Ask your way and instead of saying "second street to the left" they will say "second opening to the left."
If they bump into you instead of saying "excuse me" or "pardon me" they say "sorry."
Your trunks are "boxes," and your baggage checks are "brasses."
Your hand baggage is "luggage."
I found English audiences just as quick, just as appreciative and even more enthusiastic than our American audiences—if you talked about things they understood and in words they understood.
But the average American talking act is talking what might just as well be Greek to them. I never realized until I played in England what an enormous lot of slang and coined words we Americans use.
Another thing that we Americans are shy on, both in speaking and singing, is articulation. I always had an idea that I enunciated uncommonly clearly—until I went over there, when I learned more about speaking plainly in three days than I had in a lifetime here.
You will notice you can always understand every word and syllable uttered by an English singer.
One of the funniest things I saw over there were English actors trying to play "Yankee" characters. The only "Yankee" they had to it was to spit and say "By Gosh."
Upon the occasion of our first show in England, at Manchester, I said to my wife,