Language Barriers 2

The friend who disparaged my pancakes (as I did hers) has pointed out that I failed to mention my third understanding of the word pronounced "marquee" and sometimes spelled "marquis": a nobleman of the finest tradition, dedicated to helping oppressed peoples throw off the shackles of foreign dictatorship; often bearing the name "de Lafayette."

And I misspelled "caricature."

Language Barriers

I find that the linguistic troubles that beset me in England normally have to do with food.  Some of these I have come to take in stride, but they are nevertheless non-trivial. For my most recent (re-)discoveries:

• Coffee here is either "black," or "white."  White, as you may have guessed, is with milk.  Fine, that makes some sense.  What doesn't make sense is when you order an americano, defined as espresso with water, and they ask you if you want it white.  Huh?  I mean, I suppose you could want some milk in it, but then that's why they have little jugs of milk at the coffee shop.  And if I say I want it white, do you only add milk, and no water?  Isn't that a latte without the froth?  Or do you add water and then the milk?  For that matter, why are you ever asking if you want coffee black or white at a take-away coffee shop with jugs of milk by the napkins?  Shouldn't the customer just add the milk themselves?  Why bother having the jugs if you're going to do it?  I find this strange.  Especially with americanos.
• Pancakes are not pan-cakes here.  They are neither crepes (thin, large, light, delicate) or American pancakes (fat, fluffy, yummy) but rather some sad caricature of food: thin, chewy, dense, and rubbery.  When confronted with the logic that cakes are fluffy, and therefore so pancakes should be, an English friend said that pancakes shouldn't double as coasters; I countered that they shouldn't double as placemats.  Keep in mind that this is not unique to a single chef, but rather has been my experience with many different pancake... sculptors?
• Something that occurs during the period of time is said to be "at" the weekend.  How very strange... to me, "at" the weekend implies that it would be on the cusp (e.g. Friday night) and wouldn't make much sense at that.  "On" the weekend is likewise roundly rejected here.  At least we can agree on "over," and "during."
• "Fort" and "fought" have the same pronunciation.  This created some issues when being read a poem.  My Canadian housemate and I couldn't understand what was being said!  "Fort shy?  That does not make sense."  This is not so much a problem as it is interesting, because I had previously identified words that sound the same in American English but are distinguished in Received Pronunciation, as the standard "Queen's English" is known.
• A marquee bar is a bar in a tent.  While I understand that marquee is a type of tent, the first image that popped into mind was of a bar under a neon sign saying "bar!"  Apparently that usage isn't known here...