Good point about that whole silent “w” thing, but don’t forget:
Grenwich = gren-itch
Ipswich = ips-itch
While were at it, when I was there I saw the Cerne Abbas giant. But just how do you pronounce “Cerne” ? (I think I can get the “Abbas” part 
It seems you won’t have to. What you’ve just described is perfectly normal umbrella usage as practiced by 99% of the population.
[QUOTE=DaphneBlack]
Practice [practise?] etc.
Like licence/license, practice is the noun and license is the verb. It’s easy, really, once you get the hang of it.
If you are intending to cycle, please do NOT cycle on the pavement - i.e. that thing you North Americans like to call the “sidewalk”. It is an offence (with a “c”: we never spell it with an “s”, ditto “defence”) according to section 56 of the Highway Code (op cit) and, although the rozzers [police] are unlikely to stop you for it, I flipping well will. If ever I’m in Oxford, that is.
Apart from that, I hope you have a good time. And remember: cider contains alcohol; a fag is only a cigarette; football actually involves using your feet; we don’t all talk like Dick Van Dyke in “Mary Poppins”; and we do have dentists.
For your example, you managed to pick an exception to the rule - it’s ‘ips-witch’.
Just to pull your post to bits even more, cernac62 ;):
The London borough with the Observatory and Cutty Sark is spelt Greenwich, though it is indeed pronounced as you indicated.
Oh, and don’t worry about croquet. Not even many English people know how to play until they come to Oxford. Even then I only played once in the whole 3 years I was there, and that was in the dark.
Thanks for all the great responses. I do feel reassured about some things, esp. the anti-American thing. I will really try to talk more quietly! And I don’t plan on driving a car for even a second! Also, from the highway code, this was odd:
Ok, I get zebra (zeh-bra) crossing, but wth are the birds doing there? I do know that the pelican is the mascot or whatever for Corpus!
I very well may take you up on the Quiz bowl. I certainly want to be involved; one of the things I regret about college is that I was so focused on academics that I didn’t do enough “fun” activities. So, lucky me, I get another shot!
Thanks to all who provide helpful pronunciation guides. Silly question: is it appreciated if I make a good faith attempt at using the English terms/spelling/etc. and make a mess of it? Or should I just ask first to avoid looking doltish?
Is the speech of young Brits infested with ‘like’? I know that’s an Americanism - one that I hate but use anyway - but I wonder if it has made it over there.
Pelican and Puffin crossings are both types of pedestrian crossing controlled by traffic lights, on which there is a button that pedestrians can press to make the traffic lights turn to stop more quickly.
There isn’t much difference between a pelican and puffin crossing.
I think you’re not supposed to ride your bike across in case you hit a pedestrian (in effect it’s just like riding on the pavement (sidewalk)). Instead, walk your bike across.
As for using the British English terms, I guess it depends what company you’re in. People might laugh if you cock up (make a mistake) but I don’t reckon they’d think any less of you for it.
Some British youths say ‘like’ a fair bit. This is probably due to US films and TV programmes.
One thing I can recommend about Oxford is the fact that there is a Borders there.
I don’t know what you think of Borders in the US where they are commonplace, but I thought it was great when I was there, as it was the only shop that was open past 6pm selling anything other than groceries. The Borders in Oxford is open 'til 11pm (at least, it was in June when I was last there).
You’re right on the money for Greenwich, but I’m afraid just to make you look foolish if you think you’ve learned the rules, Ipswich is actually pronounced exactly how you’d think. Ip-switch.
Yes, I’ve lived in East Anglia. Stop looking at me so strangely - I promise, my feet aren’t webbed.
Borders is everywhere here, but I still like it. It’s probably the best big chain bookstore (IMHO).
Do all the stores really close that early? Are they closed on Sundays?
So much ignorance has been dispelled, it is wonderful!
Daphne
The only difference is that a puffin crossing has a sensor so it stays on the pedestrian phase until the road is clear.
High street shops do. Supermarkets, corner shops (convenience stores), and shopping centres (malls) mostly stay open later.
Oxford is particularly bad for this, I’m afraid. The supermarkets in the center of town all close by 6 on Sunday, so it’s a bad day to run out of food at dinner time. The rest of the week there’s a small supermarket open until 11 PM and a larger one open until 8. There are a couple of large supermarkets further outside of town, but if you’re living in Corpus they’ll probably be too far out of the way to be useful. Colleges are good for emergency supplies, though - there’ll usually be a buttery attached to the college dining hall that sells essentials like milk around meal times.
On the academic side, it’s worth mentioning that Oxford is weird about teaching above and beyond the tutorials. When you arrive you’ll be given a schedule of lectures for the term - these are not compulsory, nor even necessarily helpful. The best approach is probably to decide which sound interesting, then go to the first couple of lectures to see if the lecturer is actually any good. Relatively few of my arts student friends attended more than one or two lectures a week. Contrariwise, there may very well be lectures scheduled for Michaelmas (this term) that you won’t have tutorials on until Trinity (summer term), but these will probably be pointed out by your tutors.
Daphne, you may want to check this thread over on NADS for more info on english stuff: Jolly old england
Plenty more info available from the good folk there.
And it’s pronounced ‘Ips-witch’
also: Slough = rhymes with wow
etc
Oxfordshire—>Oxon. for short
Don’t ask why.You may need to know that.
Any more questions on the vagaries of uni life(where to store a stray traffic cone,how to understand the weird uni terms) just ask.
Our uni only had like 300 people and 2/3 of them disappeared home at the weekends,so it was more like VI form than uni.
Oh and get a student railcard.
And a fridge if you haven’t got one.Unless you want to be like our hall and leave your cheese and milk lined up on the windowsill outside 
If you fancy a day or weekend trip to London from Oxford, the easiest and cheapest way is to get a bus called the Oxford Tube (don’t be misled by the name). It’s about £8.00 return trip, and it stops at Notting Hill and Victoria. Then get a day ticket for the London Underground (Tube). This day ticket works on the London buses as well.
Oxford Tube’s £11 day return. They go til the early hours every 12 minutes or so. Takes about 1 and a half hours from Victoria to central Oxford.
Day travel card on the Tube is £4.30 zones 1-2, £4.70 zones 1-4 (both offpeak)
I definitely got on for less than £11 and closer to £7.50-£8.00. It’s probably because of the student concession.
If you get an NUS card (National Union of Students) when you’re at Oxford you can get student discounts on things like this. Borders occasionally has a 20% off day for students, and other shops such as Ryman’s Stationers offer a 10% discount for NUS card holders if you remember to show your card before you pay.
cormac262 writes:
> A friend who is living in Cambridge described it as: consider the price of
> something as if it were in dollars - then substitute the “pound” sign for the $
> sign.
I think this is exaggerated. This would mean that everything is 80% more expensive. Perhaps things are 40% more expensive, but no more than that.