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| At the bus terminal located in TST East |
Came across this sign at a bus stop while I was lost trying to find my way to the restaurant last night. It's interesting how Hong Kong adopts British English everywhere (well, not surprised given that it has been a colony of the UK for almost a century). From the announcements made on the subways (my sister ADORES the lady's voice, and of course, her accent) to the spellings in formal documents (my firm has this yes 's', no 'z' policy, as in 'realised' is good but not 'realized').
I spent half of my childhood in Hong Kong and the other half in Canada. So neither my Chinese or English is up to par with a legit native. Anyhow, this "Alighting only" sign has stirred up some curiosity as I have never even seen this word in my whole life.
Thought it was one of those moments where my English sucked. Asked Canadian friend #1, #2 and #3 and guess what, none of them have seen this word either!
Friend #2: It has to be British.
Me: Why?
Friend #2: I just assume every word I don't know/haven't seen to be British. You won't go wrong with this assumption. At least 99% of the time.
Me: *pauses then inserts punch and name calling i.e. douche*
So friend #2 and I looked up the word while waiting in line for food today and according to dictionary.com...
verb (used without object), a·light·ed or a·lit, a·light·ing.
1.
to dismount from a horse, descend from a vehicle, etc.
2.
to settle or stay after descending: The bird alighted on the tree.
3.
to encounter or notice something accidentally.
The horse came first! *gasp*
Is "alight" even British?!
There was another time where me and a bunch of friends were discussing about, surprise surprise, the American and British accents. We're probably biased since our social circle consists of North Americans. And yes, we're those who make our new British friends say 'Harry Potter'. ;) BUT, friend #3 did raise a good point. He was saying how when we listen to an English song, we don't notice anything different (which we automatically assume it's North American since, no offense, the British accent does seem a little off to us) until the singer says something at the end (e.g. thank you) and makes you go like "Wow she's British!" I had that exact moment listening to Adele performing live. Hypothesis: if their songs sounded 'normal' to us, does this make the American accent 'normal' too?
I hope nobody gets offended by this, it's just a random rant on perspective. Okie gotta head back to studying now. Exam on Saturday grr!
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