Despite my respect for the originator of the quote, I don't buy the cliché that the UK and US speak very differently. There are probably far more differences between regional accents just within England than there are between English and Americans. At least in the business world, perhaps unfortunately, we sound very similar.
However across Europe, things sound very different. Yet they look broadly the same. Old buildings, little roads, people on the streets. But it's weird, people are talking incomprehensively. In America, you can understand the language perfectly, but the look of the place is completely different. Not because they have fundamentally different goals and aspirations from Europeans. But because they have more space.
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I don't know if it's got anything to do with the fact that Ford are a U.S owned company, but I have to say that I really don't like "Americanisms" that have slowly crept into our language- especially at work. Instead of catching up with someone we "touch base," when someone does something of great merit they "knocked it out of the park." and so on. Unfortunately i've actually found myself unwittingly saying these types of things which iritates me even more.
I hate it too. Bases are for baseball. I believe in Orwell, never use a long word or a long sentence when a short one will do. OK, enough on language matters, I need to get the view from 30,000 feet :)
I bet Gareth has had a different sort of conversation about getting to different bases without thinking of the American origins. :)
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