And we wonder why our students think English is so confusing? It's not hard" — MikeJ , "English to American". Language can cause confusion even when two people aren't using separate languages. Often, it's enough for them to speak different dialects of the same language. This trope applies when the differences in dialects of a common language are used for humor or characterization. Most of the examples here are about the differences between British English and American English , but this can occur in any pair of dialects, in any language.
Confusion over dialects in Real Life varies from person to person, and depends on the situation. If British Alice says "throw it in the 'boot'" to American Bob, without context he may be confused; but when they're near to a car, it isn't a huge leap that she means that something should be put in the "trunk". This could lead to all sorts of confusion, such as when a nice British girl met an American guy and told him he could "knock me up sometime.
It can also be a giveaway when a writer sets a story in a land besides his native one. Many English and Canadian writers write for American audiences. Often they're so good at it that the reader doesn't notice—until a Texan character mentions something that happened "when I was at university. Whereas most young, modern British characters would say "When I was at Uni". People who read or watch a lot of fiction in another dialect will understand more words than expected, which may even be Lampshaded by the writers.
Before the rise of the Internet in the early s it was posited that the different versions of English might eventually diverge into separate languages; however, the Internet reversed all that by massively increasing contact between different dialects— not only reading foreign documents, but chatting on social media, watching foreign TV shows, playing video games with foreigners, etc.
Only time will tell the future of dialects. Interestingly, this phenomenon was and still is far more severe when it comes to Spanish, Portuguese or French, to the point where Same Language Dubs are usually required — especially for Spanish , which is the official language of the majority of the western hemisphere and varies wildly across the continent and has two radically different dialects in Spain to boot.
