London City Airport’s guide helps international visitors understand what Brits say during summer versus what they actually mean

Brits are renowned for understatement and sarcasm and don’t always speak their mind or ‘tell it how it is’ compared to our plain-speaking continental friends.

So with the summer now in full swing, London City Airport has selected 14 statements or phrases which you might hear emanating from Brits in the stands at Wimbledon, a London board room, or a damp English back garden – each of which is displayed in a grid with a useful translation of what is actually meant and how they may be interpreted by foreign ears.

The grid will come in handy for visitors to the UK, but for Brits travelling in the other direction, London City Airport also produced a series of ‘5G’ languages guide to help travellers to Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, which can be downloaded from the airport’s website. The simple guides cover key words and phrases under the themes of ‘greet’, ‘go’, ‘get’, ‘goods’ and ‘great’, providing a quick reference point for relevant expressions and removing the need to trawl through the dictionary. Learn the Lingo YouTube videos also allow travellers to practice pronunciation well before they reach the departure lounge.

Declan Collier, CEO of London City Airport, said: “The airport is an established hub for business travel, but over the next few months we’re also expecting a surge in popularity for our new seasonal routes to Bergerac and Alicante and summer leisure travel to destinations such as Faro, Madrid, Ibiza, Berlin and Paris Charles-de-Gaulle. This tongue-in-cheek grid may help arriving visitors navigate the British turn of phrase, while our language guides provide robust tips to overcome the language barrier for travelling English-speakers.”

London City Airport, the only airport actually in London, is a gateway for nearly 40 European destinations, for both arriving and departing passengers. Most recently, British Airways added flights to Bergerac, Alicante and Berlin, and Flybe services began between London City Airport and Paris Charles de Gaulle in May.

You can download London City Airport’s ‘5G’ guides and watch the Learn the Lingo videos here: http://www.londoncityairport.com/learnthelingo

Click here or infographic below to view.