, I was taking a woman's name down for a restaurant reservation, and she had an "h" in her name, and I kept calling it "H", and she kept repeating "hay-ch". I thought she was sneezing or something, and I'm sure my trainer thought I was daft. Is that just a Northern  thing? DH doesn't say "hay-ch".

I don't think it's regional, more like just what different people have grown up with. The standard pronuncation of 'h' in the UK is 'aitch', but the non-standard version, 'haitch', (known as h-adding) has become widespread across the UK in recent years (apparently 24% of people born after 1982 use 'haitch'!). I grew up in the south west of England and have always said 'aitch', but there's a mixture both of pronunciations used in my area . There's also the opposite habit of h-dropping, where the 'h' is not pronounced when it should be (i.e. 'ad for had, 'appen for happen).

I just found this interesting audio speech and commentary on a 'Social Variation in English' webpage:

H-dropping

(Audio file) "you see we have a bond; we have a bond down here that, uh, whatever happens, we’ll still turn up trumps if anybody is sick or if there’s a bereavement."

Commentary

Listen carefully to the way this speaker pronounces the words have, here and happens. H-dropping – the tendency to delete the initial <h> sound in words such as happy and house – first provoked comment in the eighteenth century and has been avoided by the middle classes. Nonetheless, it is a feature of popular speech that distinguishes speakers in the whole of England (apart from Tyneside and Northumberland) and Wales from those in Scotland, Ireland and indeed the rest of the English-speaking world, who retain their <h>s.

Most speakers do not always pronounce the <h> in high frequency grammatical words, such as he, him and her other than in extremely careful speech. Sometimes speakers prone to H-dropping consciously seek to avoid it in formal situations and end up inserting an <h> inappropriately, resulting in oft-caricatured pronunciations such as honest with the <h> intact, or statements such as what an orrible hexperience. This phenomenon is known as hypercorrection, and might explain the increasingly common pronunciation of the letter h (aitch) as if it were haitch.

I don't think it's regional, more like just what different people have grown up with. The standard pronuncation of 'h' in the UK is 'aitch', but the non-standard version, 'haitch', (known as h-adding) has become widespread across the UK in recent years (apparently 24% of people born after 1982 use 'haitch'!). I grew up in the south west of England and have always said 'aitch', but there's a mixture both of pronunciations used in my area . There's also the opposite habit of h-dropping, where the 'h' is not pronounced when it should be (i.e. 'ad for had, 'appen for happen).

Thanks for the reply! It makes so much more sense now. And I like "What am I like?!" as well, I just think it's nice. I didn't mean that the things I posted make me giggle in a bad way. It's just stuff that I hadn't heard before in the States, and I think are quirky to the UK  and sweet. Endearing, really.

I have issues with the letter H, one minute it's there, the next minute it's not.  I hate it when people give me their address and they drop the H and get annoyed when I can't find it on a map.  I've actually started saying Haitch when I spell things it just makes it easier.  I still cringe when I think of the day I called someone 'duck' for the first time...

Any ribbing you get from your co-workers is normal, but it will probably only get worse as your co-workers feel more comfortable around you.  That said, my co-workers do to everyone and from what my husband has said, it's very common.  You being American just makes you an easier target. 

Interesting stuff.  The 'haitch' thing drove me crazy when I was there.  And then one day I walked past an HSBC bank branch and realized I was saying it in my head like 'haitch'-S-B-C.  Gah.  These things creep up on you.

My ex-boyfriend would often say 'What are you like?' in a teasing way to me.  I thought it was sweet.

Any ribbing you get from your co-workers is normal, but it will probably only get worse as your co-workers feel more comfortable around you.  That said, my co-workers do to everyone and from what my husband has said, it's very common.  You being American just makes you an easier target.  

Yeah, DH said the same. I made a joke out of it and said to him, "Oh. Well, now I just know what celebrities feel like!" I guess it's just another one of those UK growing pains. It's alright, it's also funny when one of the chefs gets me to say "presentation" and/or "aluminum" because he watches "Friends", and they of course say the words the American way, and he's used to the British way.

I also like "what am I like" but the haitch thing drives me mad.  Dara O'Briain says haitch, and while I am a loyal fan of Mock The Week, this makes me want to reach through the TV and shake him.  

Funny story, though:  The very first time I came to the UK, when I was a student, a friend of mine and I bought a ticket to go to Scotland at King's Cross, and the guy who was helping us told us that the train would leave from Euston station.  We, however, thought he had said Houston station and we had a very frustrating fifteen minutes or so trying to figure out a) why a British train station would be called after a Texan, and b) where the hell it was.  

Haha, I remember thinking similar things when I stayed in Euston when I was a kid visiting London with my family 

I have issues with the letter H, one minute it's there, the next minute it's not.  I hate it when people give me their address and they drop the H and get annoyed when I can't find it on a map.   

I had this problem a lot when I worked in HR and I had to look up people's files.  H's on names would get dropped, or when I had to take a NIN and defining between h and 8 was important.  I was at the point that I preferred when they used haitch because it enunciated it a lot more for me when on the phone.  I've even used it a couple of times, when people weren't understanding what I was spelling.  Dh when he is in full speaking flow often drops his h's so I have loads of fun reminding him to put a haitch on it.     The only annoying thing is now I'm dropping mine too.   

I also use the 'what am I like' phrase.  My friends will say 'what are you like' when I do something silly.  I've always thought it's like 'can't take you anywhere' which was said a lot where I grew up when you did something silly in public.   

My hubby drops his 'h' also.  I remember one day he had trimmed a bush and had scratches all over his arm.  He said, "I look like a self 'armer" [self harmer].  I kept trying to figure out how you can look like armour.  It's also really confusing when he says things like:  'ome, 'ouse, 'e, 'ad, 'earing (always think he's talking about jewelry), etc.  Whenever he says something like that and I can't understand him, I will make a point to over-enunciate the 'h' and say, "Oh, you mean House."

One of the British things that makes me giggle is when my hubby (or his family) say that an inanimate object 'wants' something.  Such as "This chocolate wants to be put in the fridge" or "Does this laundry want taking upstairs?".  I used to respond with something along the lines of "How should I know what it wants?" but I've gotten used to it now so I just answer...still makes me giggle when I think about it though.

One of the British things that makes me giggle is when my hubby (or his family) say that an inanimate object 'wants' something.  Such as "This chocolate wants to be put in the fridge" or "Does this laundry want taking upstairs?".  I used to respond with something along the lines of "How should I know what it wants?" but I've gotten used to it now so I just answer...still makes me giggle when I think about it though.

Lol - I never really thought about it before, but I say that too !

I just looked it up to see where the phrase comes from and this usage of 'want' is actually in the dictionary:

want
–verb (used with object)
1. to feel a need or a desire for; wish for: to want one's dinner; always wanting something new.
2. to wish, need, crave, demand, or desire (often fol. by an infinitive): I want to see you. She wants to be notified.
3. to be without or be deficient in: to want judgment; to want knowledge.
4. to fall short by (a specified amount): The sum collected wants but a few dollars of the desired amount.
5. to require or need: The house wants painting.
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/want)

Nonetheless, it is a feature of popular speech that distinguishes speakers in the whole of England (apart from Tyneside and Northumberland) and Wales from those in Scotland, Ireland and indeed the rest of the English-speaking world, who retain their <h>s.

I guess I'm one of the lucky few then, that I live up here. Other than the southerners who ring up our office or pop in, nearly all the people around here keep the H on the words. But they do use a lot of other words that make no sense and are impossible for most southerners to even know what they are talking about. 

BF's son says 'haitch' (BF doesn't, I think he's learned it at school) and he corrected me when I said 'aitch'.  I had a laugh at that one.

One of the British things that makes me giggle is when my hubby (or his family) say that an inanimate object 'wants' something.  Such as "This chocolate wants to be put in the fridge" or "Does this laundry want taking upstairs?".  I used to respond with something along the lines of "How should I know what it wants?" but I've gotten used to it now so I just answer...still makes me giggle when I think about it though.

MiL's always saying something similar. "You'll be wanting your big coat, it's windy out and all!" Meanwhile, what I really put on is a zip-up hoodie because I always get warmer than DH does. Which also impresses me and him no end. He'll put on a zip up fleece along with another coat, and still feel a chill in the air, and I'll just be out with either my t-shirt or a hoodie. Makes me laugh every time.